Kids Menu Guide for Restaurants: What to Serve, How to Price It, and the Drink Laws

A kids menu is the short list of child-sized dishes, sides and drinks that a restaurant offers to guests up to about 10 or 12 years old, usually at a lower set price. For an operator, a good kids menu is 4 to 6 mains that children recognise, a fruit or vegetable side, water or milk as the default drink, and a price built from real plate cost.

This guide is written for restaurant and cafe owners building or fixing a kids menu, not for parents looking up a chain’s menu. It covers kids menu ideas that work in a real kitchen, healthier swaps, pricing models including “kids eat free”, the US laws that set default drinks for children’s meals, California’s new rules for chains, allergens, menu design and three sample menus.

What is a kids menu?

A kids menu, also called a children’s menu, is a separate section or card with smaller portions of simple dishes for young guests, often bundled with a side and a drink at one price. Most restaurants set an age limit of 10 or 12 and under, keep it to a handful of mains, and use it to make families comfortable choosing them.

The format matters more than its size suggests. When a family decides where to eat, the children’s options are often the deciding factor, and a kids menu that looks like an afterthought (three fried items and a soda) signals the same about the rest of the experience. A kids menu that offers a real choice, including a smaller version of a grown-up dish, tells parents the kitchen thought about them.

It is also the part of the menu with the most regulation attached. Several US states and cities now control which drink can come with a children’s meal by default, and California has just added nutrition standards for large chains. Those rules are covered below, because almost none of the kids menu guides that rank today mention them.

What should you put on a kids menu?

A restaurant kids menu should have 4 to 6 mains, 2 or 3 sides with at least one fruit or vegetable, a default drink of water or milk, and one dessert at most. Pick dishes your line already makes, in smaller portions, so the kids menu adds no new prep and no new waste.

Familiar food sells: chicken tenders, buttered or tomato pasta, a small burger, grilled cheese, cheese pizza and quesadillas show up on most children’s menus for a reason. The useful question is not whether to include them but how to make them work for your kitchen and for parents who want something better than fried-with-fries.

Two principles keep the list practical. First, borrow from the main menu: a slider from your burger, a half portion of your pasta, plain grilled fish from your seafood dish. Second, make the side the place where you add colour, because swapping the side changes the meal more than swapping the main.

Classic kids menu item	Healthier swap that still sells	Kitchen note
Fried chicken tenders	Grilled or oven-baked chicken strips	Same protein, different cook method
Mac and cheese	Pasta with tomato sauce or butter and parmesan	Uses the main menu’s pasta station
Cheeseburger with fries	Slider on a whole-grain bun with fruit cup	Portion the adult patty
Grilled cheese	Grilled cheese with tomato soup cup	Soup is already on the line
Cheese pizza	Personal pizza with a vegetable topping option	Same dough ball, smaller
French fries (default side)	Fruit cup, carrot sticks or steamed vegetables	Offer fries on request
Soda (default drink)	Water, milk or a small 100% juice	Required by law in some places

A peer-reviewed study of default children’s combo meals at 26 restaurant chains found that the drink and the side were where the biggest calorie and sugar savings came from. In Dunn and colleagues’ 2020 study in Public Health Nutrition, switching the default beverage cut about 100 calories and 20 grams of sugar from the meal, and only 3% of the meals met guidelines for all nutrients.

Which laws set the default drink in a kids meal?

Several US states, cities and counties require a healthy default beverage in children’s meals: if a kids meal comes with a drink at one price, that drink must be water, milk or, in some places, a small 100% juice. California, Hawaii, Delaware and Illinois have statewide laws; Baltimore, New York City and Maryland counties have local ones.

The laws share a structure. They apply to a “children’s meal” sold as a bundle with a drink at a single price, they set which drinks may be the default, and they do not stop a parent from asking for something else. California’s law, for example, does not prohibit a restaurant from selling, or a customer from buying, a different beverage on request.

The details differ by place, and that matters if you print one menu for several locations. A 2024 study in AJPM Focus by Powell and colleagues lists the statewide laws with their effective dates and notes California has the most restrictive law, allowing no flavoured milk or 100% juice as defaults. The same study found that 85% of state and local healthy kids’ meal laws specify penalties for violations.

Jurisdiction	In force since	What can be the default drink
California (Health & Safety Code §114379.20, SB 1192)	January 1, 2019	Water (plain, sparkling or unsweetened flavoured), unflavoured milk or a non-dairy alternative. No juice
Hawaii (HRS §321-30.3)	January 1, 2020	Water, low-fat or nonfat milk, non-dairy equivalent, or 100% juice, with size limits
Delaware (16 Del. C. §140B)	July 17, 2020	Water, milk, or 100% juice, with size limits
Illinois (410 ILCS 620/21.5)	January 1, 2022	Water, low-fat or nonfat milk, non-dairy milk, or unsweetened juice up to 8 oz
Baltimore City	July 18, 2018	Water, milk, or 100% fruit juice
New York City	Local law passed 2019	Water, sparkling or flavoured water, nonfat or 1% milk, non-dairy milk, or 100% juice
Montgomery County, MD	March 15, 2023	Water or sparkling water; up to 8 oz unflavoured nonfat or 1% milk; up to 8 oz 100% juice

Maryland has no statewide law: the Maryland rules are local, in Baltimore City and Montgomery County, and public-health advocates report similar ordinances in Prince George’s and Charles counties. Wilmington, Delaware, passed its own ordinance before the state law took effect. Check your city and county health department, not only the state, because local rules can be stricter.

