Beyond Chuck E. Cheese

For the first six months, it was easy. You’d put your little bundle of joy into a car seat just before nap time, and baby would sleep through your entire meal — only rousing slightly when other diners came to your table to admire your delightful offspring. When you could gather the energy to leave the house, you could eat what you wanted.

Now you’re lucky if you can sit down for five minutes before your 18-month-old cries, throws something, or wanders off. Whether you have a spirited crawler, an active toddler, or a hard-to-please preschooler, you might despair: Will you ever be able to eat anywhere that doesn’t have plastic booths and foil-packet ketchup?

Fear not! It can be tough to keep mobile toddlers and preschoolers entertained long enough to order, much less eat your food, but there are eateries that can please the smallest children, and keep their parents interested in the food. Of course, they’ll welcome you a little more enthusiastically if you get there at 5:30 p.m., when the restaurant is generally empty except for parents and toddlers, and the staff has time to clean up after your little darling before the dinner rush begins. Tip generously!

RESTAURANTS

China Pearl Restaurant

288 Mishawum Road, Woburn. 781-932-0031. www.chinapearlrestaurant.com Dim sum served Saturday and Sunday mornings; call for hours.

Toddler attractions Over-the-top decor, dim sum carts, immediate gratification.

Kid quotient If you go at 10 a.m., there aren’t any other families. In fact, there aren’t any other customers.

Dim sum is the perfect toddler food; you point at what you want, and you get it. Easy parking and nap-friendly serving hours make this place a cinch for parents. Finicky kids will enjoy the deep-fried shrimp spring rolls and scallion pancakes — and there’s always white rice! Parents will appreciate that the carts of noodles, dumplings, and steamed buns appear quickly enough that they can actually eat before their children start throwing chopsticks at the walls. The mirror-lined entrance and the scarlet dragons and golden phoenixes painted in the main dining room lend the place a fairy-tale atmosphere.

Cafe Belo

Locations in Allston, Boston, Everett, Framingham, Milford, and Somerville. 800-780-0754. www.cafebelo.com/english Hours vary by location.

Toddler attractions Watching meat getting barbecued, wide variety of foods, and steam tables with familiar food in easy reach.

Kid quotient Plenty of families with young kids Saturday at 5 p.m. (Grab that high chair before someone else does.)

‘‘Cafe’’ is short for ‘‘cafeteria,’’ but your high school lunch ladies never doled out slices of fresh roasted meat straight from a flaming barbecue. Cafe Belo sells food by the pound from steam tables full of American and Brazilian entrees and side dishes, ranging from mac ’n’ cheese and tomatoes to farofa (fried manioc flour) and plantains. There are plenty of options for vegetarians, if they can avert their eyes from the churrascaria station, where meat is barbecued Brazilian-style. You can ask for hunks of several different meats roasting on vertical spits; the server will cut your portion straight off the spit and heave it onto your plate. Take your tray to the cashier to pay for your meat and side dishes by the pound. Cafe Belo is so popular with parents of young children that it can be difficult to get a high chair if you go at 5:30 p.m. Bring a booster seat!

Andros Diner

628 Trapelo Road, Belmont. 617-484-7322.

Toddler attractions The Beaver Brook park next door, ketchup on every table.

Kid quotient Low, because the families eat at Beaver Brook.

Andros Diner is a hard-working restaurant that has been serving Belmont residents carefully prepared Greek-American food for more than 30 years. The salads are fresh; the pita bread is warm; the souvlaki and kebabs are juicy and calmly seasoned; and the french fries are palatable to adults. The kids menu features the usual burgers, hot dogs, mac ’n’ cheese and fish and chips. The back room with the mural of the Greek islands is a fine place to contain small children, and there are four high chairs available for your seating pleasure. Kindly waitresses will bring you crayons, and reveal the hidden coloring page on the back of your placemat.

