Lunch Adventure Madison Children’s Museum

Sometimes we find ourselves in odd places where a bowl of fresh fruit isn’t available, and situational constraints require creative action to avoid eating out of a vending machine. Other times we just need to escape the stuffy confines of traditional restaurant dining, so we embark on Lunch Adventures.

Madison Children’s Museum (100 N. Hamilton St., 608-256-6445)

Why you’re really there: The brilliantly conceived, long-in-the-making, new Madison Children’s Museum delivers a potent buzz to kids and adults through a stunning array of visual and tactile stimuli. A series of ingeniously devised and amazingly out-there installations like Suessian Solla Sollew-esque climbing structures and dinosaur bone-like bridges give way to banks of vintage Ampex reel-to-reel tape machines, optical scanners for examining boxes of feathers and fabric, automated Lego dioramas, and window-painting stations. With all of that going on, the rascals are running amok and have no intention of leaving. But sooner or later, everyone’s going to get hungry and snacks will be needed.

You won’t find this in most restaurants: A controlled liquid vortex is atypical in the average eatery, but just a few feet away from the Bean Sprouts Cafe’s second location (embedded on the first floor of the museum) a gigantic, Rube Goldberg-type water fountain/contraption allows kids to direct the movement of red rubber balls by aiming spigots of water, which coalesce in a seven-foot high waterspout. Beware, though, as it tends to get splashy.

Delightful discovery: Lollipops made of cake and dolphin-shaped cookies with chocolate chip eyes are nice to look at and fun to eat. But they are also made to be easy on the system. It turns out everything here is healthy—from the “wheat ’za” to the turkey or tofu “bunchkin burgers.”

Signature selection: The chicken salad with mustard, sweet red bell pepper, and herbs is very tasty, though the pita bread that comes with it has roughly the consistency and taste of cardboard. But again, it’s healthy.

Chance of a return visit: For any parent in the area who has a clue, the chance of a return visit is high. This place is a Mecca for creative kids, and all that creativity requires solid protein bursts of food fuel to keep kids’ mental plates spinning. And really, any excuse for an impromptu drumming session in the nook filled with percussion gear will do.