Family Dining in Downtown Chicago

When you're taking your daughter to Chicago for the weekend to visit American Girl Place, shopping on Michigan Avenue, touring the city's museums with the kids, you're going to get hungry. For visiting families who want to try something new, the city offers many off-the-beaten path options.

If you're in or near Water Tower Place and can't or don't want to eat at the American Girl Place Café, try Foodlife (www.foodlife.com). This restaurant offers a little something for everyone: stir fry, soups, pastas, salads, sandwiches, and desserts. Families entering the restaurant receive a card and a reserved table. Everyone walks around choosing foods, with each item added to the card. On the way out, a cashier scans the card and rings up the meal. Be careful here-it's easy to ring up a sizeable bill without realizing how much you are spending.

With locations throughout downtown, Corner Bakery (www.cornerbakery.com) offers breakfast, coffee, sweets, soups, and sandwiches. It's a favorite for reasonably-priced lunches among downtown office workers, who tend to favor the soups or soup-and-sandwich meals. The restaurant's oatmeal is a noteworthy, and reasonably priced, breakfast option. Toppings include dried fruits, nuts, and brown sugar.

At Michigan and Ontario, the Grand Lux Café (www.grandluxcafe.com) is a popular stop for shoppers. A chain restaurant with a limited number of outlets, it features a menu of generously-sized dishes. Patrons can lunch on salads, pastas, burgers, and sandwiches. The desserts, which are popular, are rich and decadent.

Il Quartino, 626 N State (www.quartinochicago.com), is a trendy small-plates restaurant that focuses on appetizer-sized portions of very well-prepared food. Because it is open throughout the afternoon, it makes an appealing stop for a late lunch or mid-afternoon snack. Kids will enjoy the spaghetti with meat sauce, and a dessert menu that features home-made ice creams and light, freshly made donuts with fudge dipping sauce. Parents can enjoy a glass of wine, some house-cured sausage, and veal meatballs or salmon carpaccio. Though the food is fancy, the restaurant is loud and accommodates strollers at lunchtime. An outdoor patio is especially appealing in the summertime.

At Macy's (111 N. State), try the Walnut Room for fancy dining. Popular with Chicagoans who want to eat under the restaurant's enormous Christmas tree in December, the Walnut Room offers fancy lunches and tea in atmosphere that makes kids feel like royalty. Food tends toward traditional "ladies-who-lunch" favorites, such as sandwiches and salads. The restaurant's chicken-pot-pie is a long-standing, traditional menu item.

The 65 Chinese Restaurant, 336 N. Michigan, offers cafeteria-style Chinese favorites. There's nothing fancy about it, but it offers reasonably priced kid pleasers, such as sweet and sour chicken, chicken with broccoli, and several kinds of fried rice. Menu items range in price from about $1 to $7. Meals come with steamed white rice, fried rice, or noodles.