Eating out as a family isn’t so costly at these Pittsburgh restaurants, where kids can eat for free or close to it.
Everything is getting more expensive, and Americans are feeling the pressure, with more than half concerned about the growing cost of food. Many families are cutting their expenses, especially little luxuries like dining out. However, several restaurants in Pittsburgh have specials that make the cost of kids’ dinners negligible or totally free—meaning a special night out is much more possible.
While national chains may tout kids’ deals, there are plenty of local restaurants and regional favorites in the Steel City that offer free or cheap kids’ meals, whether on certain nights or any day of the week. All you have to do is dine in and purchase an adult meal.
Check out these 10 places where you can bring your family for affordable eats, both in the city proper and in surrounding suburbs.
1. Over the Bar Bicycle Cafe—Bridgeville and Allison Park
The deal: Kids 10 and under eat free on Monday nights
Local restaurant Over the Bar Bicycle Cafe, known by regulars as OTB, is beloved by cycling enthusiasts and anyone who enjoys fresh food served in a fun and relaxed environment. Here, elevated comfort food gets a bicycle theme, with options like “the trail builder burger” and “the bike lane BLT.”
OTB’s Hastings (Bridgeville) and North Park Boathouse (Allison Park) spots each host “kids night” on Mondays, when kids 10 and under eat free from 5 p.m. to close (one free kids’ meal per adult meal). Most kids’ meals, which also have fun names like “the tandem” grilled cheese or “the tricycle” chicken tenders, include a choice of hand-cut chips, fries, or applesauce. Plus, kids’ meals are served on a frisbee that you can take home!
2. Emporio: A Meatball Joint—Downtown Pittsburgh
The deal: Kids 12 and under eat free on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 5 to 7 p.m.
If you want a meal as part of a night on the town, Emporio: A Meatball Joint has you covered with free kids’ meals in the city’s downtown Cultural District. Located on the first floor of downtown Pittsburgh’s multi-level dining concept, Sienna Mercato, Emporio is a fun Italian eatery offering several different ways to enjoy the humble meatball.
And on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays between 5 and 7 p.m., kids 12 and under eat free at Emporio. Your “lil’ ballers,” as the restaurant calls them, can choose between beef, spicy pork, vegetarian, or chicken meatballs; mac n’ cheese; fried chicken balls; or spaghetti.
3. Roots Natural Kitchen—Multiple locations
The deal: Kids 12 and under eat free every day
Fast-casual Roots Natural Kitchen has 22 locations in the eastern U.S., and six of those spots are located in the Pittsburgh area. With its signature salad and grain bowls, Roots has made healthy eating both easy and delicious for folks in Pittsburgh. Plus, eating at Roots is especially affordable for families—kids 12 and under eat free, all the time! Kids can customize their own bowls, filling them with fresh, good-for-you ingredients like avocado, beans, beets, chicken, corn, greens, rice, sweet potatoes, tofu, and much more.
In the Pittsburgh area, you can find Roots in Bloomfield, North Fayette, the North Hills, Oakland, South Fayette, and the South Hills.
4. Cinderlands Warehouse—Pittsburgh’s Strip District
The Deal: Kids 12 and under eat free on Wednesdays
Pittsburgh breweries are often family-friendly, and that’s certainly the case with the city’s Cinderlands Beer Co., which crashed into the Pittsburgh craft brewing scene in 2017 and quickly became a local mainstay.
Cinderlands Warehouse, the Strip District home of Cinderlands, is 17,500 square feet dedicated to brewing, drinking, and dining, with plenty of family-friendly seating options and games and other diversions throughout.
The restaurant at Cinderlands Warehouse offers a full menu from its scratch kitchen, featuring a renowned smash burger as well as creative entrees. Plus, on Wednesdays, kids eat free! They can opt for nuggets, fries, grilled cheese, a chicken sandwich, or their own burger.
