The Best Chain Restaurant Kids Menu Is A Picky Eater's Paradise

You'd be hard-pressed to find a mainstream restaurant without a kids menu, as leaving out the little ones is a risky idea for family-oriented eateries. Kids menus these days range widely, with some offering only a handful of token dishes, and others going all out with colorful stand-alone menus, coloring books, or puzzles. But not all restaurant chains stay current with family dining trends, especially when it comes to offering healthy, high-quality foods made to order rather than mass produced. Finding that kind of place takes some serious research.

Fortunately, we've gone in pursuit of that very thing, compiling Tasting Table's ranking of 12 Chain Restaurant Kids Menus. Many of the venues are familiar family favorites for dining out, including Chili's, Olive Garden, and the unfortunately disappointing Panera Bread. But the one landing in our top spot may come as a surprise, given the relatively small number of just 25 eateries in this chain, most located in New England. After considering factors such as eating preferences, food quality, affordability, healthy options, and the overall dining experience, we gave the number one kids menu ranking to Legal Sea Foods. (Coincidentally, Legal Sea Foods also took the top spot in our ranking of the best store-bought tartar sauces.) If your young folks aren't interested in seafood, no worries. The menu also features some good alternatives for picky eaters.

Any kids menu needs options that youngsters will actually eat. But other things contribute to that special feeling of eating out, which Legal Sea Foods seems to understand. First off, kids get to order in a way similar to adults, choosing a "first bite" appetizer, as well as one main and two sides. This gives young diners some choices while also learning how to interact with food and enjoy the restaurant experience. 

A big plus for this chain is the health-friendly menu items that kids tend to love. That's particularly evident with the first-bite choices, which include fruit cups, popcorn, or carrot sticks. Moving on to the main dishes, kids can opt for fried favorites such as popcorn shrimp, fish fingers, or chicken fingers. But there are grilled alternatives, for a slightly higher price, include grilled salmon, sirloin tips, and chicken breast. The sides feature seasonal veggies, fruit, jasmine rice, rice pilaf, coleslaw, and French fries. 

Fallback kiddie-menu items also make a notable showing on the Legal Sea Foods menu. We're talking hamburgers, grilled cheese and grilled chicken sandwiches, mac and cheese, and pasta with butter or red sauce. As far as prices, our Tasting Table ranking found that kids meals at this chain generally come with a higher price, but not by much, and that the higher food quality justifies the extra cost. Most meals on the children's menu currently run $10, or $12 to $13 for the grilled salmon and sirloin.