Albany Foods That Kids Like

A while back, I was chatting with an acquaintance in Southern California, when he happened to mention that he’d recently driven through the Capital Region on the way to a water polo match with his family.  He’d planned to make a food stop in Albany, thinking that there had to be lots of restaurants in the capital city; but was disappointed when his GPS navigator didn’t turn up any restaurants in the area.

When he recounted his experience, I chalked up his lack of luck on the (at the time)relatively new GPS system, as well as this foodies’ aversion to fast food chains.  Albany food has come a long way from its Dutch colonial roots, when fried donuts were a popular item.  I figured that the Garmin Nuvi was simply listing area Applebee’s and the like, and that it just wasn’t set up to pick up all the interesting local restaurants that exist in Upstate New York.

Imagine my shock, then, when I finally turned my eyes to the Times Union Best of 2009 lists, and found that Capital Region readers had voted the following as the Best Restaurants For Kids:

1. Friendly’s, various locations

2. Red Robin, Route 9, Latham, and 1 Halfmoon Crossing, Halfmoon

3. Chuck E Cheese, Latham Farms

Why? Fried foods and ice cream. What more could a kid want? As for parents: an inexpensive menu. The top three this year are a repeat of last year’s winners, showing, if anything, that there’s some stability in the kids’ restaurant field.

Who are these kids?  Sure, I can see that Friendly’s has the ice cream thing going for it, but it’s not even the best ice cream in the region.  And, Red Robin does have decent burgers and free balloons, but Five Guys has better tasting burgers and all-you-can-eat peanuts from a box.

Chuck E. Cheese?  Alright, when my children were very little, they loved the place.  Some little kids like all that noise, arcade games, and the singing rodent; but all the parents I’ve ever talked to consider this to be one of the circles of Hell.  Older kids want nothing to do with rodent world, and as my 10-year-old son will tell you, the “games suck.”  It’s far from inexpensive to purchase the game tokens and meal combos, and let’s get real, how many kids actually stop amidst all that commotion to eat the pizza?

There are so many other places to dine around and about Albany, with food that kids will actually eat.

Here on Albany Kid, we consider it a public service to show our readers that there is so much more to the local food scene than the Best of 2009 franchises.  In addition to our family favorites, we’re going to sample all the recommendations given to Table Hopping Steve Barnes.  And, we’ll see if we can come up with a better list for the Best of 2010 Albany Food for Kids.

What are Albany kids’ saying?  Where do they like to eat in Upstate New York?

Tagged as: albany food, Albany Foods, Albany Foods for Kids