Let’s be honest, sometimes you need to grab some food and let the tots play! Let’s explore some of our top favorite eateries and restaurants with play spaces!
Morgan Street Food Hall
411 W Morgan St, Raleigh, NC
Food halls are the new, trendy food courts. I personally love them because everyone can eat whatever they want! We have two food halls in Raleigh, Transfer Co. and Morgan Street. Outside on the patio at Morgan Street they have cleared a small area with large wooden blocks for the kids to build and play while their adults eat!
Morgan Street Food Hall is also on our date night directory since they have axe throwing set up inside for the adults!
Little Doodles Play Cafe
6548 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh, NC 27613
This one also isn’t really a full restaurant, but they have some food options if you want to meet a friend for coffee and snacks. This place has a lot of toy selections for the kids, so they are likely to stay entertained for quite a while! They also have a messy art studio if you’re up for some art while you snack! They do have a cover charge of $3/kid though. Check out our full review here.
Over the Moon Play Space
653 Cary Towne Blvd, Cary, NC
This space themed indoor play area has a snack café and fancy coffee! Bring a friend and chat while the kids run wild!
Read our full review of the play space here.
Galaxy Fun Park
14460 Falls of Neuse Rd, Raleigh, NC 27614
Galaxy Fun Park is your one-stop-shop for fun! There are so many things the kids can do here, like jumping on the trampolines, riding go-karts, experiencing virtual reality, and climbing through the high ropes course, but our absolute favorite for the young ones is the soft play area! At only $5 per kid you can unleash your child on the biggest indoor play structure I’ve ever seen! While they’re playing you can step over to the Cosmic Cafe and order from their full menu of pizza, hot dogs, cheeseburgers, french fries, and more! You can also have them deliver it to the soft play area so you don’t have to wait for your food!
There’s also a Lunar Lounge upstairs if you’re looking for some adult drinks. I haven’t actually made my way up there so I can’t speak on it fully, but it has a great view of the trampoline area. I wouldn’t leave my toddlers in the soft play area unattended while I went up there though.
Check out our full review of Galaxy Fun park here.
Urban Air Adventure Park
7810 Poyner Pond Cir, Raleigh, NC 27616
Similar to Galaxy Fun Park and Sky Zone Raleigh this is really an awesome indoor amusement center, but they have a great a full service restaurant so it’s a great place to eat and let the kids play!
Read our full review of all of the attractions here.
Bumble Brews
2464 SW Cary Pkwy, Cary, NC 27513
Not a full restaurant, but they serve wine and beer so it’s a great happy hour spot!
Read our full review of the play space here.
Lafayette Village
8450 Honeycutt Rd, Raleigh, NC 27615
Lafayette Village is a cute little shopping center that’s designed to look like a french village. It has the cobblestone streets and strings of cafe lights, which gives it a great ambiance! If you choose a restaurant that overlooks the courtyard and you eat on the patio, you also have a place for the kids to play while you eat! Currently, restaurants with views of the courtyard include Simply Crepes, the Village Grill, Sushi One, and Jubala Village Coffee.
The courtyard is really just a big open space for the kids to run around, but they also sometimes put on events there. I’ve seen them setup a large outdoor movie screen on the lawn, and they have trick or treating events in the fall. Check our calendar to see if there are any coming up soon!
The Kitchen Table
5629 Creedmoor Rd, Raleigh, NC 27612
An extension of Relish, one of my favorite restaurants in Raleigh, this cozy breakfast café is casual enough to take the kids. They don’t have an actual play space, but they bring board games to your table for everyone to play with. I recently took 5 kids under the age of 8 there and they immediately brought us this cute little animal stacking game. Even the one year old loved playing with these cute little animals!
My only complaint about this place is that since you are supposed to hang out for a while, they aren’t very fast with making the food. That doesn’t go over well with my kids when they are hungry and have to sit and wait for food, so definitely plan ahead if you take a group there! However, all of the kids loved the chocolate peanut butter spread they provide with the apples in the kids meal! We give it 2 thumbs up! 😋
Chuck E. Cheese on Capital Blvd.
