Birthday Dinner Suggestion - 4 year old?

OK, my son is about to turn a BIG 4 years old on July 3rd. We'll be throwing him his party the weekend after as most people are out of town during the 4th of July weekend.
My wife and I would like to take him out to a simple dinner and would like to go somewhere "kid" friendly. We've thought of going to places like Chuck E. Cheese pizza, but that place is always a mad house and I'll be dealing with a mad house the following week?!?!?! I was just thinking of places like Chevy's (Mexican food) as they go all out in singing some type of birthday song and they give the celebrant a "sombrero". Sounds perfect! Except my son isn't too keen on Chevy's Child's menu.
Can anyone give me an simple/inexpensive, but fun suggestion for going out to dinner?

My kids (10, 8, and almost 4) prefer Denny's for some
strange reason. Mostly because they love breakfast food
and can get pancakes and bacon any time of day there.

Greg

Most kids would like anyplace that has some sugar and conventional snack foods - pizza, stuff like that. Having some fun stuff around would be a good idea, too, maybe a Magic Mountain or something like that, with GoKarts or PuttPutt. .

For some reason, my son likes it when a bunch of waiters and waitresses gather around to sing Happy Birthday? I'm really not looking for an after dinner event, but more of a cool place to eat that makes a big deal over a birthday party (for a few minutes).

Thanks!

In that case your best bet may be to phone a bunch
of local restaraunts and ask them what the do. In
my city some of the best birthday fuss happens at
non-chain/small-chain restaraunts. (Ones that try to
promote a fun atmosphere.)

Greg

My kids (7, 5, 3, 1) love to go to a McDonald's or Burger King with an indoor "playplace". In fact, when my daughter turned 5 she declined a birthday party and asked to go to the BK playplace instead.

The kids are happy because they get to eat junky chicken fingers and fries, get unlimited drink refills with the dine-in order, and play until they're ready to pass out from exhaustion or puke. Mom and Dad are happy because it's inexpensive, and we get to sit down and talk like human beings for a while in an environment that's relatively safe for the kids to roughhouse. (And the BK salads are not too bad...)

The kids also like buffet-style restaurants, since they get to pick what they want to eat for a change. Mom and Dad like not having to deal with kids screaming for food/juice/whatever while Dad tries to flag down a waiter.

Anywhere you can fit the Spider-Man loot. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I gotta agree about the Chuck-E-Cheese being a madhouse, and although I like the tubes idea I don't like that there's so much space where the kids can't be seen at all. (I've got 3 boys of my own to track when we're there.)

The food's not great, but acceptable & if you want to go out... Rainforest Cafe?