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- The best restaurants for kids give them something to do besides sitting still and waiting patiently.
- There are many kid-friendly restaurants around the country that actually have good food.
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Taking your children to public places can be hectic, overwhelming, and overstimulating. Even the most well-behaved child can have big feelings when faced with a single coloring page and a 15-minute wait for their nuggets and fries. Taking your family to restaurants that specifically cater to them, where they can be kids, make noise, and act their age takes so much pressure off of everyone and keeps tablets off the table.
For this list, we found some of the best, most interesting, and kid-friends restaurants around the country, so hopefully there is one close to where you live.
Here are the 12 best restaurants to bring kids to that will be an enjoyable experience for the whole family.
Why Are We Talking About This?
Children-friendly restaurants will always be popular, and the best ones tend to make large amounts of money. If you’re going to start one of your own, invest in one, or are jumping to the restaurant business in another way, then researching some of the best options is definitely in your best interest.
#1 Aquarium Restaurant
- Location: Denver, Co
- Kids Menu: Popcorn Shrimp, Chicken Tenders, Grilled Cheese, Pizza, Mac & Cheese
Have you ever dreamed of dining under the sea? Have you wondered if food tastes better down where it’s wetter? Wonder no more! Downtown Aquarium is a restaurant that surrounds a giant 50,000-gallon aquarium home to over 100 species of tropical fish from around the globe including nurse sharks, sting rays, white-tipped sharks, sea turtles, and even mermaids! Divers can visit the Downtown Aquarium where they can enjoy a fantastical mermaid aquatic show, stingray meet & greets, a shark cage experience, and even snorkeling!
#2 Rustler’s Rooste
- Locations: Phoenix, AZ
- Kid’s Menu: Chicken Fingers, Mac & Cheese, Cheeseburger
Rustler’s Rooste is one of the most unique restaurants in Phoenix. It is a cowboy steakhouse with a stunning view, live music, a general store, an indoor waterfall, and a giant slide into the dining room. The top floor is a saloon. Kids will love the giant slide and western décor. Birthdays come with a 9-layer cake, bandana, and cowboy hat. Adults can enjoy aged steak, ribs, burgers, seafood, and brisket!
#3 Pirate’s Dinner Adventure
- Locations: Orlando, FL & Orange County, CA
- Kid’s Menu: Pasta, Beef Tenderloin, Grilled Salmon, Chicken Nuggets
Pirate’s Dinner Adventure is a unique dining experience with a pirate show! It promises, “From the moment you arrive, you’ll be transported to a world of high-seas adventure and swashbuckling heroics.” The shows are live Broadway-style theater featuring stunts, interactive elements, acrobatics, and explosives. The kids will have a great time cheering, meeting, and even participating with their favorite pirates.
#4 The Airplane Restaurant
- Locations: Colorado Springs, Co
- Kid’s Menu: Chicken Tenders, Mac & Cheese, Cheese Burger
For the past 100 years, families and kids have loved dining inside an actual airplane! Diners can enjoy eating inside a fully intact Boeing KC-97 built in 1953. The restaurant features a bar, 2 separate dining areas, and tons of memorabilia that your little pilot will love to explore. Fare includes bison burgers, Angus steaks, seafood, pasta, salads, and sandwiches. Little pilots are invited to take a seat in the cockpit to try out their navigation skills.
#5 Casa Bonita Restaurant
- Locations: Lakewood, Colorado
- Kid’s Menu: Meatballs, Bean and Cheese Burrito, Chicken Tenders, Cheeseburger
Casa Bonita touts itself as, “the greatest restaurant in the world!” Step into an immersive Mexican-themed restaurant that features live theater, diving shows, mariachi bands, and cliffside dining. Yes, you read that right, cliffside dining! You will be amazed at the magical décor and atmosphere. Each ticket includes an entrée, chips, salsa, drink, and sopaipillas! You can also enjoy specialty cocktails, and authentic desserts, and explore Black Bart’s Mysterious Cave.
#6 Milk: The House of Cereal
- Location: Orlando, Fl
- Kid’s Menu: Cereal
This is quite possibly the manifestation of hundreds of children’s wildest dreams come true. An emporium filled to the brim with sugary, crunchy, manufactured goodness! Some might call cereal the cornerstone of the United States. Maybe not everyone, but some.