What the drink laws mean for your menu

For an operator, the practical rule is simple: wherever a kids meal is shown with a drink, show water or milk as the drink. Compliance research suggests online and app menus are where restaurants slip, because the printed menu gets updated and the ordering screen does not. If your QR or online menu lists “kids meal with soda”, change the default there first.

What is California’s SB 977 and does it apply to you?

California’s SB 977, signed by the Governor on September 28, 2026 as Chapter 724, requires chain restaurants with 20 or more locations under the same name to offer at least one children’s meal that meets nutrition standards. Independent restaurants and small groups below that threshold are not covered.

According to the bill text on the California Legislative Information site, the qualifying children’s meal can contain no more than 550 calories, 700 milligrams of sodium, 10% of calories from saturated fat, 15 grams of added sugar and zero grams of trans fat, and must include at least two servings from fruit, vegetables, dairy, protein or whole grains. The bill sets July 1, 2027 as the deadline for its employee training requirement.

Most readers of this guide run one to five locations, so SB 977 is a signal rather than an obligation. It follows the same direction as local laws such as Montgomery County’s healthy children’s meal rule, which since September 15, 2023 has defined a healthy kids meal as no more than 600 calories and 700 milligrams of sodium. If you want a benchmark for one “better choice” kids meal, those two sets of numbers are the clearest public ones available.

How big should kids menu portions be?

There is no federal standard for the size of a restaurant kids meal. The closest public benchmarks are local and state rules: Montgomery County caps a healthy kids meal at 600 calories and 700 mg of sodium, and California’s SB 977 sets 550 calories for the chain meal it requires. Most operators simply serve about half an adult portion.

Nutrition guidance for children is written for daily intake at home, not for one restaurant plate, so be careful about converting it into portion rules. What the evidence does support is offering smaller versions of adult dishes. In a CDC-led survey of parents published in Clinical Nutrition Research (2018), about 70% of parents said they would prefer restaurants to offer smaller, lower-priced child portions of all menu items, and the top reason was wanting their child to eat healthier foods that were not on the children’s menu.

That makes a “half portion of any main” line one of the most useful additions to a kids menu. It costs the kitchen nothing new, it answers the most common complaint from parents, and it moves children toward the dishes the restaurant is actually proud of.

The National Restaurant Association runs a voluntary program built on the same idea. Restaurants in Kids LiveWell offer at least two meals and two sides analysed by registered dietitians and commit to a default beverage policy that puts water, milk and juice first, with other drinks available on request. Participation is free, and certification runs through the program’s dietitian partner.

How do you price a kids menu?

Price a kids menu from plate cost, the same way as the rest of the menu: add up the cost of the main, side and drink, divide by your target food-cost percentage, and round. There is no trustworthy industry benchmark for kids meal prices, so build your own number rather than copying a competitor’s.

Five pricing models are common, and many restaurants combine two:

1. Flat bundle price. Main, side and drink at one price. Simple for parents, and the format the default-drink laws apply to.
2. À la carte kids portions. Each item priced separately. More flexible, but slower to order.
3. Half portion of adult mains. Priced at a fixed share of the adult price. Fits what parents in the CDC survey asked for.
4. “Kids eat free” with conditions. One free kids meal per paid adult entrée, often limited to a day, an age and dine-in. Metro Diner’s offer, for example, runs on Wednesdays from 2 p.m. to close for children 10 and under, one free kids meal per adult entrée.
5. Kids meal as part of a family bundle. Useful for takeout and holiday orders.

A worked example, with illustrative numbers rather than benchmarks: a kids pasta plate costs $1.10 in pasta and sauce, $0.60 for a fruit cup, and $0.30 for milk, so $2.00 in total. At a 30% food-cost target, $2.00 ÷ 0.30 = $6.67, rounded to $6.95 or $7. For context, the National Restaurant Association reports that in 2024 food and non-alcoholic beverage costs ran at a median of 32.4% of sales at limited-service restaurants and 32.0% at full-service restaurants, according to its Restaurant Economic Insights analysis. For the full method, see our guide on how to price a restaurant menu.

Healthier does not have to mean pricier. A study of 75 full-service chains published by the CDC’s Preventing Chronic Disease journal in 2013 found more healthful children’s entrées were not more expensive than less healthful ones. The data is old, but the logic holds: grilled chicken and steamed vegetables cost about the same as fried chicken and fries.