However, what catapults the Andros Diner from merely a pleasant destination to the realm of toddler bliss is its neighbor: the Beaver Brook Reservation tot lot and ‘‘spray deck,’’ a flock of climbable rocks on asphalt showered by sprinklers. You can order takeout from Andros Diner and eat at shaded picnic tables while you watch your child get drenched. Paradise! The ‘‘spray deck’’ is open from daily 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., through Sept. 4.

Parents who carry a lot of kid gear should be aware that entering the Andros Diner requires a 90-degree turn in a very small vestibule. (So leave the stroller outside.)

If you somehow leave the Andros Diner hungry, drive two minutes back up the street to Angelato, which specializes in gelato, the smooth Italian ice cream. Angelato’s excels at mixing intense nutty gelatos like pistachio and chocolate-hazelnut, but the selection ranges from traditional Italian flavors (lemon and espresso) to American novelties (peanut butter cup).

PICCO

513 Tremont St., South End. 617-927-0066.

Toddler attractions A large, round, cheese-covered finger food your child already asks for and large open plaza right outside for the mid-meal run.

Kid quotient Very high on weekend afternoons, low at other times.

PICCO stands for ‘‘Pizza and Ice Cream Company,’’ two foods which most children will eat, barring lactose intolerance. Certainly, it isn’t hard to get pizza in Boston, but PICCO’s state-of-the-art pizza oven and intriguing ingredients make for gourmet dining. Apart from perfect crispy-crust pizzas, fresh salads, and luscious ice cream PICCO has one key feature that makes it indispensable to parents: a plaza. While the restaurant itself is somewhat cramped for active kids, PICCO’s front door opens onto a 50-foot-deep open space for that mid-meal run. Kids will also get a kick out of peering into the Design Within Reach storefront next door, with its bright colors and intriguing constructions.

FOOD COURTS

Super 88 Market Food Connection

1095 Commonwealth Ave., Allston. 617-787-2288. Open daily 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Limited parking. www.super88market.com

Toddler attractions Trollies, room to wander, and live fish in the Super 88 Market tanks next door.

Kid quotient Plenty of families with kids of all ages.

With Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, and India food to choose from, the Super 88 food court is a welcome sight for parents who have overdosed on Chuck E. Cheese’s. The food comes fast, and train-crazed children can sit by the window and watch Green Line trollies zoom by. Young eaters with delicate taste buds can order plain white rice at almost every food stand; older siblings will be intrigued by the tapioca bubble-tea stand and the blabbering televisions. After everyone has finished licking their fingers, stroll next door to the Super 88 Market to find the seemingly largest pan-Asian food store this side of Singapore.

Porter Exchange Food Court

1815 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. Food stalls open daily noon-8 p.m.

Toddler attractions Big loop to walk around and basement view.

Kid quotient Moderate number of families during the early dinner hour (5:30 p.m.)

While Super 88’s stalls hail from around the globe, the Porter Exchange’s offerings are Japanese, Korean, and Japanese interpretations of food from other lands. Seven stalls sell noodle soups, rice dishes, sushi, Japanese-style curry and barbecue, bubble tea, delicate little tea cakes filled with cream, and green-tea ice cream. The sole formal, sit-down restaurant, Blue Fin, offers a variety of sushi; the Kotobukiya market sells Japanese groceries, including ‘‘Thomas the Tank’’ Engine cookies and rice crackers. Young children will appreciate Japanese-style rice (it’s sticky! You can pick it up by poking a chopstick into it!), the boiled, salty soybeans (edamame), and fried noodle dishes. Beware the noodle soups, which are tasty but come in vats of hot, easily spilled liquid.

Parents will appreciate the wide-open indoor spaces where children can take a mid-meal walk. For toddlers, the biggest attraction is the hole in the floor. You may call it a basement atrium, but to a young child, this is paradise: The chance to stare down through secure fencing at the patrons at the juice bar and health club downstairs. (Be prepared to spent a lot of time waving at thirsty gym-goers.) The wee ones will also enjoy the large fish tank at Chocho’s, a Korean restaurant in the stall section.