Milk is especially good because the cost per person of this unique all-you-can-eat dining experience is only $5. Your journey starts with choosing a cereal base from over 100 different varieties of cereal, even some that have been discontinued. You can then add toppings including sprinkles, chocolate chips, candy, and others. Guests then choose a milk flavor, shake their milk to mix, and add it to their creation. Do your kids have sensitive tummies? Have no fear! This cereal bar has dietary options including dairy and gluten-free! The best part of the bar is that you only have to pay the $5 entrance price and then you can keep coming back for more all day long.
#7 The Hangout
- Locations: Alabama
- Kid’s Menu: Popcorn Shrimp, Corn Dog, Mac & Cheese, Chicken Tenders, Hamburger
This seafood restaurant includes live music, hourly foam parties, dancing, yard games, fire pits, beach access, collection walls, hula hoops, themed breakfasts, and their One Stop Fun Shop. Other activities they offer diners are hourly birthday celebrations, a Beach Bash Competition, and Holiday events.
#8 Little Kitchen Academy
- Locations: Multiple Locations
- Kid’s Menu: Various
The Little Kitchen Academy is a restaurant with a twist. At this place, the tables are turned and the kids get to be the chefs! Little Kitchen Academy offers 3-hour Montessori-based classes for ages 3–18. These classes help them gain confidence, practical life skills, and independence. At the end of the lessons, everyone gathers around the community table. Parents are shocked at their children’s skills when they bring them to Little Kitchen Academy! The best part is that there are 17 locations across Canada and the US, so there isn’t one far away from any little soon-to-be chef!
#9 Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant
- Locations: Kansas, Missouri
- Kid’s Menu: Hamburger, Chicken Nuggets, Grilled Cheese, Hot Dog
Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant is a restaurant unlike any other! Your little conductors will experience a lifetime when they order their meals through a telephone, and it’s delivered via overhead model train! The restaurant-wide railroad will deliver their food down via the elevator system.
The fun doesn’t stop there! Each kids’ meal comes with an engineer hat, French fries, and a drink! For adult engineers, Fritz’s offers their famous hamburgers (17 different kinds), sandwiches, and desserts! Oh, don’t forget the root beer floats!
#10 Green Jeans Food Hall
- Locations: Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Kid’s Menu: Multiple Menus
Do your kids argue in the car about where to eat? The excruciating feeling of traveling all the way to Albuquerque, experiencing all of the regular travel inconveniences and annoyances in addition to hangry fighting in the back seat. Take a painkiller and relax! Green Jeans Farmery is the place for your family!
Green Jeans Farmery is an eatery made entirely from brightly colored shipping containers surrounding an outdoor courtyard, The patio is where there are tables, a fire, and yard games! It also has an indoor lounge, kid zone, and arcade where the little ones can play while you grab a beer from the taphouse. Some of the offerings you will find there include hot dogs, pizza, tacos, burritos, pho, cannabis, coffee, ice cream, and other local vendors. Gathering spot, eatery, playground- this spot has it all! It even has events like beer yoga, live music, nerd night, trivia, animal adoption, and more.
#11 T-Rex Café
- Locations: Disney Springs, Lake Buena Vista, Florida
- Kid’s Menu: Sliders, Corn Dog, Pasta, Shrimp, Pizza, Grilled Fish, and Grilled Chicken
When you walk through the doors of the T-Rex Café, you will be transported back in time millions of years. Voted one of the best restaurants at Disney Springs, the T-Rex Café is sure to not disappoint. Filled with animatronics, unique dining areas, special immersive effects, aquariums, fossils, and areas themed after the elements (earth, water, and fire). Besides hosting parties and events, you can also take an interactive educational tour to learn all about the featured dinosaurs and brush off your archeologic skills. Finish the tour off with a special Expedition Survival Lunch, and you can even upgrade your experience with a character cup and a survivor’s pack.
The adult menu features foods like Caesar-Saurus Salad, Prehistoric Pasta, Tar Pit Fried Shrimp, Boneyard Buffet, and Meteor Meatloaf. It also has a selection of desserts and sides such as the Abrictosaurus Apple Crisp, Chocolate Extinction, and Raptor Rice.
#12 La Bella Princess Café
- Location: Verona, NJ
- Kid’s Menu: Rainbow Grilled Cheese, Cheese Pizza, Royal Cake Pops, Croffles (Croissant-Waffles), Cream Puffs
La Bella Princess Café is a magical place where you can escape the demands of everyday life and step into a world of magic and wonder. Since 2003, La Bella Princess Café has been entertaining little guests with narrative-driven experiences with princesses, villains, knights, and even superheroes. Enjoy an enchanted teatime with your child’s favorite characters like Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Mirabel, Wednesday Adams, Dorothy, and even “Swiftie Pop Star!”
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