Pasta? and Satura Cakes

We eat out a lot. I love to cook, but I love to eat out more. And since we just recently figured out the practicalities of a babysitter, we've done most of our eating out with our kids. Dining with kids can be a tricky thing, and it can be especially tricky when your idea of dining doesn't involve some golden arches and an indoor play structure.

Palo Alto is smack between my older son's school and our house. Therefore, University Avenue is a typical lunching hot-spot for Alexander's and my playdate posse.


Anyway, here's a review of one of our favorite typical eating routines...

• Playtime at Johnson Park

• Lunch at Pasta?

• Dessert at Satura Cakes (or Fraîche)

There is a wonderful, fenced park on the corner of Everett and Kipling called Dr. Edith Eugiene Johnson Park. The concrete slide there is legendary, and even remembered by Gen X kids from around the peninsula far and wide. There is also a small garden next to the park good for future green thumbs.

Pasta? is a little local Italian restaurant here in the bay area. I like that their food is consistently tasty, fast, and reasonably priced. They have outdoor seating at both locations which makes it easy to pull up a stroller and people watch, and I've never seen a waitress cringe upon approach of my kids.

The hubby's favorite meal...

Satura Cake Company is another local to the bay area (and Hawaii, go figure). The one in Pali is just down the street from Pasta?. Satura is known for providing beautiful, organic, Euro-Japanese culinary confections. My favorite creation by far is their "cup-cake" Choco-Misu. It's a twist on a classic Italian Tirimisu, with a marscopne chocolate-coffee mouse filling ontop of a bed of soaked sponge cake. YUM.

The best part of is that crunchy toffee thing