Most locals tend to eat in the neighbourhoods, not in the tourist area (Front St near the CN Tower, where most restaurants are chains.
Check out the active Toronto board at Chowhound, and do a search, using "family" or "kids", and plenty of non-chain restaurants will come up. http://chowhound.chow.com/boards/23
What types of food does your family like, and how much are you willing to pay per person?
Off the top of my head, most Greek restaurants on the Danforth (traditionally the Greek neighbourhood) are family friendly (Megas, Mezes, Pantheon, Kalyvia, and many more), and there's a greasy spoon named Detroit Eatery that serves a decent breakfast.
Most Italian restaurants are family friendly, and quite a few are popular with locals. Terroni has several locations, and serves decent pizza and pasta. Queen Margherita serves flatcrust Neapolitan pizza in Leslieville, a popular neighbourhood with lots of young families, on Queen East. Marcello's is a family friendly Italian resto on the Corso Italia on St Clair West (an Italian neighbourhood), and La Paloma gelato is a short walk away.
Most Chinatown restaurants are family friendly (Spadina and Dundas)- Rol San is popular for dim sum, and Swatow and Lee Garden are popular for dinner. If you want to drive north, even better food can be found near Hwy 7. In particular, I like Northern Dumpling Kitchen and John's BBQ Restaurant.
Tabule and Jerusalem are good for middleeastern food.
Khao San Road on Adelaide is good for Thai food, and at lunch (Mon-Sat), there's less likely to be a wait. They also take reservations.
The Patrician Grill (King St East downtown) and Goodbite (Yonge and Eglinton) are popular for bacon & egg type breakfasts. I like their Greek (feta & tomato) omelettes.
Let us know what kind of food you want to eat, and how much you're prepared to spend, and definitely do a search on this forum and Chowhound! ;-)
Edited: 12 years ago