Baby Bentos include grilled organic chicken, steak or salmon, served with purple Peruvian mashed potatoes, nori-wrapped rice-and-veggie rolls and seasonal fruit skewers.

Instead, children chowed on choices such as the Baby Bento, grilled organic chicken, steak or salmon served with purple Peruvian mashed potatoes, nori-wrapped rice-and-veggie rolls and seasonal fruit skewers. They noshed on Anticuchos—Brazilian-style seasoned organic chicken, beef, shrimp or vegetable skewers—served with “jumbo” corn on the cob (kidspeak for large-kernel Peruvian corn cob-ettes) and more seasonal fruit. And they washed it all down with kiddie cocktails full of fruit and juices.

The parents that came along were impressed that their kids liked the healthful dishes and that a place as adult-oriented as New York-based Sushi Samba would make the effort to create family-friendly offerings.

Six-unit Sushi Samba has carved a niche for itself as both a quality fusion-food purveyor of Japanese, Peruvian and Brazilian dishes, and a nighttime hot spot for creative cocktails and dancing. So serving kid food is an unusual move. But Sushi Samba co-owner Danielle Billera, who has two young children of her own, says the idea makes sense. “During the day, we felt offering options that appealed to families would bring in a group that is underserved,” Billera says. “There are so few places to go that appeal to adults at the same time they offer healthful alternatives for children.”

Sushi Samba launched the kids menu in April at its Dallas unit and in July at its New York, Chicago and Miami stores. While it's too soon to give definitive traffic reports, Public Relations Director Joanna Cisowska says anecdotally that the kids menu has increased the number of families that are dining at lunch. “And we are already getting some repeat customers, purely because of the kids menu,” she says. So far, the Chicago and Miami restaurants are seeing the most family business.

The menu lets kids choose one of five entrees and one of two desserts for $12. In addition to the Baby Bento and the Anticuchos, other adventurous dishes include buckwheat udon noodles with cherry tomatoes and grilled organic chicken, and Sushi Bites—rice balls topped with sushi-grade tuna, yellowtail, salmon and cucumber, and served with a nori-wrapped rice-and-vegetable roll and fruit. Samba Slider mini burgers come with sweet potato fries and fruit. “Each Samba Kids meal was designed to be fun, tasty and healthy,” says Cisowska.

The Samba Sundae is the best-selling dessert.

Five-dollar kiddie cocktails include the best-selling Watermelon Mojo with watermelon, lime and guava juice. Coco Leite mixes coconut milk, pineapple juice and mango juice. There's also the Blueberry Splash, muddled blueberries, guava and lime juice, and the Berry Fizz, muddled raspberries and blackberries, lime juice and soda. Although these may seem like pricey options, Cisowska estimates that about half of the kids ordering Samba Kids meals also order a kiddie cocktail.

Creating the dishes, Corporate Chef Michael Cressotti and Corporate Sushi Chef Koji Kagawa worked with what they already had on the adult menu, a decision that reduced the cost of doing a kids menu. “We worked with ingredients we already had in our inventory and just modified recipes for spice, composition and presentation,” says Cressotti.

While adult plates might not have all food groups represented, kids meals do. “Protein, vegetable, fruit, starch…the trick was making each Samba Kid meal healthy, tasty and something that children would enjoy,” he says.

Making each dish easy to handle was also key. Putting the meat and fruit on skewers, for example, makes for a pretty and finger-friendly presentation. Nori-wrapped rice-and-veggie rolls, sliders and sweet potato fries are also finger foods.

Management tested the menu at Sushi Samba's 7th Avenue New York location in March with the local soccer team it sponsors. Soccer team members and their siblings, all West Village kids between the ages of 5 and 10, gave feedback on presentation, taste and originality, using a five-star rating system. Of the entrees, kids gave most stars to the Baby Bentos and Sliders, but they also liked the Anticuchos and Sushi Bites. “Kids' feedback showed that some of the dishes had too much flavor or spice, so we toned that down,” Cressotti says. One of the drinks, a blueberry concoction, didn't score well, so it was reformulated to become the Blueberry Splash.

Sushi Samba asked parents for their perspective on the new dishes, quizzed them on allergy concerns and asked what dishes kids liked most at home.

Adding marketing moxie to the kids menu move, Sushi Samba has also been working with Miami-based Brazilian pop artist Romero Britto to produce brightly decorated Britto Bento boxes, placemats and kids chopsticks that will be available with the kids meals starting in December. (Guests will be able to purchase the boxes separately from the kids meals, as well. No price has yet been set for the boxes.) For each Britto Bento box sold, Sushi Samba will donate 5 percent of the proceeds to the Britto Foundation, which funds art, cultural and literacy programs for underprivileged youth in Brazil.

Initially, there were a lot of skeptics within Sushi Samba's hierarchy about launching a kids menu at all. “We're so much about flash and volume and sex appeal, some of the management just thought it wouldn't work,” Cisowska says. “Now managers are saying, 'Hey, this was a great idea.'”