Being a family of 6 on a budget and trying to eat healthy, we don’t eat out a whole lot. When we do, we have a few parameters a restaurant has to meet in order to secure the honor of our presence. First, kids should eat free. Second, kids should eat free. And third, you guessed it, kids should eat free. Did I mention that it’s important that kids eat free?
Now that we’ve gotten the kids eat free part down, a healthy, varied menu keeps us coming back for more (so long as kids eat free). No wonder our very favorite place to take the family is Jason’s Deli! On Monday nights, 2 kids eat free per adult meal purchased. So if someone has a hard time locating the Morefield family, they can virtually guarantee we’re going to be at Jason’s Deli at least every other Monday.
Kid’s night at Jason’s Deli is unlike any other night there. Not that we would know, because we only go on kid’s night, but if there is a more hectic night there for those poor workers, I’d love to see it (but yeah, that’d never happen because, well, kid’s night is Monday). They hustle about and try to keep up, to no avail. The dining room is almost full, most tables occupied by families like ours with at least 2 munchkins, often more. We blend right in. The workers don’t even give us nasty looks when we come in. In fact, it’s often so loud that our Gracie can shout to her heart’s content and nobody will even hear or, if they hear, nobody even turns around to stare at us. When she drops peas on the floor the busser just smiles at us and mentions something about ‘job security’ as he sweeps it up.
The environment on kid’s night is pretty much like Chuck-E-Cheese without the games and sugar-filled greasy pizza. Oh there’s pizza there (on the kid’s menu, which is the most varied we’ve seen anywhere!), but the quality is so much better. (And did I mention it’s free on Mondays?) The best part is, if you give our kids a choice between McDonalds and Jason’s Deli, they would pick the latter any day!
Jason’s Deli is nationally known for their fresh, organic, natural ingredient selections. Their salad bar, while not as large as some in the area, is second to none in quality. The sandwiches are awesome, and they have a great manager’s special where you can get 1 trip to the bar and a half-sandwich for just $1 more. And, after a great meal, everyone gets free ice cream! (Well, it’s really ice milk so not as huge a calorie burden.) At the end of the day, we pay $15-$17 for a spread that would make Julius Caesar blush. It would truly be hard to put all of it together at home for less than that price, and we don’t have to clean up!
Here are some other places to go for kid’s night.
Salsarita’s – Sunday afternoons, a great place to eat after church. The line is usually long but it goes fast. Only one kid per adult meal, but we buy sides and make it work for less than $15.
Charley’s Steakery – Sunday afternoons – 1 kids meal per adult. Not as healthy, but a nice treat sometimes.
Macado’s – Tuesday night – 2 kids meals for every adult meal purchased, plus hamburger meals for $5.99. TONS of food for the money.
I’m sure there are more. If anyone knows of any other good ones we’d love to hear about them. We know it won’t last forever and soon we’ll be shoveling pinto beans and rice into 4 ravenous teenage maws, but for now it’s fun, once in a while, to take our little ones to kid’s night somewhere and let someone else pay to feed them!