Christopher Schmidt

This evening, I dined at Full Moon, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This restaurant is a diversion from most of my experiences eating out, and a pleasant one. The food was top rate, the atomsphere was perfect, and the staff was helpful and friendly.

Full Moon is not your typical restaurant. A former fusion restaurant, it closed due to lack of business, and reopened with a wide pallette of interesting dishes and an unusual twist: It's extremely kids oriented. You wouldn't know it from the outside: It looks much like your standard Bisto/cafe style dining experience, right down to the abstract art on the walls. Once you take more than a few steps in, however, you'll realize this is no typical restaurant.

In the corner is a full play area: Tabletop brio set, stuffed animals and dolls, 4 foot high dollhouse, and a full set of hats that would put the Village People to shame. The tables are covered with plain white paper, and adorned with crayons for coloring on it. Silverware is at the table - napkins available upon request. After choosing the "Fried Chicken Tenderloin" (aka Chicken Fingers), the kids ran off to play, Alicia coming back several times to let us know how things were going, and in one case to show off her Viking hat. Julie wandered and showed the toys she found to the other kids there - and almost all the tables were full of kids, 2-3 per family.

The food, although varied and really, quite odd, was delicious. Kristan had Salmon Pizza, I had a great nachos plate (which was probably an appetizer rather than an entree, but it fed me and that's enough for me), and Jess had a BBQ Chicken meal. All the food was good, in healthy sized portions that didn't leave anyone hungry.

One of the best parts of the whole meal was the dessert in my opinion: Gigantic cookies, tasty chocolate pudding cake, and amazing vanilla ice cream can really hit the spot after a good meal, and I really think that it's a top to a great evening.

The hours are short for adults, but perfect for kids (closing at 9), and although the location isn't great (about a 2 mile walk from Harvard Square) there is a bus route that runs right in front of it. The whole experience was great, and I would highly recommend it for anyone with kids. Childfree, however, should steer clear: this is a very kid-friendly place, to the extent that talking and so on is limited by the children running around and playing. If you don't like children, this isn't the place for you: it's a family location, and it is very clear from the second you walk in the door.

Additional photos (though not very many) in the Full Moon (Sep 16) set on Flickr.