I can run through where we go, but if there are more specific considerations around location or type of food, let me know:
Guajiros: lots of space and high chairs, open pretty much all the time. Parking can sometimes be tricky depending on the time of day. Getting there by 9:30 or so on weekends helps avoid the student brunch rush
Comalito: Will bang the drum for this place until it gets more popular. Casual, solid Mexican food. My kid throws black beans all over the table there every Friday evening and somehow we are still welcome back.
Popitoâs: Have a craving for Neapolitan style but arenât brave enough to cram a kid into Lampo? This has got you covered.
El Tizon/Al Carbon: Worth mentioning again, the 29N location has a ton of space and my kid mows down the fries.
Hogwaller: Iâm not enough of a beer expert to judge, but people tell me they like the beer, and I like the burgers. Plus, you can get ice cream at Sugarbear next door, and easily walk to the paved part of the Rivanna Trail that goes to Riverside Park. This area is starting to hold more community events as itâs getting more built up.
Kanak Indian Kitchen: My kid canât really deal with spice yet, so it wasnât the best place for her to eat at, but we like it a lot, especially at lunch where the deal is a little better (entrees come with soup/salad, naan, and a little side curry).
Sbroccoâs: Ok so not really a restaurant in the same way the others are but get a donut or six and thank me later.
Breweries at a must/staple for us. We started taking our kids to them when they were 2 and 1 and now they love them. Typically breweries are large and extremely casual and they have decent to great food and plenty of distractions for little ones.
3rd Notch has good low top tables and plenty of high chairs. They donât mind if you bring in your own food for the kids too.
This is an awesome list! Thank you. Will definitely be hitting some of these up when we go down.
And yeah, right now our child eats like a hummingbird - just tiny tiny amounts here and there. But she will try anything! So thatâs great. I would be excited to see if she finds something sheâs into at these places. If we could get her to eventually like beans and rice at a Mexican place I would be so pumped. At least right now sheâs into guac though and will eat that straight, so weâve got that fallback.
Three Notchâd is a good shout by @BDragon. I was trying to think of more breweries, but ones with both good beer and food are rarer than I would have guessed.
Decipher sometimes has good food trucks at it.
Have heard mixed things about Random Rowâs pizza.
Kardinal Hall is solid enough and has a beer hall layout that works well especially when nice out (though it can get real busy at peak weekend times).
Dairy Market has not worked out amazingly, but there is a Starr Hill location there and Moo Thru ice cream.
The Charlottesville brewey scene is a little tougher. Star Hill at Dairy Market was okay for us when we took our kids but it required a stop at MooThru
Selvedgeâs new location on Ivy Rd is super kid friendly. Smash burgers are solid too. They also usually have a few guest taps so you are not limited to just their beer.
Yeah, thought about recommending Selvedge, only hesitation is that last time our smash burgers came out scarily raw on the inside (and not by request). They did make a new batch with no hesitation that was better, and I do tend to prefer the Riverside approach of smashing the patty into oblivion and getting it real crispy.
The Selvedge space is great though and a good spot for watching a game.
Yeah, we still love the Mariebette guys, but the lines are always dauntingly long (even at petite mariebette) and my wife switched over to Cou Cou Rachou as well a while back.
Iâve been neglecting getting to this. Really appreciate the listing here. Idk how many times the wife and I are in town and we get semi overwhelmed by trying to pick a different restaurant we end up at something plain that weâve been to 100 times. Iâll be using my screenshot of this over the next few months to try these out.
Ok, as a DoubleHoo and 25 year citizen of Cville, here are my favorite restaurants, which tend to skew more on the âdate nightâ side of the axis than the âgame nightâ side, but here goes, from most date night to most game night:
Ten (Japanese / sushi) Black Cow (steaks) Alley Light (French Bistro) Smyrna (Mediterranean) Conmole (Oaxacan) Oakhart Social (Contemporary) Public (Seafood & Oysters) Lampo (Neapolitan Pizza +) Mas (Spanish Tapas) Kanak (Indian) Monsoon (Thai) Quality Pie / Bar Tomas (Whatever Tomas is making) Al Carbone (Rotisserie Chicken) Aceâs Biscuit & BBQ (You guessed it) Ivy Provisions (Sandwiches) Belleâs (Bakery Cafe)
And if youâre grilling out or cooking at home, pick up your meats from JM Stock Provisions (Butcher)
Sadly, had dinner at Smyrna a couple weeks ago with friends passing through town, and for the first time it was only fine. It wasnât bad, but it was the first time Iâve eaten there and it wasnât good or better.
Wednesday and Thursday you can roll up whenever, even Friday sometimes (on the earlier side). I think Saturday is tougher. But I havenât been as much recently.
The space is small so itâs variable. Like, we dropped in one Thursday and he had a bunch of the UVA Psychology Department there plus some grad students and was totally packed. You can always call.
