State of the Plate: The New Wave of Kids’ Meals

Iconic and enduring, McDonald’s decades-old Happy Meal owes its existence to an enterprising Guatemalan franchisee seeking to cater to kids. Dubbed Menú Ronald, the meal featured a tot-sized burger and fries, along with a sundae and toy, and its success soon caught the attention of chain headquarters. A domestic version was tested and rolled out systemwide in the U.S. in 1979, just in time to attract its Baby Boomer patrons, who were having a baby boomlet of their own. 

Early packaging iterations took their inspiration from cereal boxes, with cartoons and puzzles printed on the exterior to occupy junior diners. As the concept evolved, the carrier morphed into the familiar red box with golden arches for handles, and its contents changed, as well. Items like Chicken McNuggets, apples slices and low-fat milk, water and juice became options to address changing tastes and nutrition concerns. Toys and tie-ins have remained constants. 

While virtually all players in the limited-service segment offer kid-targeted items of their own, none has come close to replicating the appeal or challenging the dominance of the powerhouse Happy Meals brand.

Full-Service Strategies

Credit: Texas Roadhouse

Texas Roadhouse is one of the few restaurants to serve age-specific offerings. Its Ranger Meals, including entrées like Chicken Critter Basket, are geared toward older kids and tweens.

 A scan of full-service menus suggests that their children’s offerings have changed little over the past 25 years. Then as now, parents put a premium on keeping their progeny engaged and avoiding meal-time meltdowns. Grilled cheese and burgers on the original menus at Applebee’s and TGI Fridays have been joined by the ubiquitous macaroni and cheese and chicken fingers. 

Some chains take a more expansive approach to treating their pint-sized patrons. The Cheesecake Factory, for example, offers a scaled-down version of its encyclopedic menu with flatbreads, quesadillas, pastas, grilled chicken and grilled salmon. For tinier tots more adept at finger foods, there are Kids’ Mini Corn Dogs and Roadside Sliders. 

A few brands more closely mirror the adult dining experience with multicourse kids’ menus, as with the sophisticated Children’s 3-Course Menu at Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse that offers a choice of starter, main course and dessert. While the mains include filet mignon, cheesesteak sandwich and grilled chicken or salmon, there is also the requisite mac and cheese, topped here with bacon. 

The mac-and-cheese juggernaut appears to be the gift that keeps on giving for operators, who can bank on its being both kid-approved and budget-friendly. Some add their own signature touches: Cracker Barrel’s Mmmm Mac & Cheese is plated with choice of buttermilk biscuit or corn muffin, Urban Plates’ entry comes with choice of side and grilled rustic bread, and Carrabba’s upgrades the pasta portion with its Penne “Mac & Cheese.” 

While most restaurants specify that their kids’ fare is targeted to ages 12 and under, few seem to acknowledge the age and taste gaps between, say, 2-year-old toddlers and 12-year-old tweens. A notable exception is Texas Roadhouse, where both portion size and price ascend along with age and appetite. Here, the Kids’ Meals include Jr. Chicken Tenders, Mini Cheeseburgers and Lil’ Dillo Steak Bites cut into small pieces for small fingers. By contrast, Ranger Meals offer more substantial Ranger Rib Baskets, Chicken Critter Baskets and Andy’s Steak—a hand-cut sirloin cooked to order. 

Better for You

Over the years, restaurants have found themselves on the firing line regarding healthfulness and child nutrition, and 15 years ago the National Restaurant Association unveiled Kids LiveWell, a voluntary program that the NRA says underscores the foodservice industry’s determination to provide children with more healthful choices. Participating restaurants offer a minimum of two meals and two sides that have undergone rigorous dietary analysis. 

High-growth players like First Watch and Panda Express have signed on, along with long-running partners like IHOP. The pancake meister launched new children’s items this spring that meet the NRA criteria, like the Junior Protein Pancakes with Fruit and Kid-Sized Cinnamon Dippers Dessert comprising four donut holes served with chocolate sauce. And Maryland-based Silver Diner, an inaugural member of the Kids LiveWell program, boasts an extensive kids’ bill of fare that features Halal Beef Sliders, Grilled Organic Nitrate-Free All-Beef Hot Dogs and Gluten-Free Spaghetti made with organic quinoa pasta. 

Never Too Old

Credit: McDonald’s

A nod to the OG kids’ meal, the McDonaldland Meal targeted adults, with a choice of standard menu items plus a new shake and collectible tin filled with stickers and postcards.

 Arguably the biggest newsmaker in the category has been the growth of kids’ items purchased by grown-ups. Recent research by Lightspeed Commerce reveals that nearly half (44 percent) of adults are ordering kids’ meals when dining out. Drivers of the phenomenon reportedly include lower prices that appeal to the inflation weary and smaller portions that appeal to the health conscious. 

Nostalgia also comes into play, supported by reports that Gen Z, the massive demographic cohort born between 1997 and 2012 and numbering more than 85 million young consumers, are especially prone to party like it’s 1999. Their retro buying binges have fueled the return of Y2K fashions and the popularity of the Barbie movie with its vigorous cross merchandising of myriad pink-hued menu items. Along with many of their Millennial brethren, they’ve rediscovered the joys of toys that accompany kids’ meals. 

McDonald’s jumped on the nostalgia train early. In 2022, the brand launched an ongoing series of adult versions of Happy Meals, the first of which was in collaboration with fashion label Cactus Plant Flea Market and came complete with collectible toys and standard Big Mac or Chicken McNuggets meals. The most recent entry, the 2025 McDonaldland Meal is a replay of a 1971 promotion that staged a comeback this August and offered a choice of standard menu items, along with a new, bright-blue McDonaldland Shake and a collectible tin filled with stickers and postcards. 

Outlook and Opportunity

The nostalgia trend will continue at full speed ahead, as diners of all ages seek to nourish their inner child and add a little fun to their lives. And while an item might be pitched to kids, it can also appeal to more mature fun-seekers, like the recent limited-edition Sour Patch Kids drinks at Jack in the Box. Their promise of the “ultimate pucker upper” is the type of appeal that can bridge the age gap and prove that there is no upward limit on smiles.