How should you handle allergens on a kids menu?

Parents ask about allergens on the kids menu before anything else, so mark the common ones next to each dish and train staff to answer. The FDA lists nine major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame, which was added as the ninth from January 1, 2023.

According to the FDA’s food allergies page, sesame became a major allergen under the FASTER Act, signed on April 23, 2021, with the change taking effect at the start of 2023. Federal labeling rules apply to packaged food, not to restaurant menus, so there is no federal requirement to print allergens on your kids menu. The FDA Food Code, which states adopt, does expect staff training on the major allergens, and some states and cities add menu notices of their own.

The kids section is where marking allergens pays off most. Most classic kids dishes contain wheat, milk or eggs, and a parent managing a child’s allergy will often order from the adult menu instead if the kids menu gives them no information. A short legend (for example “contains: milk, wheat”) next to each item, plus a line asking guests to tell staff about allergies, covers most of it. Our multilingual menu statistics cover allergen training data and why the same notes need to work for visitors who do not read English.

How do you design a kids menu?

Design a kids menu for two readers at once: the child, who points at pictures, and the parent, who checks the price, the age limit and the ingredients. Keep it to one page or one menu category, show the age limit clearly, use a photo or simple drawing for each main, and list the drink and side included.

A few details make a measurable difference in service:

• Say what is included. “Includes a side and a drink (water or milk)” stops the most common question and keeps you on the right side of default-drink rules.
• Put the age limit next to the heading, not in small print at the bottom.
• Use the same names as the main menu where the dish is a smaller version, so parents know what they are getting.
• Mark substitutions. “Swap fries for fruit at no charge” turns the healthier choice into the easy one.
• Keep an activity element for dine-in (a colouring sheet or a puzzle) if your format suits it; it buys the table ten quiet minutes.

On a digital or QR menu, the kids menu works best as its own category placed near the top for family-heavy services. Placement and layout research is mixed, so judge by your own sales mix; our menu engineering statistics explain which menu design claims hold up and which do not.

Sample kids menus by venue type

The three sample kids menus below show how the same principles adapt to a pizzeria, a cafe and a family restaurant. Each keeps 4 to 6 mains, includes a fruit or vegetable side, and uses water or milk as the default drink. Prices are left out on purpose, because they should come from your own plate cost.

Pizzeria kids menu (ages 12 and under, includes a side and water or milk)

• Personal cheese pizza, with an optional vegetable topping
• Personal pepperoni pizza
• Pasta with tomato sauce or butter
• Chicken strips, oven-baked
• Sides: fruit cup, side salad, garlic knots
• Dessert: one scoop of gelato

Cafe kids menu (ages 10 and under)

• Grilled cheese on sourdough with tomato soup cup
• Mini pancakes with fruit
• Scrambled eggs with toast
• Half portion of any sandwich
• Drinks: milk, water, small 100% juice where local rules allow it as a default

Family restaurant kids menu (ages 12 and under, includes a side and drink)

• Slider with cheese
• Grilled chicken strips
• Mac and cheese
• Grilled fish of the day, half portion
• Quesadilla
• Half portion of any adult main, priced at a fixed share of the adult price
• Sides: steamed vegetables, fruit cup, fries on request

If you are building a full menu for a specific format, our guides to the Italian restaurant menu and the different types of restaurants cover the adult side, and the holiday party menu guide covers family group bookings in the busy season.

How do you put a kids menu online?

The easiest way to run a kids menu online is as its own menu category, with the default drink built into the item and allergens noted in each description, behind the same QR code as the rest of the menu. That keeps the printed and online versions identical, which is where default-drink compliance most often breaks.

Duckhub handles that setup:

• A “Kids” category with modifiers. Dish modifiers are included on every plan, including the free one, so a kids meal can offer “drink: water / milk” with water preselected, and “side: fruit / vegetables / fries” with fruit first.
• Schedule or hide in seconds. Categories have an availability schedule, so a kids special can show only at lunch or on weekends, and any dish can be hidden from the menu the moment the kitchen runs out.
• Free to start. The Egg plan is free forever and covers a QR menu with 70 products, 10 categories, 30 QR tables and multi-language menus for visiting families.
• Ordering when you need it. On the Duckling plan ($10 a month), guests can order from the table or for pickup, with 0% commission. Duckhub does not process payments, so families pay your staff as usual. See how QR code ordering works in practice.
• Your own AI does the writing. Connect your own ChatGPT or Claude to Duckhub and ask it to write short kids-friendly descriptions or draft allergen notes; it works on every plan, and you check the allergen details against your recipes before publishing.

Keep the list short, borrow from dishes you already make, make water or milk the default drink everywhere the menu appears, and price from the plate. That is most of what separates a kids menu families return for from one they put up with.