London’s best family-friendly restaurants: top places to eat with the kids

Eating out with children can be a challenge, but these restaurants make it easy, and without sacrificing on the food
Tea time: Fallow doesn’t compromise on kids’ meals
Fallow
Lucy Tobin27 June 2023

Whether you’re looking to avoid the mess of a family kitchen, or want a special meal out with family, London is packed with child-friendly restaurants.

Yes, some do still hand out well-fingered, laminated sheets advertising an array of breadcrumbed fish and chicken and dull pesto pasta. But many now appreciate that kids will eat more adventurously if they’re offered the chance, and parents prefer not to spend hard-earned cash on something they can pour out of a packet and onto an oven tray themselves at home.

But where in London is best for adults and kids to eat out together? I spent a very enjoyable month taking my three children — aged seven, five and two, and with varying levels of fussiness and appreciation for a nice white tablecloth — out to some of the capital’s most famously child-friendly restaurants. You won’t find any snooty waiters or boring meals here.

Fallow

Fallow

Fallow came up trumps as the most-welcoming foodie spot for families. Walking in with three hungry under-sevens, the maitre d’ made the children the bosses, offering them a central table (no shoving the families in a loo-side setting here) so they could watch the busy chefs in the open kitchen. They were immediately given a children’s menu (made of recycled seaweed) with proper food options, including smaller (but far from stingy) portions of Fallow’s famous corn ribs and smoked beef ribs or pizza (for a very reasonable fiver). Larger mains or older kids’ portions of sausages, grilled fish, cheeseburger or plant burger (£10) were served with excellent fries, greens or salad.

We grown-ups chowed down on Fallow’s typically excellent Sunday roast, plus mushroom parfait and confit smoked cabbage, while the waiters gave the kids a tour of their mushroom-growing room (the wholesome variety, of course) and even let my chattiest child be a waiter for a round of service calls from the chefs. Fallow’s food was faultless and the friendly, family-loving vibe made Sunday lunch experience all the tastier.

Kids’ menu from £5

Fallow, 52 Haymarket, St. James’s, SW1Y 4RP, fallowrestaurant.com

Where The Pancakes Are

Where The Pancakes Are

Here’s a place to please even the pickiest kids. This three-branch chain (in Battersea, Fitzrovia and London Bridge) focuses on every child’s favourite breakfast dish: pancakes. It makes them excellent ones (the buttermilk batter involves 12 ingredients, which is none more than my bleary-eyed Sunday morning affair). Then it offers a load of topping choices (choose three out of mixed fruit, berry compote, beans, avocado, halloumi, eggs, sausage, bacon or maple syrup,) and serves it all up for £6.50. The service was a little haphazard, but our kids were happy to be offered copies of Where the Wild Things Are on arrival, which helped ease the wait. Special children’s cutlery (and takeaway boxes for leftovers) were appreciated too. The grown-ups were happy with plates pretty enough for a phone-eats-first approach (Instagram was hungry) before gobbling down a “boulder breakfast” (pancakes plus avocado, herby salsa, tahini, chickpeas and more). A very tasty, family-friendly any-time breakfast.

Kids’ menu from £6.50

Where The Pancakes Are, multiple locations, wherethepancakesare.com

Pastaio

Handout

Every parent knows that pasta is the answer that almost every toddler, tween or teenager wants to the question “what’s for supper?” At Pastaio, it’ll be among the best pasta you’ll all have had, it’ll come quickly, the kids will learn how it’s actually made thanks to the fast-paced open kitchen (all the pasta is made on-site daily), and the children’s menu is especially good value. So families should run, not walk to this packed Carnaby stalwart (book to avoid a waiting-list tantrum). The children’s menu (£6) includes a very generous portion of favourites from the main menu — the lip-smacking, slow-cooked spaghetti bolognese, or tomato radiatori — or a more simple butter and parmesan dish. There’s also a beautiful little plate of vegetables on the side, and fresh sorbets and ice cream for dessert. Simple, delicious, family-friendly excellence (and Hamley’s is a few steps away afterwards).

Kids’ menu from £6

Pastaio, 19 Ganton St, Carnaby, W1F 9BN, pastaio.co.uk

Benihana

Benihana

This Japanese teppanyaki restaurant might have lost some of its original wow factor now it’s been in the UK for almost 40 years, but we had a fantastic experience at the Chelsea branch. You’ll want to make sure your children are old enough (or just calm enough) to listen to instructions — the chef prepares meals on a super-hot metal grill just in front of where you sit — but my three young kids were transfixed by the ‘hibachi’-style theatrical cooking. The chef slices, dices and flips meat in the air in front of you, turning beansprouts into a beating heart, onion rings into a steam train, making a Mickey Mouse out of rice, and lighting a fire to transform veg into a steaming volcano. Even noisy kids won’t need an iPad babysitter here — the children’s “Ninja Menu” (with activities including a maze, sudoku and story about Japanese children’s Daruma dolls) turns into a chef-style hat. Lunch includes lots of courses to keep them interested, from onion soup and sushi, followed by chicken, prawn or steak on the grill, and there’s rice, hibachi vegetables on the side, and ice cream dessert. Kids mocktails wowed too, with old-school umbrellas and options including a Shirley Temple.

Kids menu £12-18, depending on meat choices

Benihana Chelsea, 77 King’s Rd, SW3 4NX, benihanainternational.com/locations/chelsea

Duck & Waffle

Duck & Waffle

Not a traditional family-friendly restaurant — there isn’t even a children’s menu — but anywhere with waffles on the menu will go down a treat and grown-ups and kids alike will love peering down at the mini London 40 storeys below your table. Go for a booth to give the children plenty of room to spread out. We found the waiters and chefs were all very friendly to families, bringing the kids’ meals first and proactively suggesting a swap out of spicy sauces for gentler alternatives. My fussy three-year-old wasn’t up for the amazing signature crispy duck and waffle, and the waiter instead asked her favourite things and made a little plate up of salmon, waffle and egg — no need for a kids’ menu with service like that. He also topped us up with endless napkins because it turns out waffles oozing with homemade hazelnut and chocolate spread and peanut crunch on the weekend brunch dessert menu are a little bit messy. For a special occasion with a view, families will love Duck and Waffle, from the zooming up lift at the start to the delicious finish.

110 Bishopsgate, EC2N 4AY, duckandwaffle.com

The Kids Table at The Alliance

The Kids Table

For those meals when you want to actually catch up with friends or talk to your partner rather than bow to colouring demands or have Peppa Pig blaring out an iPad, families need to know about The Kids Table. It’s a free service that two mum entrepreneurs have rolled out in dozens of pubs, food markets and restaurants around London, which for certain meals each week host a large table of crafts, colouring and games, properly staffed by two, DBS-checked and kid-loving supervisors. It’s well organised, with children being given bracelets with their parents’ phone numbers on. Mine — aged 8, 6 and 3 — all settled down at the art table while we enjoyed the very friendly service and excellent cocktails (go for the tequila-fuelled Paloma) at the buzzy Alliance. It was Sunday so we all opted for roasts — both the adults’ option and the kids’ £9 roasts were huge with lots of veggies alongside beef, chicken, pork or lentils with walnut and apricot. Other children’s options included pasta, chicken chipolatas and fish. Don’t miss the deliciously creamy Eton Mess for dessert. The Kids Table is at 35 London venues including Boxpark, Smith and Wollensky, and Davy’s Wine Vaults.

Kids’ roast £9

The Kids Table, multiple locations, thekidstable.co.uk

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