Top 10 Family Restaurants

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Miriam Arond, Child magazine's editor in chief, tells us "With childhood obesity becoming an alarming trend in our country, we felt a survey like this would be helpful and necessary for both parents and children. Child followed a comprehensive and rigorous methodology to find the healthiest, family-friendly restaurant chains in the country by examining criteria such as the nutritional quality of the menu, the smoking policy, contributions to children's charities, and much more."

Survey Methodology:

For the Child magazine survey, over 125 children's menus of the largest full-service, sit-down chains were reviewed. Each menu was initially evaluated on these basic criteria: whether it contained at least two to four nutritional entrees, included a vegetable besides french fries and offered milk among its beverage choices. Only 20 menus (about one out of six restaurants) met these minimum requirements.

Each of these menus was sent to five nutrition experts for evaluation. Their scores were averaged and counted as 75% of a restaurants grade. The remaining 25% came from child-friendly activities-from balloons to birthday clubs-in addition to its smoking policy, contributing to children's charities and schools, and access to high chairs, booster seats, and diaper-changing tables in both the men's and women's restrooms.

THE LIST:

1. Legal Sea Foods: (U.S. locations: 28 in DC, FL, MA, MD, NJ, NY RI, VA)

2. Mimi's Cafe: (US Locations: 80 in AZ, CA, CO, FL, KS NM, NV, OK, TX, UT)

3. Red Lobster: (US Locations: 649 in every state except AK, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)

4. The Melting Pot: (US Locations: 70 in AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, LA, MD, MI, MN, NC, NJ, NM, NV, OH, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WI)

5. The Old Spaghetti Factory: (US Locations: 40 in AZ, CA, CO, GA, HI, IN, KY, MO, MN, NV, OH, TN, UT, WA)

6. Benihana: (US Locations: 71 in AK, AR, CA, CO, DC, FL, GA, HI, IL, IN, MD, MI, MN, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, TX, UT, WA, WI)

7. Ruby Tuesday: (US Locations: 702 in AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SC, SD, TN, UT, VA, WA, WV)

8. Chili's Grill & Bar: (US Locations: 868 in every state except MT)

9. Elephant Bar Restaurant: (US Locations: 28 in AZ, CA, CO, KS, MO, TX)

10. (Tie) Bertucci's: (US Locations: 89 in CT, DC, DE, MA, MD, NC, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA) & Chevys Fresh Mex: (US Locations: 114 in AZ, CA, CO, FL, IL, LA, MD, MN, MO. NJ, NV, NY, OR, SD, UT, VA, WA)