Family Dining Done Right: Taipei’s Child-Centered Restaurant Scene

Taipei hosts a growing number of restaurants with entertainment options for kids and delicious food for the entire family.

If you’ve ever found yourself on a plastic stool, wedged between an oil-specked wall and a wobbly fold-out table of steaming dishes at your local wet market – once your solo post-grocery shopping retreat – as you balance your little one on your thigh with one hand and awkwardly navigate a set of chopsticks from the plate to your mouths with the other, this article is for you.

We’re visiting Taipei’s most popular restaurants catering specifically to families with children. Join us as we discover the best places for your family to enjoy satisfying meal options while the kids let loose in unique play and entertainment facilities.

Farmer’s Table 農人餐桌
No. 51, Chongqing South Rd., Zhongzheng District

If you’re looking for a one-stop shop for a leisurely day playing, eating, and shopping with children, I suggest visiting Farmer’s Table, a farm-to-table family-friendly restaurant. It is a 10-minute walk from the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Station, in the building on the righthand side of the Postal Museum.

The first floor is home to the privately run Hsin Yi Family Square and the Little Sun Family Playground. The Square offers a vast indoor play space equipped with toys, slides, and climbing areas (NT$250 per child and free admission for one accompanying adult) for children aged between one and six only. The space is divided into themed zones, including jungle and countryside settings, and also includes a children’s bookstore with a dedicated toy section and a reading corner. For parents, there’s an organic supermarket with plenty to look at.

Farmer’s Table is situated on the subterranean level of the building, blending rustic charm with modern design in a space that feels surprisingly bright thanks to ample natural light. Three kid-height counters stocked with toy kitchen utensils sit in the middle of the dining area, next to a small children’s library and a simple rug for the littlest ones to move around on. Compared to other family-centered restaurants, the play area at Farmer’s Table is on the smaller side. That’s intentional, explains Ruby Lu, a marketing manager at the restaurant’s parent company and mom to a nine-year-old.

From toy kitchens to healthy meals, Farmer’s Table inspires enthusiasm for sustainable cooking.

“There are many family-friendly restaurants in Taipei that put a lot of money into their play spaces and toys, but the food isn’t good,” says Lu. “After two or three times, you won’t want to come back.” Farmer’s Table sees itself as a starting point for promoting sustainable consumption. “We want to create an awareness for healthy, sustainable food from early childhood on.”

Farmer’s Table prioritizes well-balanced organic meals. The menu features meat from old Taiwanese breeds of chicken and pork, which have lower yield and leaner meat than their industrially bred counterparts. Ingredients for the restaurant’s Western-style dishes are selected based on seasonality and regional availability, sourced from small-scale, local farms. Such is also the case for the rice shaped like a bunny in the popular children’s curry, one of several kids’ options.

Babies get their own seasoning-free menu section with a variety of organic congees. Adult dishes, for the most part, do away with rice altogether. Instead, a more nutritious pumpkin puree accompanies steak and fish dishes. You can expect to spend up to NT$800 per adult meal and will want to book ahead for a weekend meal at this health-conscious dining spot.

Farmer’s Table also hosts children’s events on special occasions. While these events might include performances by a magician or air balloon artist, the restaurant’s main goal is to create a relaxed atmosphere where every family member can find sustainable food that they truly enjoy, Lu says. 

MoneyJump 媽妳講親子餐廳
No. 127, Minshan St., Neihu District

We’re on to one of the most well-known family restaurants in Taipei – MoneyJump. Once you’ve made your way to the popular shopping area near the Keelung River – which is only easily accessible by car unless you happen to be nearby – you take the elevator to the second floor, take off your shoes at the door, and enter a family restaurant that is a world of its own.

The wood-paneled interior at MoneyJump resembles a three-dimensional maze, with pockets of play space integrated seamlessly into the dining area. Along one side, a wall with beehive-shaped holes offers a space for kids to explore while parents eat at the table next to it. At the center of the restaurant, a fenced-off playroom with baby and toddler toys offers a safe space for the little ones, with even more play opportunities available in each corner. The restaurant’s centerpiece is a carousel with white wooden horses – think 20th-century Christmas fair – that lights up and runs at set times throughout the day. It can carry both children and adults.

A carousel with baroque-style horses adds a whimsical yet elegant backdrop to MoneyJump’s high-quality meals.

The relatively short menu offers high-quality meals of a Western variety. Options include pasta, risotto, fish, and steak dishes, with just two vegetarian meals. Prices for adult meals range from NT$400 to NT$1,400 for steaks and seafood options. Kids eat for NT$300 on average, with elaborate congee options for those just starting solid foods.

