Best restaurants for families in Southeast Portland: Kid friendly eats in PDX

Going out to eat with kids sounds amazing: You don’t have to cook, clean up or even decide what’s for dinner. You just show up and chow! Picking kid-friendly restaurants can be hard, though. That’s why I rounded up the best restaurants for families in Southeast Portland for your next family vacation in Oregon!

These kid-friendly restaurants in Portland will satisfy both you and your littles. They’re all independent restaurants so you can support local entrepreneurs and business owners. And they serve delicious kid-friendly fare your children will be happy to nom!

So if you’re looking for great restaurants for families in Southeast Portland, you’ve come to the right place. Get your appetites ready—you’re gonna be hungry.

11 restaurants for families in Southeast Portland

Going on a family vacation in Portland? PDX is known as a foodie mecca, and local restaurants haven’t forgotten about the kids. Try out these kid-friendly restaurants in Southeast Portland for full, happy bellies.

Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB)

This enormous brewery in Southeast Portland has multiple dining areas, which is a good thing because it’s one of the most popular kid-friendly restaurants in Portland.

Hopworks Urban Brewery (aka HUB) serves delicious pub fare, including its famous pretzel sticks with a beer-and-cheese dipping sauce. Children have lots of options in the kids’ meals, from grilled cheese and burgers to pizza and even a pretzel-wrapped hot dog!

The best part about Hopworks Urban Brewery is its many play areas. The brewery designed its space with families in mind so kids have tons of room to color, build and play while they wait for food—or while adults order another pint.

Slappycakes

Kids love to get hands-on, so it’s no wonder they love the DIY aspect of Slappycakes. This wonderful restaurant for families in Southeast Portland lets kids (or adults) make their own pancakes at a griddle right there in your table.

Choose from five varieties of pancake batter—including one that is both vegan and gluten-free—then order toppings. You choose from both savory and sweet fixin’s, from chocolate chips and berries to cheddar cheese, scallions and even lavender honey.

If your kids are all about pancakes but you, not so much? Slappycakes in Portland also serves breakfast dishes you don’t have to cook yourself. Expect regular breakfast fare plus a few off the beaten path choices, including chicken fried steak. Orrrr you can just do what you really want and order a side of candied baked bacon, all on its own.

Off the Griddle

Dear friends of ours sold veggie and vegan burgers in a food cart years ago, and to the delight of vegetarians in Portland, they opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant! Off the Griddle serves vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free comfort food in Southeast Portland. My favorite meal is the BBQ burger with vegan bleu cheese.

Their seasonal menu is constantly changing, so ask for the day’s specials. They also serve vegan dessert, like their insanely delicious vegan brownie sundae, as well as dairy-free milkshakes!

The kid-friendly menu offers plant-based options for the whole family, like their mac & chz we ordered for the kids but that Hubs and I totally wanted to chow down.

Portland Mercado

Portland Mercado, a center for Latinx food and community, is one of my favorite family-friendly restaurants in Southeast Portland. Inside, you have several options for Mexican and Central American food. I love the empanadas!

Seating is limited inside Portland Mercado, but the adorable décor makes the tight squeeze worthwhile. You can also grab a bottle of Jarritos—or a bunch of other imported food and drink—from the Hispanic grocery store in the complex.

On the weekends, you’ll also find a farmer’s market. Sometimes Portland Mercado also hosts artisans selling handcrafted goods, live music and kids’ crafts. Check out Portland Mercado’s calendar for upcoming events. 

Jurassic Cart

Food trucks are the epitome of kid-friendly restaurants: They’re quick, relatively cheap and convenient. Plus you can order from several different food trucks to satisfy everyone in the family.

One of my favorite food trucks in Portland is Jurassic Cart, a great restaurant for families in Southeast Portland. The best, most unique item on the menu is the kid-friendly dinosaur egg—half of a grilled avocado stuffed with cauliflower sticky rice veggies.

What’s more, this family-friendly food truck gives kids a toy dinosaur with every meal ordered. A brand-new toy makes eating at restaurants with kids a million times easier.

Level 10 travel tip: Kids and adults alike can take their food truck meal to the picnic tables inside Pod Bar. This shaded spot is great for too-hot days. What’s more, Pod Bar has toys kids can play with while everyone waits for food to be ready!

Jam

I first started going to Jam when my older daughter was a teeny-tiny baby, and we never stopped. Jam is probably the most famous family-friendly restaurant in Southeast Portland, and for good reason. It has a gigantic kids’ play area in the middle of the dining area. My girls love eating at Jam because they get to play. I love eating at Jam because they play while I catch up with my girlfriends—and get to eat my scramble while it’s still hot.

