my view of a kid-friendly restaurant

I think it is hard to define a kid-friendly restaurant.

Before our little sweet angel Summer was born, my wife and I ate dinner out quite often. Long, leisurely evenings full of good food, wine and conversation... this might be what marriage is all about. In fact, I could remember that more than one occasion we were looking longingly over at the empty seats at our table and saying, "won't it be amazing when we have a little child or even two with us?" But now most of time when we are sitting in a restaurant while Summer is running around and Ryan is screaming for whatever reason, we both realize:"won't it be amazing when we could sit and eat only by two of us?"

any way, through all of these, we learned that there are some restaurants that are kid-friendly, and others that are decidedly not so. And some of the kid-friendly joints have food that is about as bad as mac & cheese from a box. Then there are those too-few, very special places where the environment is conducive to families, and the food is actually enjoyable, which we need to find more of these...

I'm going to share my view of how to determine for a kid-friendly restaurant for dining out with the little ones:

1)Food has to be good, at least we parents could enjoy the food.

2)The spaces between tables have to be big enough for putting in the stroller or when the toddler begin to throw the food, the distance between the tables will provent the guest nearby get effected, at least not that much.

3)Chinese restaurants are too loud, fancy ones are too quiet, I like places that noisy enough that no one notices bad behavior from the little ones.

4)The service should be helpful and fairly fast, I dont want to wait 30 min with empty table and trying to find anything to do for Summer.

5)In the summer we LOVE LOVE LOVE the deck or patio!

Here are some our favorite places:
couple of Sushi restaurants nearby
couple of small family restaurants which have patios
Soul food (small but big space between tables and noisy enough )
California Pizza Kitchen(it is fun to sit close to the kichen and see them to make pizza)
.....