Ramen honcho Patrick Fleming’s casual, crowd-pleasing menu of nontraditional ramen and rice bowls plays to a broad spectrum of diners, including the under-12 demographic. The industrial, design-savvy dining room is navigable for little without bumping into too many elbows; once seated, they can dig into the bambino ramen or bambino bowl, aided by plastic starter chopsticks sets shaped like scowling ninjas. Kid-size, pared-down versions of the main attractions, the dishes' come with options like pork, fried chicken, or caramelized fennel. For the pickiest eaters out there, Boke Bowl makes its version of a PB&J as fluffy steamed baos. For dessert, miso butterscotch “twinkies” are sure to be a hit with kids, parents, and everyone else.

Relatively new to Portland and primarily catering to downtown workers on their lunch break, Buranko features a range of pan-Asian picks: Korean chicken rice bowls, soft-shell crab pad thai, galbi, and orange chicken crowd the menu next to cocktails and an array of teas. The eclectic lineup all but ensures that even choosier sprats will find something to enjoy. While parents recline in the basket chairs or at the long communal tables, kids can toddle through the shoe-free play area, with books, a small table with toy trains, and cubbies full of stuffed animals and games.

Carefully curated toppings star at Eb & Bean, a soft-serve frozen yogurt pioneer that features the milk of happy co-op cows, plant-based fro-yo options, and blackboard shout-outs to local purveyors. Gluten-free and vegan alternatives abound, so even discerning eaters and diet-restricted kids can go full-bore with garnishes like dye-free sprinkles, organic gummy bears, and vegan, gluten-free cookie dough. But the tykes don’t have a monopoly on fun here thanks to more grown-up flavors like Meyer lemon crème fraîche frozen yogurt, oat streusel toppings, and cold-brew bourbon sauce. Each of the Eb & Bean locations is decked in bright pastels and adorable portraits of the shops’ mascot, a friendly polar bear in a beanie. Come summertime, catch a steady stream of families swarming for sweets.

This east-side strip mall hall has maintained its dim sum crown for decades thanks to its many rattling carts that leave pork-and-ginger perfume contrails in their wake. Daily, families fill the palatial, retro dining room, loading the circular tables with all manner of Cantonese staples, plump pork-and-shrimp siu mai and cloud-soft bao that erupt with steam when ripped apart. Kids can graze at this hectic brunch utopia for hours and never get bored. Once you’ve sampled through the savory treats, snag an order of egg yolk buns—a yeasty mind-scrambler hiding a drippy trove of hot, sweet golden goo inside. They are round, sugar-crusted, and usually in the bottom left-hand corner of the glass-doored carts. Find them.

Who better to prepare a child-friendly meal than Mother herself? Cookbook author and comfort-food matriarch Lisa Schroeder serves all the classics mom used to make—that is, if your mom put smoked salmon and caramelized onions in the mac and cheese. She even shares her love with a “Mother of the Month” menu, with special dishes from cooks who earned their stripes the hard way: raising children. The raucous Sunday brunch is known for its rich portobello mushroom scramble and cornflake-crusted challah French toast—fun for the kiddies, but sophisticated enough for adults. Tykes have a small playroom and their own extensive menu filled with sliced fruit, oatmeal, mac and cheese, butter noodles, chicken strips, and, naturally, a grilled cheese sandwich.

Crisp, fried-to-order mini doughnuts make Pip’s a cult favorite for sweets-craving locals. Tiny hands love tiny doughnuts, and grown-ups love the lava-hot little treats just as much, whether sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, slathered with Nutella, or topped with candied bacon. But the café’s sleeper hit is its roster of deftly spiced chai teas. Co-owner Jamie Snell trundles in cartloads of cinnamon sticks, chamomile buds, and tobacco-sweet black cardamom pods to marry with Indian, Chinese, and Thai teas and steamed milk. Her bold creations are a love match with sea salt and honey-drizzled doughnuts, but for kiddos after a classic, there’s always hot chocolate. While waiting for the milk to steam, children can peruse the shelf of vintage kids' books or pose for photos in front of the café’s Oregon state flag.

In a former neighborhood bar on the edge of Cully, Bunk Sandwiches’ Tommy Habetz has remixed the family pizza parlor for a new generation—punk rock, Sichuan chile oil, and a four-player Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game included. You can order a first-rate pepperoni, build your own meat- and/or veggie-packed pie, or bliss out on the expansive vegan offerings. In the winter, kids compete for high scores at the arcade machines, but come summer they’ll be running around the backyard garden play area and taking down Dairy Queen–style soft-serve.

Fry your own pancakes on a tabletop grill? With kids? Sounds like a lawsuit in the making. But Slappy Cakes might be Portland’s most kid-approved restaurant, slam-packed with weekend crowds griddling their own buttermilk and chocolate pancakes and liberally topping them with a plethora of sweet and savory goodies. Don’t feel like risking a hot surface? Slappy Cakes also provides plenty of menu items, including pancakes from the kitchen and an all-day breakfast selection beyond flapjacks.

In the summer, Sugarpine becomes a necessary stop for families on their way to and from the Sandy River of the Gorge, but its charms endure year-round. A big wooden deck provides plenty of scampering room, with a temporary cover for the rainy months. But it’s the menu hitting all the picky-eater favorites that really draws families. The grilled cheese sandwich, a must for any kids' menu, wows with its mix of gooey cheeses (cheddar, fontina, and Muenster) and buttery Texas toast, all pressed with a waffle iron for an extra crisp exterior (yes, there’s tomato soup for dipping). Build-your-own-soft-serve comes with a five-ounce “kid size” option, served in cups or waffle cones with dozens of optional toppings—think butterscotch Magic Shell and birthday cake crumbles for the under-10 crowd, miso caramel and pine nut honeycomb for the adults. Sundaes change seasonally, though the Larch Mountain Sundae—with cubes of blondies and blueberry-lavender sauce—is available year-round.

Choo-choo! Here comes the sushi train. Destination: deliciousness! That’s the sentiment at Old Town’s iconic Sushi Ichiban. For years, it’s been one of the city’s most affordable spots for California rolls and unagi, as color-coded plates make their rotation around the conveyor-belt-turned-toy-train-track, waiting to be grabbed up by tiny-fingered hands. Beyond the lovable locomotive, the low price point is what makes Ichiban shine for outings with kids; with few rolls over $5, they can explore the colorful world of maki and nigiri without breaking the bank. You can save the expensive omakase experience for when they’re old enough to appreciate it.

When deciding on where to take the whole family for brunch or weekday lunch, it’s wise to consider the space: Will there be enough room for an antsy toddler or preteen to wander a bit without getting in the way?  The servers at this Alberta Street institution are adept at avoiding ankle biters, expertly maneuvering to deliver platters of omelets and veggie scrambles. Tin Shed remains a popular family destination not just for its kids menu (think cheesy eggs and biscuits, French toast, and cheese quesadillas) and general friendliness, but also for its pup-friendly patio and dog menu (really) that ensures no one in the family gets left out.