The staff at Jam are definitely used to kids. They’re terrific about adjusting orders for food sensitivities and allergies, and they are always sweet to all the children at the table. What’s more, they have the coolest kids’ water cups anywhere in Portland!

Level 10 travel tip: Weekends are always busy at Jam, so expect a wait. Put in your name at this restaurant for families, then walk across the street for a coffee and a scone at Grand Central Bakery. The detour will keep your kids from getting hangry.

La Calaca Comelona

This artisanal Mexican restaurant in Portland runs an amazing happy hour, which as you know is the perfect time to eat at a restaurant with kids. La Calaca Comelona tacos are $2.50 apiece and the perfect size for little hands. I love that you can order a variety of small dishes from the happy hour menu and let your kids pick and choose, trying a bite of their diced guacamole one moment and a vegetarian chalupita the next.

What’s more, this Portland Mexican restaurant has a spacious outdoor seating area. Kids can get up from the table and explore, then come back for bites to go. If the weather’s not cooperating, La Calaca Comelona’s interior is absolutely gorgeous. Kids can look at the pictures, carvings and many skulls in the restaurant while you finish your from-scratch margarita (a steal at $6 during happy hour!).

Rocking Frog Cafe

Also on Belmont in SE Portland, Rocking Frog Cafe offers pick-me-ups for both parents and kids. Mom or Dad might want a latte or pot of loose leaf tea from Portland’s own Jasmine Pearl Tea Company. Kids will definitely want one of their made-to-order donuts.

These donuts are cakey, topped with a light glaze or icing. The chocolate and maple flavors are Rocking Frog Cafe’s most popular, but you can’t go wrong whichever donut you choose. Kids might need to wait a moment before diving in; they’re served hot.

Rocking Frog Cafe also has a shelf full of board games and books for you and your kids to flip through if you get bored. And during warm weather, you can sit outside at several picnic tables.

Soro Soro

This Korean cafe and sweets shop is arguably the cutest restaurant in all of Portland. Soro Soro puts in the energy and attention to make every bite and sip not only delicious but adorable, too!

On a recent visit, the kids shared a slice of rainbow cake and a chocolate chip cookie with eyes; I drank a chai tea with oat milk. Drinks are served with a two-bite cream puff that was like a surprise party in my mouth, ha!

Next time I’ll try the gluten free cheesecake (the top is decorated like the face of an itty bitty bear). And everyone goes nuts over the cloud affogato, where you pour espresso over a foot-tall poof of cotton candy onto ice cream.

If you’re in Southeast PDX, you absolutely need to visit Soro Soro. You and your kids will be talking about this family friendly restaurant in Portland for ages.

Hawthorne Asylum food carts

You know how I feel about food carts, especially ones here in Portland: They’re the ultimate in family friendly food. Everyone can order something different when you go to a food cart pod, and that’s definitely the case with the newly opened Hawthorne Asylum in SE Portland.

Here’s the trick, though: Everything is so dang good you’ll have a hard time ordering!

One of my favorite parts about this family friendly food cart pod is all the seating. Tucked away in the west side of the pod is a whole slew of tables just begging for a meetup with all your mom friends and their littles.

If it’s a bit chilly, try to snag a seat at the Hawthorne Asylum tables surrounding the fire. Just keep an eye on your kidlets, obvi!

Teote

I absolutely love this Latin American restaurant in Southeast Portland. Crowd favorites also happen to be kid-friendly: Arepas, beans and rice, and of course chips and guacamole please even the pickiest kids!

Definitely head upstairs when you eat at Teote, where there’s much more room for families to spread out. The open-air patio is one of my favorite places for happy hour in Southeast Portland. This spot is so relaxed, and kids like to look at the colorful decorations.

And if all they eat for dinner is a bowl of guac? That sounds like victory in my book!

Our favorite kid friendly restaurants in SE Portland

If you’re looking for someplace to eat with kids, you’ve come to the right place. Portland’s family friendly restaurants cater to kids while satisfying foodies, too.

We spend a lot of time in Southeast Portland, so thank goodness this area has so many family friendly restaurants. But don’t take my word for it. The next time you’re in PDX, hit up one of these 11 kid friendly restaurants. They won’t disappoint.

If you’re looking for someplace to eat elsewhere in PDX, you have to read my post on the best family friendly restaurants in North Portland!