Twin Cities with kids

My wife and I are going to the Twin CIcites with iur two year old and 8 month old. We lived in the Twin Cities for a couple of years ago, leaving in 2000.

Since we have been out of the loop in that area, I was wondering if there were any good places that we can take the kids to eat. We know about the ole favorites like Turtle Bread, and the bakery cafe on Grand Ave in St. Paul, which I cannot remember the name and The burger place on the border of Edina and Minneapolis, whose name escapes me.

ANy suggestions would be great. We are going to be staying by Southdale Mall but will travel into the city or burbs for a good place, but St. Paul may be a little too far.

Thanks

The burger place you are thinking of is Convention Grill, just off of 50th and France. Still great fries and malts.

If you take the kids to the Mall of America, the one place worth stopping at is The Magic Pan, a revitalization of the old creperie, but is now carry out rather than a sit down restaurant.

Broadway Pizza off of Lyndale makes a pretty decent thin crust pizza.

I believe there is a burger joint called Wagner's Drive Inn off of either 50th or Excelsior in St. Louis Park. It was lauded in Twin Cities magazine.

I'll post again if I can remember anything else outside of the city.

Saps

The July issue of Saveur lists an ice cream place in St Paul as one of the best in the US. Do not remember the name at the moment, but I will try to find it, tho I know that seems to be out of your reach.

City Pages has some interesting listings that I tend to depend upon http://www.citypages.com/restaurants/. I do not automatically accept their recommendations in all cases, but they give enough detail that I can tell whether the place would be of interest. There are a few places reviewed in recent months that might fill the bill, tho I am not sure exactly what you mean by kid places. My criteria was usually just a place where I would be comfortable if my kids were a little rowdy, as opposed to a place that serves bland, American-style food and caters to families. My kids tended to eat less than half their meals when they were the age of yours, so for reasons of economy, I fell into the habit of ordering less and eating from their plates, too. This quickly drove us to places where i thought anything on the menu would be acceptable to me. But since my kids are college-age, it has been a while.

I think you should try each and every one of the roasted chicken places in that CIty Pages piece, and report back in detail Market BBQ was okay, not wonderful, but not bad. I reviewed it in a recent topic here: http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=37733#37733. There also was an interesting piece in City Pages on good places to eat in the Skyway(s) that sounded fun, but I did not have time to sample them.

If it cools off, you could go to Good Earth in the Galleria (70th and France) which I remember as kid-friendly and having pleasant outdoor seating. I've never been to Mandarin Kitchen (88th or 89th and Lyndale) for dim sum but was there for dinner last weekend and saw quite a few small children. I got the cold pork and jellyfish appetizer (leftovers were even better the second day) and the squid with pickled vegetable. Both were delicious.

I would highly recommend PUNCH pizza! THey have two locations. I would try to go to the St. Paul Location. It is the orginal - the ingredients are fresh and the toppings are inventive!!!!!! Mmmmmmmmmm

For Ice Cream - Check out Izzy's - They are on Marshall Avenue in St. Paul - so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know you mentioned St. Paul being too far - but St. Paul is far better than the burbs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Izzys - is really on the border and both establishments have locations in Minneapolis. In my opinion St. Paul is worth the trip!!!!!!! I hope you have fun!

Cafe Latte - I think that is the bakery you are referring to in St. Paul. Another fave for desserts or a wonderful cafeteria style lunch/dinner place. Can you tell I used to live in St. Paul? Ha!

Just got back from Punch and I was quite happy. A little expensive for what is basically a simple, light pizza but I happily forked over my money twice in two days for what I knew I wouldn't be getting for a long time. I went with the basic Margarita DOC along with a fairly basic but good spinaci salad. The pizza came out in about 2-3 minutes and the crust had a very nice char on the bottom while retaining nice chew. The sauce was incredibley fresh tasting and the olive oil tasted great. They have one of the few American VPN designations so I had a pretty good idea what to expect and I wan't dissapointed. Very nice waitstaff and ambience (I went to the St Paul location both times) also.