Enjoying a dinner out with your family is an enjoyable way to spend some quality time together and leave the cooking and cleaning to someone else, which mothers and head of households are bound to appreciate. It also gives everyone in your family a chance to make their own decision on what they want for dinner, which kids love.

Although eating out can get expensive depending on where you decide to dine at, here are a few recommendations for affordable family restaurants that you might want to consider.

• Denny’s – Denny’s is a reliable family restaurant that’s open for business 24-7, even on holidays like Christmas and New Year’s Eve. This American style restaurant offers a diverse menu of items for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Popular breakfast items include their variety of “Slam” plates that feature different combinations of eggs, bacon, sausage, french toast, waffles and hashbrowns. Patrons can also choose from omelettes, Breakfast Skillets or ala carte menu items. Families that are enjoying a lunch at Denny’s can choose from a diverse offering of sandwiches including burgers, patty melts, club sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, soups and salads. Their dinner menu features entrees such as T-Bone Steaks, Country Fried Steak, Fried Shrimp and others. Denny’s also offers a kids menu for diners with young children and select menu items on their “$2, $4, $6, $8 Value menu for those that are watching their spending.
• Cracker Barrel – Cracker Barrel is well known for their “home away from home” atmosphere and is another affordable restaurant option for families. Cracker Barrel also offers breakfast, lunch and dinner options to patrons in a friendly, warm, inviting environment. In fact, you’ll find a fireplace at every restaurant and they even use it and  tend it during the colder months. Since they specialize in “country” cooking, guests can choose from traditional and everyday favorites such as breakfast samplers, ala carte menu items, sandwich platters, country dinner plates, vegetables and sides, salads, a lighter fare menu, soups, desserts and more. Cracker Barrel offers a children’s menu and daily meal specials to their patrons. If you don’t have the time to sit down and eat, Cracker Barrel offers “Country Sized Meals To Go” that include enough food to feed 6 for carryout. This includes a main dish, three quarts of side items and a loaf of Sourdough bread or a baker’s dozen of corn muffins or buttermilk biscuits. Additionally, you can order extra vegetables, bread, a main dish, or a cobbler dessert. This can either be ordered “in-store” or over the phone and is a great way to feed the entire family.

• Little Caesar’s – While most Little Caesar’s aren’t set up to accommodate sit down eating, they do offer competitive pricing on their “Hot-N-Ready” pizzas. Patrons can get a cheese, pepperoni or sausage pizza for only $5.00. Little Caesar’s also offers “made to order” topped pizzas, Italian Cheesy Bread, Pepperoni Cheesy Bread, Breadsticks, a variety of flavors of chicken wings and soda pop. In addition to the “Hot-N-Ready” pizza deal, there might be other in store promotions for meal deals that include bread or wings and beverages, so $20.00 can get you far.
• Subway – Subway is another affordable restaurant for families. The nationwide chain is known for their promotions of $5 Footlong subs and has built a solid reputation as being a healthier option for diners and gives them the choice of several bread options including flatbread, white and whole wheat. Their “Fit Choices Menu” gives calorie conscience diners the choice of several options including the Veggie Delite sub, turkey breast sub, turkey breast and black forest ham sub, the Subway Club, Roast Beef, Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki which contain lower calories and fat. Other subs Subway offers include the classic Meatball marinara sub, BLT, the Italian BLT, Steak and Cheese, Tuna, Subway melt, Chicken Bacon Ranch melt and others. Additionally, they offer small bags of chips, yogurt parfaits, salads, pop and even cookies for dessert. Subway offers a children’s menu and meal deals, too.

Finding an affordable restaurant for your family doesn’t have to be hard to do, especially if you know the places that offer great deals to their customers. I hope that these suggestions will help you and if there is anyplace that you’ve found to be a great, affordable restaurant for families, please let us know about it in the comment section. We’d love to hear your suggestions.