5. Kings Family Restaurant—Multiple locations
The deal: Kids 12 and under eat free on Mondays
Kings Family Restaurant is perfect for a nostalgic evening out—though it’s now down to just two locations, the regional restaurant chain was ubiquitous in southwestern Pennsylvania throughout the 90s and early aughts. You can still grab the diner-style comfort food in Armstrong County’s Kittanning, roughly 45 minutes from the city, or farther north at the other Kings location in Venango County’s Franklin.
Kids eat free at Kings on Mondays and can choose from a long list of menu items, including corn dogs, burgers, pasta, and even breakfast food.
6. Caliente Pizza and Drafthouse—Multiple locations
The deal: Kids 12 and under eat free on Mondays
At Caliente Pizza and Drafthouse, you can enjoy the pizza at the URL worldsbestpizza.com! But even without the web address—and the fact that Caliente won an award for the best pizza in America at Italy’s Pizza World Championship in 2019—Caliente serves delicious pizza in a friendly, laid-back atmosphere.
The restaurant is a great place to watch a Pirates, Penguins, or Steelers game with your family—especially on Mondays, when kids eat free! Kids can order a personal pizza, stromboli, a salad, a burger, chicken tenders, or wings.
There are a handful of Caliente locations throughout Greater Pittsburgh.
7. Penn Brewery—Pittsburgh’s Troy Hill
The deal: Kids 12 and under eat for half price on Tuesdays
As Pittsburgh’s oldest craft brewery, Penn Brewery has made its beers in the historic Eberhardt and Ober Brewery buildings in the Troy Hill neighborhood since 1986. Its spacious restaurant, perfect for families, offers German-influenced cuisine (schnitzel!) and Pittsburgh favorites (pierogi!). Plus, on Tuesdays, meals from the kids’ menu are half price.
8. Hastina Royal Indian Cuisine—Robinson Township
The deal: Kids 5 and under eat free on unlimited dosa and tiffin Thursday nights
Buffets are often a great choice to save money when dining out, and Hastina Royal Indian Cuisine offers unique all-you-can-eat options with South Indian specialties in Robinson Town Centre. On Thursdays starting at 5 p.m., the restaurant serves unlimited dosas (thin, savory crepes with delicious fillings) and more than a dozen varieties of tiffins (traditional meals usually served in metal tiffin boxes), which are also all-you-can-eat. The Thursday meal is $13 for adults, but kids 5 and under eat for free.
9. Eat’n Park—Multiple locations
The deal: Kids’ meals start at $3.99 and kids 3 and under eat free at the salad bar every day
Pittsburgh-based Eat’n Park is a regional mainstay that has attracted hungry families, drawn to the affordable salad bar and iconic Smiley Cookies, for decades. The American restaurant, which is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, is a great option for those with children, as kids’ meals start at $3.99, a price that includes a free Smiley Cookie. Plus, kids 3 and under eat for free with an adult salad bar purchase (kids 10 and under eat at the salad bar for $7.49).
Eat’n Park locations can be found throughout Greater Pittsburgh.
10. Hoss’s Steak & Sea House—Multiple locations
The deal: Kids 5 and under eat free at the salad bar every day; kids 12 and under eat for $3.99 on Wednesdays
The regional chain Hoss’s Steak & Sea House, a family restaurant launched in the 1980s that’s still run by its founder, can be found almost exclusively across western and central Pennsylvania. That regionalism makes Hoss’s somewhat distinctive among chains. As Pittsburgh City Paper wrote in an ode to the restaurant in 2024, “Hoss’s exudes an understated wackiness, a true campiness, an anachronistic refusal to keep up with trends, achieving an earnest quality many establishments, in an attempt to curate some kind of blue-collar appeal, could only imitate.”
Its appeal also includes affordable kids’ meals! At the family restaurant, kids 5 and under eat free all the time at the salad bar, which in addition to salad includes soup, bread, and—most importantly—the dessert bar. In addition, every Wednesday is kids’ night, when kids 12 and under eat for $3.99. The kids’ menu even includes an option for sirloin steak tips.
Hoss’s presence in Pittsburgh’s surrounds includes restaurants in Fayette County’s Belle Vernon, Westmoreland County’s Greensburg and Murrysville, Mercer County’s Grove City, and Indiana County’s Indiana.