3501-131 Capital Blvd, Raleigh, NC 27604
You can read our full review here, but this is pretty much the same Chuck E. Cheese you remember as a kid, with some new twists! The menu includes pizza, wings, dessert, and a salad bar. They also have a new Cauliflower crust pizza – perfect for those on Keto!
In addition to the traditional arcade games, they also have the mini rides you used to see outside of grocery stores and the animatronic Chuck E. Cheese show plays every half hour, so there’s something fun for everyone! This spot has been added to our rotation of fun dinner places to go to with grandma and grandpa!
Bull City Burger in Durham
107 East Parrish Street
I haven’t actually been here yet, but I have been informed that they have a great kids play area that includes a little table and chairs, a kitchen set, coloring supplies, some cars and trucks, and some stuffed animals. There is table seating right next to the play area so you can eat and keep an eye on the kids at the same time!
Amberly Local in Cary
718 Slash Pine Drive, Cary, NC
Amberly Local in Cary has a play kitchen and kids corner! They serve from a cold kitchen that includes sandwiches and charcuterie boards (for adults AND kids).
Pompieri Pizza in Durham
102 City Hall Plaza, Durham, NC
Grab some pizza and let the kids play in the kids corner! It’s small, but you can grab the table right next to it and pretend you’re on a romantic date!
Sky Zone Raleigh
2101 Westinghouse Blvd Suite 111, Raleigh, NC
I know, this isn’t a restaurant, but they have a large seating area onsite and you can order pizza and snacks while your kids jump. Checkout their family night on Sunday nights from 4-6:30pm where they package 4 jump passes, pizza, and drinks for $50!
Read our full review here.
Stars and Strikes Family Entertainment Center
4020 Capital Blvd, Raleigh, NC
Stars and Strikes offers an onsite restaurant in addition to their bowling alley, arcade, laser tag, and bumper cars. They also have eat and play combos to get the most bang for your buck!
Read our full review here.
Chick-fil-A playground
It’s every mom’s favorite! Impeccable customer service, clean facility, and who can pass up that awesome chicken?! Unfortunately, a lot of chocolate closed their playgrounds during the pandemic and never reopened them. Those that are open each have a little bit different playground structure. Below are the ones I’m familiar with. If you have any other locations to add let me know in the comments!
- Heritage Village – the best in our opinion! The biggest playground, stairs so the littles can climb up easily, plus a more open dining room for easy viewing.
- Falls Village – tot area on the ground, but it has the platform steps that the little ones can’t get up
- Wake Forest – tot area on the ground, but it has the platform steps that the little ones can’t get up
- Knightdale – stairs so little ones can get up easily
McDonald’s play space
McDonald’s play spaces were some of my favorite, but now all of the locations in Raleigh have remodeled and I don’t like the new layout at all! The play area has shrunk significantly and it’s tucked back in a corner with no door so young kids can easily escape. They have also removed all tables from the play area except for maybe one, which has been taken by other parents the last few times I’ve been there. The good thing is that now all play spaces are indoors, unlike some that were indoor/outdoor spaces but never had the heaters turned on in the winter so you froze to death just to let your kid play!
Due to the new setup, parents are forced to either sit outside the door to make sure their kid doesn’t escape, (but you can’t see the playground from there), or you have to sit outside the glass viewing window (where you can’t see the door). It just doesn’t work for my young ones as well as it used to.
Burger King
7102 Highway 64 East, Knightdale, NC 27545
101 Boling St, Clayton, NC 27520
An unlikely addition, but some Burger King locations have awesomely big indoor play spaces! The one in Knightdale and Clayton can keep my kids entertained for hours, although the Knightdale location hasn’t been the cleanest the last few times we went. It also has an airflow problem so in the summer it can get pretty hot! The tunnels of the play space go over the seating area and my kids love to crawl up there and wave to me! They also have a giant connect 4 game that the kids love to play with!
Waverly Place in Cary has an outdoor playground with several restaurants within eyeshot and outdoor seating. Grab food and let the kids play outside!
Chick-fil-A Capital Crossing no longer has a playground
Hi! Thank you so much for this article! Which McDonalds in Raleigh have the play spaces? I didn’t see locations for McDonalds like there were for the other spots.