When you live in a place that’s named “Foodiest Town in America,” dining out becomes a part of the lifestyle. However, when you have two picky eaters in tow, you have to choose your culinary destinations wisely. Will there be enough adult-friendly options for mom and dad? Will there be enough healthy-bland options for the kids? Lucky for us, Boulder gives us a wide-variety of choices – and price points – to keep everyone in our family happy.
Here are our top picks:
The Southern Sun
One of the biggest perks of our yuppy/hippy community is the Sun family. The Mountain Sun opened its doors back in the mid-90’s appealing to the young downtown-hippy crowd with their fancy microbrews and high-quality-no-nonsense good food. When they opened a slightly larger sister pub, The Southern Sun, several years later, the hippies-turned-families flocked. Piles of super-delicious-what-do-they put in-those-things-anyway nachos and community games make this restaurant a top choice for our family.
Murphy’s
After soccer on Thursdays we like to stop by another Boulder staple, Murphy’s Grill, in North Boulder. Much to our delight and surprise, this is also when Mr. Lamont, the local magician, happens to do table performances. (I tell you ever since meeting Lamont, the magic tricks are never-ending at my house.) You can hear the oohs-and-ahhs from around the restaurant as Lamont stops off for his five-minute performances. And, to top it all off the food is pretty darn good, too! A kid’s menu that offers broccoli or carrots as a side – that my four year old will actually order? Awesome!
Mustard’s Last Stand
One of our favorite things to do is to ride our bikes along the creek path to downtown Boulder. Sometimes, we get hungry along the way. Lucky for us, Mustard’s Last Stand is a quick, easy stop for a fun lunch. Not only do they serve up the best dogs (burgers, sandwiches and fries, too) this side of the Wrigley Field, they will also supply you with a blanket for a creek side picnic! The kids love the corn dogs. I love the veggie dogs. Yum!
Backcountry Pizza and Taphouse
When mama needs Mr. Pesto, mama needs Mr. Pesto and Backcountry Pizza and Taphouse has what mama needs. Since I’m really the only one into a pesto, fried chicken, tomato and kalamata olive pizza, it’s a good thing that Backcountry Pizza has a lot of menu options that appeals to the entire family (even the in-laws) with burgers, salads, sandwiches and, of course, pizza. A selection only matched by their extensive beer list. Throw in the game room and this restaurant is a crowd-pleaser every time.
Glacier Homemade Ice Cream & Gelato
If you consider ice cream a food group – and I do – then you will most certainly LOVE my last pick – Glacier Homemade Ice Cream & Gelato. Good thing we’re biking distance, so we can work off some of those sinful calories. We love to enjoy our Death by Chocolate, Funky Donkey and Carmel Oreo scoops from one of the oversized couches or on the outside patio. If we’re in a hurry, we like to grab a homemade cookie/ice-cream sandwich for the road.
As our foodies-in-training grow and their taste buds mature, we look forward to expanding our restaurant ventures.
What are your favorite family-friendly Boulder restaurants?
Guest blogger Susan lives with her husband, two young sons, and super-cute puppy in Boulder, Colorado. When she’s not chasing her boys on the ski slopes or watching them on the sidelines of the soccer fields, she helps start-ups with social media and online marketing. Susan is social media junkie and you can often find her live tweeting from just about everywhere she goes.
Author: Mile High Mamas
Amber
Looking forward to checking some of those out! One of my favorites is Chautauqua’s Dining Hall when the patio is open. Absolutely gorgeous and my kids love to race around on the grass.
Martha
Good list. We’re fans of the Walnut Cafe and the Sink.
Reba
Anything on 16th Street Mall is fun but we love Illegal Pete’s.
Susan Tucker
We have actually only used Chautauqua as a picnic location… never occurred to us to actually eat there! I hear they have a new owner and the food is fab. We’ll have to check that out.