Little Matt's

To pick apart the food at Little Matt’s — a family-­friendly joint on a small­town street in West U — is to miss the bigger picture. Too often, taking kids out to eat means either struggling to extract decent behavior from your kids while the childless dining public glares at you, or else giving in to the soul­sucking pandemonium of a disease vector disguised as a ball pit, and an animatronic animal band whose clangor will haunt your dreams. Little Matt’s is an altogether more affable pandemonium, in comparison. It like a restaurant for grownups, for one thing. This helps keep the noise level down, and the space is laid out in a way that discourages wind­sprints. It’s kind of like if Chuck E. Cheese’s didn’t rob you of your will to live, and the fact that it’s pretty easy on the wallet removes both insult and injury. You will want to bring along a sack of quarters, though; there’s an arcade in back, along with rows of free­to­play iPads bookending the space. Grab a margarita or a glass of wine, both compliments of the house, and a burger and let yourself, and your kids, unwind in a fashion remarkably civilized for a restaurant that caters to kids.