MoneyJump is the perfect stop after an extensive shopping trip. It is located within walking distance of many popular outlet stores, including Costco, Decathlon, and Ikea, as well as the Taipei Flower Market. If you want to round off your weekend errands with a meal at MoneyJump, be sure to make a reservation well in advance. This is their peak business time, and it gets packed!

Mr.Tree 大樹先生的家
No. 38, Chaozhou St., Da’an District

Another much-loved destination for dining with kids is Mr.Tree. A short five minutes’ walk from the Guting MRT station, this restaurant gets its name from the tall trees that frame the courtyard leading into its doors. Shielded from a bustling city street through a tall wall, Mr.Tree feels like a secret little kingdom for children, big and small.

In the outdoor area, the restaurant offers a sand pit for the warmer months. In winter, this is where Mr.Tree celebrates its own “snow season,” where a foam machine rains down fake snow several times a day. Inside awaits a play space larger than any other featured in this article. Kids who are feeling rambunctious can run up a wooden staircase and slide down into a vast ball pit over and over again while their more patient counterparts enjoy the playroom, which is fully equipped with model kitchens and an electric train set. There is also a separate crawling space with soft toys for babies at the back of the play area. Mr.Tree has everything to keep your children entertained well past one meal.

To help maintain the facilities, Mr.Tree charges a clean-up fee of NT$190 on weekdays and NT$250 on weekends. Meals come in at NT$400 to NT$600 per adult for a filling set meal of rice and vegetables with either a Japanese or Korean-style main dish. Western dishes like pasta and risotto are also available. Kids’ options are limited to pasta or risotto and are served in little toy cars with a side of meat and veggies. The restaurant is bright and friendly, decked out in durable pastel-colored furniture.

Mr.Tree has a separate events space for groups of up to 25 people, but the main restaurant also regularly features children’s events. These include regular Zhuazhou (抓周) ceremonies, traditionally held to mark a child’s first birthday, as well as the occasional baby crawling contest and holiday-themed event. Keep up to date with the restaurant’s event calendar on Facebook, and bring your kids here for a truly children-centered dining experience.

“Beetles Café” 甲蟲秘境
No. 28 Keqiang Rd., Shilin District

Literally translated to “secret lair of beetles,” this restaurant is the perfect place for those in search of a fun novelty eatery in the Tianmu area. Since its online listing is exclusively in Chinese, non-Mandarin speakers will only know of it by word of mouth or from walking past its eye-catching, beetle-covered exterior. Those in the know usually refer to it colloquially as Beetles Café (though this is not the designation given on Google Maps).

The restaurant used to boast a second branch near Elephant Mountain, but this location is now closed. The surviving Beetles Café in Shilin District is tucked away in a side street that takes about 10 minutes to reach from both the Zhishan and Mingde MRT stations. This rather snug restaurant is a place where Tianmu parents take their kids for a Japanese-style dinner or a beetle-shaped waffle with ice cream.

Not only are the waffles on-theme – Beetles Café offers an indoor “tree” climbing area atop an artificial sand pit, both crawling with likenesses of the restaurant’s namesake insects. Hidden within the sand are giant plastic larvae, adding an extra layer of discovery for curious kids. The decor is immersive, with foliage draping from the walls and ceiling, alive with toy bugs of all shapes and sizes. One section even lets diners enjoy their meal beside a wall of burst-open cocoons, from which vibrant, supersized beetles appear to be hatching. The restaurant also doubles as a shop selling insect-related merchandise and educational materials.

The beetle-shaped waffles are a hit with kids, available in sweet flavors like cream and chocolate or savory options like cheese and ham. For younger diners, baby congees are on the menu, while older children and adults can opt for Japanese-style set meals, typically centered around a fried cut of meat.

Currently, the menu does not include vegetarian options. An adult set meal costs approximately NT$450, offering a hearty and flavorful dining experience in a uniquely themed setting.

If you have an insect phobia, this is not the place for you. Otherwise, Beetles Café offers a fabulous opportunity for your children to eat, learn, and play in a one-of-a-kind environment.    

Eating out on the go with a baby

If you’re in the middle of a busy day with your little one in tow and don’t have the time or budget to head to one of the featured restaurants, don’t worry – most restaurants in Taipei offer highchairs as well children’s bowls and cutlery. If you want to play it extra safe, consider investing in a travel highchair. These come in various weights and sizes and will save you time looking for a space that offers highchairs.

As for food options, I have yet to meet a toddler who will turn down a bowl of plain rice or noodles, the two most common staples in any middle-of-the-road food place. Most times, servers will, in typical friendly Taiwanese fashion, assist you with finding the side dishes most suitable to your kid’s needs and preferences.