Restaurants where kids can eat with their hands

At Oh! Taisho, eating with your hands is fun—and mandatory.

Photograph: Cinzia Reale-Castello

Corn dogs
Coney Island may not exude the wholesomeness of a county fair, but this midway staple has its share of urban devotees. And rightly so—it’s genius, really, to poke a stick into a hot dog, drag it through batter and deep-fry it. Nathan’s Famous wins best in show: Its corn bread jacket is crisp and greaseless on the outside, sweet and tender under the surface, surrounding the snappiest dog in town ($3). Pop in on a Sunday, take your treats to the beach, and let your small fry watch the Polar Bear Club brave the elements. 1310 Surf Ave at Stillwell Ave, Coney Island, Brooklyn (718-946-2202, nathansfamous.com)

Chocolate fondue at Swizz

Photographs: Caroline Voagen Nelson

Fondue
If stick chow has competition in the “fun eats” category, it comes from dips and dunks—thus the dual enchantment of fondue. Bring your cheese whiz to Swizz, a stylishly elegant Theater District spot with the swooniest melting pots in the melting pot. At $44 for two, the price of the traditional cheese fondue is as steep as the Alps; but the generous cauldron of molten Gruyère and Emmentaler can serve the whole family. Cubed bread accompanies, and additional dippers (like apples, mushrooms, potatoes) are $3 each. Or stop in just for dessert and some luxe quality time: Dreamy Toblerone chocolate fondue ($20), with marshmallows and fresh fruit, invites multiple forks. 310 W 53rd St at Eighth Ave (212-810-4444, 1291swizz.com)

Grilled corn
An ear of corn is nature’s food-on-a-stick, and Soho’s Café Habana guiltlessly gilds the lily with Mexican-style grilled corn ($3.75/lunch, $4/dinner, $2/to-go outpost). The hordes that flock here include plenty of young cornivores who know a great thing when they taste one. Fire-roasted, sprinkled with chili powder and cotija cheese, and brightened with a squeeze of lime, the dish is creamy, crunchy and a riot of flavor—sweet, sour, salty, spicy, smoky. It’s also messy. But don’t worry about cleanup: Café Habana bills itself as an “eco-eatery,” with earth-friendly design, practices—and napkins. 17 Prince St at Elizabeth St (212-625-2002, ecoeatery.com)

Kebabs
Some of the best kebabs you’ll ever eat come from the Turkestani carts on Flushing’s Main Street. But asking your kid to stickhandle with her mittens on is like asking her to tap-dance in her daddy’s shoes. Until the thaw, satisfy kebab cravings at Afghan Kebab House #1, a hideaway so warm there’s a rug beneath your glass tabletop. The skewer is gone by the time your platter arrives, but the thrill is not—the kebabs are glorious, particularly the sublime lamb kafta ($11), two torpedoes of tender minced lamb, gently seasoned with coriander and ginger. The place is BYOB, and you’d be welcome to BYOBS, too—thread your kid’s kebab onto a bamboo skewer, and the experience is complete. 764 Ninth Ave between 51st and 52nd Sts (212-307-1612); Afghan Kebab House #4, 74-16 37th Ave between 74th and 75th Sts, Jackson Heights, Queens (718-565-0471)

Grilled corn at Café Habana

Lollipop shrimp
The Vietnamese don’t just skewer their food—the skewer is food. The appetizer known as chao tom is as clever as it gets: shrimp paste formed around spears of sugarcane and deep-fried. The version at popular Saigon Grill is a tyke’s delight. A pair of sugarcane sticks, their delicate shrimpy coating golden brown from the fryer, are covered with a blizzard of chopped peanuts and scallions, and served with a sweet-spicy nuoc cham sauce ($6.25). There’s not much to eat, but there’s plenty to nibble: Chewing on the sugarcane and sucking the juice is like gnawing on a corncob, only sweeter. 620 Amsterdam Ave at 90th St (212-875-9072)

Marshmallows on a stick
“Window shopping” translates as “window licking” in French, and that suits 70-plus-year-old Williams Candy (conveniently located near our favorite corn dog place) just fine. The fenêtre showcases sweet delights: candy apples shiny as jewels, and caramel apples chock-full o’ nuts. But we go for the marshmallows on a stick ($1.50) every time. The pillowy “kebabs” come in four varieties—dipped in candy-apple coating, or swirled in buttery caramel and covered with sprinkles, peanuts or coconut. There’s no place to sit (or stand, really), but Nathan’s alfresco tables are right outside, offering a fine, if inelegant, perch for your sugar babies before they run off to chase the seagulls. 1318 Surf Ave at Stillwell Ave, Coney Island, Brooklyn (718-372-0302, candytreats.com)

Satay
Find the best satay in the city at Skyway Malaysian, a small, unpretentious spot so homey, a white picket fence actually lines one wall. Little ones will go nuts for the bargain-priced chicken satay ($6)—five slim skewers of grilled, flavor-drenched meat that seem scrawny until you bite into their goodness, served with a seriously yummy peanut sauce that tastes of more than chili-spiked Skippy. 11 Allen Street at Canal St (212-625-1163)

Yakitori
Temples dedicated to Japanese grilling send smoke signals through the city, luring Asian hipsters and all who wanna be. The East Village’s Oh! Taisho is one of the hottest, so go early if you want to go at all. Park hard-to-impress tweens at the bar, where they can watch skilled tori-adors maneuver skewers of shishamo (smelts) and motsu (beef guts) over leaping flames. For more familiar fare, order Yakitori “B”—two skewers each of beef, chicken, shrimp, chicken meatball and scallion ($13.50). The beef and chicken skewers are painted with a kid-thrilling elixir of soy, mirin and sugar, and the cloudlike chicken meatballs and charred salted scallions are a marvel. 9 St. Marks Pl between Second and Third Aves (212-673-1300)

A kebab by any other name…

• Anticucho (Peru)
• Brochette (France)
• Pincho (Spain)
• Satay (Southeast Asia)
• Shashlik (Russia)
• Souvlaki (Greece)
• Spiedini (Italy)
• Yakitori (Japan)

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