ABBQ Meat & Drink
Texas-style barbecue with a real kids menu and a large fenced backyard for cornhole and running around. The green space is the difference between eating with children here and carrying barbecue home.
Bangkok Thai Cuisine
A Thai restaurant on Philips Highway next to Starbucks. It says it is family owned and serves original recipes, and it offers carryout, delivery and catering.
Crispy's Springfield Gallery
Italian-American on North Main in a historic Springfield building, with the neighborhood's art on the walls. One of the anchors that stayed while the district turned over around it.
European Street Cafe Riverside
The Riverside room of a Jacksonville family-owned group that has been here for more than 40 years. On Mondays, children age 12 and younger get a free meal and juice box with a regular adult entree and beverage at all three locations.
BellyUp! Jax / Family
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Beyond the kids' menu are rooms to wiggle in, memorable favorites, and fun for the grown-ups too.
13 spots
ABBQ Meat & Drink
Texas-style barbecue with a real kids menu and a large fenced backyard for cornhole and running around. The green space is the difference between eating with children here and carrying barbecue home.
Bangkok Thai Cuisine
A Thai restaurant on Philips Highway next to Starbucks. It says it is family owned and serves original recipes, and it offers carryout, delivery and catering.
Kingdom Sushi Jacksonville
A made-to-order all-you-can-eat sushi room near the St. Johns Town Center. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, one child age 10 or younger eats free when two adults order all-you-can-eat; children age 4 and younger eat free with a paying adult at any time.
Lum Thai Restaurant
A Westside Thai restaurant just south of I-295 on Argyle Forest Boulevard. Its own home page names pad thai, roast duck, massaman curry and papaya salad.
New Berlin Fish House & Oyster Co.
A Northside seafood house backed by three generations in the seafood business. Children eat free on Mondays with an adult entree, which makes it the useful post-zoo choice when the family still wants local seafood.
Strings Sports Brewery Jacksonville Beach
The beach location of the family-owned sports brewery, inside the old Terry's Country Store. It keeps the same useful family formula: a scratch kitchen, kids food, games, and room to shoot baskets instead of asking children to sit still.
Strings Sports Brewery Springfield
A family-owned brewery in a restored Springfield building where the full-size basketball court and games give children something real to do. The kids menu includes popcorn chicken and grilled cheese.
TacoLu
Baja tacos in a loud, sprawling room off Beach Boulevard. Big enough and loose enough that nobody notices a toddler, which is the actual reason families keep picking it.
Thai Green House
A Southside Boulevard Thai restaurant near Brackridge Park. Its own site says it is known for drunken noodle, pad thai and slow-simmered green and panang curries, and it lists a kids menu and free parking.
Thai Nine Restaurant
A Thai restaurant on Faye Road on the Northside. Its own site lists panang curry, Bangkok pad thai, pineapple fried rice and crispy duck.
Thai Orchid
A Beach Boulevard Thai restaurant whose own site says it has been family owned since 2018. The menu lists pad thai, drunken noodle, panang curry and pineapple fried rice.
The Bearded Pig
Opened at 1224 Kings Ave and moved four blocks down to a purpose-built room in 2021. The backyard is as much of the draw as the tray, which is the sort of thing a menu never tells you.
The Block Jax
An outdoor food hall built around the part most family restaurants treat as an afterthought. The fenced play park is for ages 2 through 10 and puts slides, tunnels, hills, hopscotch, board games, and a life-sized Candy Land beside the food vendors.
Let the kids be kids
These Jacksonville spots give them room to move while the grown-ups enjoy the meal too.
What these spots are known for
The same family spots, sorted by the reasons people actually pick them.
The Whole Family Table
Will they be fine with a four-year-old?
Big Groups
Will they seat twelve of us?
Rooftops and Patios
Can we sit outside?
Origin Stories
Who built this and why?
Sports on TV
Where can I watch the game with food and drinks?
BBQ and Smokehouses
Who is actually running a pit?
Seafood and Oysters
Who is getting good product in?
Vegan and Plant-Based
Where can I eat with no asterisks?
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