Eating out in Italy with kids: all you need to know (by a local mama!)

All you need to know about eating out in Italy with kids: restaurant opening hours, children menus, high chairs, how to order and more.

Eating out is one of the great pleasures on an Italian holiday and one you do not need to renounce if you are traveling with kids, even very young ones.

Eating out is one of the great pleasure during out family vacations and we’ve done it regularly since our two were tiny, in all types of restaurants: you can say we are seasoned restaurant-with-kids-goers!

In Italy in particular, enjoying meals out as a family is super easy.

Italian restaurants are welcoming to kids and you don’t need to go out of your way to find kid-friendly establishments as, basically, all of them are: kids are considered guests like all others and therefore welcome.

That said, eating at restaurants in Italy with kids may look a little different from what you are used to back home: for instance, there is a very high chance you will not find kids’ menus and and not everywhere has high chairs, even in places that are great with littles.

I am an Italian mama of two and love my dinners out. In this guide, I share mu experience and my best tips about eating out in Italy with kids, what to expect and even some tips for picky eaters!

Restaurants opening hours in Italy

Opening hours for restaurants in Italy depends on where you are and the type of establishments.

Full, sit-down restaurants tend to be open at lunch (12.30 to 14.30 approximately, depending on the establishment) and dinner 19/19.30 to 22.30 (again, exact time depends on the establishment).

In general, restaurants in the north of Italy open and close earlier, while in Rome and the South you tend to have slightly later times.

Good to know: in high tourism areas like Rome city center now many restaurants are open non stop all day. This is not necessarily a sign of a touristy places so do not discount them on account of being open on non-traditional hours, they have simply adapted to demand.

As well as restaurants however you have also many other more informal food establishments with much looser opening hours: between cafes, bistros, markets, pizza by the slice places etc, you will pretty much never go hungry in Italy for long, there is genuinely food at every corner!

If your kids are used to eating much earlier than what your restaurant of choice allows, Italian families usually either make sure kids have a filling snack mid afternoon (stuffed pizza and/or gelato works well).

You could consider feeding them at home and then have them sleeping in the stroller or keep you company while munching on the bread sticks and bread at the table, which is a standard offering in most placed.

Many places now have high chairs

In the past, finding high chairs in Italian restaurant wasn’t easy but they have now become more and more common.

While you can never count on a restaurant to have them, chances are in your favor and ever increasing. Usually high chairs are ikea style and have no straps – I understand this is for hygienic reasons as the straps are hard to clean.

If you decide to bring your own booster seat, i recommend you avoid clip on ones as they won’t work on most tables. Instead, I recommend a harness or a booster seat you can rest on a standard chair.

Kid menus

Kid menus are not common in Italy but this doesn’t mean restaurants do not welcome kids.

If your kids are adventurous eaters but need smaller portions, you can order for them anything on the main menu and ask for a ‘mezza porzione’ (half portion).

I recommend doing this with small kids but with older ones, look at the plates around you first: portions are significantly smaller than in the US for instance so it may be our full portion is well manageable for a child.

If your kids prefer simpler things, pretty much all restaurants are able and willing to make something for them.

An order of pasta with simple tomato sauce, pasta ‘bolognese’ (we call it pasta al ragu‘), pasta with butter or butter and parmesan (pasta al burro, pasta burro e parmigiano) or even simple pasta with nothing are usually prepared no problem by all chefs.

Often you can also ask for pesto, as is is the type of preparation restaurants have anyway, even if not specified on the menu. Not a given, but often worth asking.

Things such as chicken nuggets are not common in restaurants and easier to find in cafes as part of an aperitivo offering (pollo fritto).

In restaurants however you may be able to find milanese which is fried veal or sometimes chicken.

It is usually also possible to order whatever is on the menu with no sauce.

Please note: if you want pizza you need to look for a pizzeria or ristorante/pizzeria. Pizza required a special oven and not all restaurants have it, only pizzeria ones do.

Kids’ food in Italian restaurants – chart

Common dishes for kids in Italy are:

Food	In Italian
Pasta with tomato sauce	Pasta al pomodoro / pasta al sugo
Pasta Bolognese	Pasta al Ragu’
Plain pasta (with no condiment at all)	Pasta senza niente
Pasta with butter	Pasta al Burro
Pasta butter and parmesan	Pasta burro e parmigiano
Lasagna	Lasagne
Fried chicken	Milanese di pollo
Fries	Patatine
Beef burger	Hamburger (often served as a meat patty only, no bun. Depends on the place)
Meatballs	Polpette

How to order for kids in Italy at restaurants

Most restaurants will understand an order in Engish but the easiest way to order for kids in Italy is, for instance:

Per il bambino, ci puo’ fare una pasta burro e parmigiano? For the child, can you make pasta butter and parmesan?

