Dining out: Pirate Island great for kids, matey

ST. GEORGE — Today, I won't be reviewing a restaurant as much as I'll be analyzing an experience.

I usually avoid reviewing "theme" restaurants in this space, simply because the food is almost always secondary to whatever else the place has going on — cliff divers, vintage guitars, showbiz memorabilia, singing waitresses, whatever.

However, I was recently forced to soften my stance, just a little, as our family spent an evening in St. George on the way to a vacation in Los Angeles. In a visitors' guide we'd seen many of the enticing-looking restaurants the city has to offer, using local ingredients and boasting beautiful views of St. George's red rocks.

But come on. I have four kids — which one of these places would welcome them? Or give us a meal at a price our average family of six can realistically afford?

So we went with another place that grabbed the kids' attention the second they saw it in the guide: Utah-grown theme restaurant Pirate Island, which opened a second location in Orem last year.

Eating at Pirate Island is like dining inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, minus the musty water smell. You walk into what seems to be a pirate's cave festooned with treasure chests overflowing with gold, huge tall-masted ships emerging from the walls, palm trees and the skeletons of scalawags who lost the fight for all that booty.

Sure, it's all fake. Sure, the repeated "arrs" on the menu get a little cloying, Sure, there's an arcade and a gift shop peeking out from various grottoes. But take the family and you'll discover something else: It's really fun watching kids enjoy Pirate Island, and not just during the "pirate battles" that erupt every half-hour or so.

And guess what, adults? Though the food isn't going to set the world on fire, it is possible to get a tasty meal at a reasonable price, and the many distractions for the small fry mean adults have plenty of time to chat.

Our three younger kids ordered off the kids' menu, two of them going with the personal-size pizza and one with the Kraft-style mac and cheese. I wish we'd had our two youngest ones share a personal pizza — two slices was plenty of food for each of them, especially after they had one of the twisty, crusty garlic breadsticks we ordered as an appetizer.

The pizza's crust was nice and crisp-chewy, if a little bland, but it was a nice foil for some of the more strongly flavored pizza combinations, like my oldest daughter's surprisingly bold chicken Alfredo pizza (called "The Royal Fortune" on the menu) with marinated artichoke hearts.