We’re flying down to SoCal next Saturday, with two young children (ages 2 and 4). We’ll be flying into Burbank and we’re visiting some friends in the afternoon in Studio City. We’ll be leaving there around 4:30 PM. Eventually, we’ll need to make it down to my inlaws in Garden Grove (OC) for bedtime. So the question is: where should we have dinner?
Some ideas:
• Persian – would love to have good Persian food, especially a place that has good vegetarian/pescatarian options, plus also good meat dishes/kebabs. Could easily make a stop in Glendale area, or take the 405 and stop in Tehrangeles area.
• Middle Eastern - Other non-Persian middle eastern that meets the above criteria.
• Thai - The adults would love Thai food, but our kids aren’t crazy about spicy dishes. But my son does love a good non-spicy chicken satay. So Thai Town area is another option.
• Something else?
We’re visiting from Portland, OR (and we previously lived in Bay Area), and we’ll be spending time later in the week mostly in Orange County. So really looking for amazing food in a kid-friendly (i.e. casual and likely to have a high-chair) environment that it’s hard to find outside of LA. Any ideas welcome!
I found this thread about Berenjak but it might be too fancy.
I also read this thread, but it’s almost 6 years old!
Probably not interested in: Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican, Pizza, Italian, Northern European or Classic American (like burgers/pub/etc), mainly since we’ll be eating plenty of these later on the trip or we eat it enough at home.
I think we probably want sit-down indoors, since it’ll already be dark by the time we’re eating. But I’ll save this idea for when we come back someday in the summer months.
For this dinner, I think we’d rather be in LA or adjacent cities. That way we can eat on the early side and then head to Orange County later.
But Nok’s is great. It’s quite close to my in-laws house and I’ve eaten there once. So it might be a good option for a dinner later in the trip! Thank you for the reminder about it.
Thai Town would be what I’d consider along the way when going from Studio City to Garden Grove. Tehrangeles and Glendale would involve a bit of a detour (and I too distinctly recall having to drive long distances with very young kids).
I’d recommend Luv2Eat. The food is damn good, they will adjust spice levels, so I think the kids would hopefully enjoy that as well. As for Bavel, Bestia and Majordomo… Well, they are each great restaurants in their own right, but with kids ages 2 and 4 in tow, the scene might be a more parent-friendly at Luv2Eat (which is more chill).
Ruen Pair in Thai Town. Heat levels can be adjusted. Easy to get desserts in the same plaza with 2 options!!! Ruen Pair has a whole Thai-Chinese homestyle menu (not spicy) that’s not common in most Thai restaurants. Also easy plaza valet parking
Bavel or Sora which are both downtown and directly on the way.
bavel if you want upscale and lively with great cocktails. Amazing hummus and other dips such as farm cheese and chicken liver. Live fire cooking. Shrimp / mushrooms insane. Plus lamb neck shawerma and their desserts. I’ve taken my daughter there multiple times they have high chairs. It’s a quintessentially LA restaurant.
Or Sora kitchen which is super casual order at a touch screen and a one man chef crew cooks everything. Used to be a chef at per se. Probably my favorite new restaurant in LA
For Thai- Thai town I echo ruen pair as a choice lots of kid friendly options there and plaza that has desserts/ice cream
Going west to tehrangeles or east to Glendale will definitely add a long time to your commute esp going west. You’d be much better off hitting up little Arabia in north OC area like house of Mandi.
Thanks again everyone for all the suggestions. Tonight was the night, and we decided to go to Ruen Pair.
Turned out to be a great choice. Service was very fast, and the valet parking was very convenient (and I didn’t worry about our suitcases in the car). Food was mostly very good. We over-ordered:
pad Thai w tofu - excellent, not too sweet, very fresh.
Crispy catfish - served in a spicy sauce with makrut lime leaf. Very good.
Chicken satay - excellent, tender chicken with a delicious sauce. Not spicy at all
Egg noodle soup with roast pork - perfect for the kids who loved it. The noodles were nice and fresh and I liked it quite a bit too. Pork itself was just okay for me (my son loved it though)
Beef salad - the main disappointment. It was okay, and had a nice spice level, but was lackluster and a little sad looking. Not even close to the quality I’ve had at other places (Lotus of Siam in LV comes to mind as having an excellent version I remember years later).
sticky rice and steamed rice.
For dessert we went across the parking lot and got some Khanom krak to eat in the car for our trafficky drive to OC!