Or

Per lui/lei, mezza porzione di pasta al pesto For him/her, a half portion of pasta al pesto

Ordering for kids first

If your child is going to have fewer courses than you (for instance, you are having a starter and a main, but your child is having a main course only) it is no problem to ask for their main to be served at the same time as your starter, so that they don’t have to wait.

Staff usually offers this spontaneously, but you can also ask.

In Italian you’d say something like ‘puo’ portare per il bambino subito‘ (can you being for the child straifght away) o ‘puo’ portare il primo per il bambino con gli antipasti‘ (can you bring the main for the child with the starters).

Good to know: you do not need to order several courses in Italy! This is a big misunderstanding about what a more traditional formal meal looks like, and what is commonly done in restaurants now. If you want a started and a main or a main and dessert or similar, it is absolutely ok! Read here >> all about Italian traditional meal structure.

Italian meal length

To my surprise, one of the most common questions I get about eating out in Italy with kids is about how kids deal with ‘the very long Italian meals’.

My surprise comes from the fact that Italian meals are not longer than anywhere else , but I finally understood where the mix up comes from!

In Italy, the length of the meal is just like abroad but restaurants don’t begin the check unless asked!

It is considered rude to ring the check to the table unsolicited, they don’t want to make you feel rushed, so if you don’t know this, you may think the meal takes forever while the truth is you are waiting for them while they are waiting for you!

Once you are ready to go, ask for the check or, often lately, it is also common to go to the till and pay there.

To ask for the bill, you ask: ci fa il conto per favore = check, please

Kids entertainment at the table

In Italy it is not common for restaurants to offer coloring pens and sheets.

Some places do, but if you know your child does well with something to do, it is best to bring your own.

I know many people ask if it is acceptable to have phones or iPads for the kids and the answers to this is: sort of.

While this is certainly something you see done (more and more often), it is also something that sometimes comes with unsolicited comments from staff – it is the type of thing people like to judge parents on.

I don’t find this to be a specifically Italian thing, but Italians are quite vocal about their opinions; so, don’t be surprised if the occasional person does take exception to it.

There is certainly no cultural /local stigma about it that is specific to Italy.

Kids cups

In Italy we tend to give kids normal glasses rather than plastic cups. If you’re worried, I recommend you bring your own sippy cup/plastic cup.

Bringing your own food to a restaurant in Italy

Bringing your own food for a child in Italy is not done, unless the child is very young. Bringing baby food is normally not a problem while once the kids are older, this must be agreed in advance with the restaurant and it is at the discretion of the manager.

Equally, while it is usually not a problem to hand your young child their bottle with, for instance, juice, it is understood at restaurants you consume only what sold on the premises.

Eating out in Italy with kids with allergies

Eating out with allergies is a stressful situation for parents but Italy is reasonably well equipped for this. Some things that are useful to know are:

Menus in Italy MUST contain a list of allergens, by law. The law specifies what items must be on the menu and marked as present in each dish. These are:

Allergens in English	Allergens in Italian
Gluten	Glutine
Crustaceans	Crostacei e derivati
Eggs	Uova e derivati
Fish	Pesce
Peanuts	Arachidi
Soy	Soia
Milk	Latte
Tree Nuts	Frutta a guscio
Sesame	Sesamo
Mustard	Senape
Molluscs	Molluschi
Celery	Sedano
Anidride solforosa e solfiti in concentrazioni superiori a 10 mg/kg o 10 mg/l espressi come SO2	sulfur dioxide and sulfites in concentration above 10mg/kg or 10 mg/l express as SO2 (
Lupin bean	Lupini

This list appears in menus in several ways: some have little icons, some small numbers with keys at the end of the menu, some have the list is full beside each relevant dish.

In all cases, i recommend you double check with your servers before placing your order. I also strongly recommend to have with you an allergy card in Italian and English so you can be sure communication is precise.

Need to know: be very careful with the use of the word ‘noci’ = nuts. Noci in Italian means two things: walnuts and ‘nut’ in general. To be sure you are conveying you are allergic to all nuts and not just walnuts, the best espression to use is FRUTTA A GUSCIO fruh-ttah ah Goo-sho

I hope this quick overview and tips to eat out in Italy with kids came in handy! if you want to know even more, don’t forget you can also join my free Facebook group Travel Italy with kids – it is free and you’d be very welcome!

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