NYC with kids

We're taking the kids (8 and 11) to New York for a long weekend in a few weeks. We'll be staying at the Lucerne on W. 79th on the Upper West Side, and wonder if anyone can recommend some good kid-friendly dinner or lunch places in the area -- we'll be spending one day at the Natural History Museum, and if the weather permits much time wandering through Central Park. My husband is from New York (Queens) and travels to the city frequently on business, so we don't need general info, and breakfasts are accounted for as he insists that we take all of them at H&H bagels. The kids like most kinds of food, and are polite diners, but I'm not looking for gourmet experiences, just some pleasant places close to the hotel that will do after a hard day's touring around.

Look at PIGMON & Trixie's fine pizza posts. Barney Greengrass. Tony Luke's. Chinatown (esp. Joe's -- one of the Joe's Ginger branches would be calmer and easier to access). And, if the kids have no teeth, you might try Rice to Riches, America's first rice pudding Eurolounge.

My parents took me to NYC for the first time right around that age. One of my most vivid vacation memories with my parents stays with me to this day. They took my brother and I to a movie (Come Blow Your Horn, starring Frank Sinatra) and a live Rockette stage show at Radio City Music Hall followed by lunch at the Stage Deli. To this day, I try to stop at the Stage Deli at least once every time I'm in New York strictly out of nostalgia.

This isn't close to the hotel, but if you're touring around in Chinatown and looking for the best soup dumplings, go to New Green Bo. Killer scallion pancakes and hand-picked crab dumplings, too. Definitely kid friendly.

66 Bayard St (btwn. Elizabeth and Mott)
(212) 625-2359

I have no food recommendations but if you're near the Natural History museum be sure to go to Maxilla and Mandible, too. Same stuff as the AMNH, but these you can take home with you!