Where to Eat with Kids in New Orleans: 4 Picks

A family meal in New Orleans can give adults Creole cooking without asking children to abandon familiar food. Muriel’s Jackson Square pairs a seated dinner with a children’s menu, while Picnic Provisions & Whiskey, Blue Oak BBQ and Pizza Delicious offer fried chicken, barbecue and pizza in Uptown, Mid-City and Bywater. Choose by what your children will eat and where you already plan to spend the day.

Choose a family meal

Restaurant	Area	What to order	Adult food budget	Child food budget	Weekly closing day
Muriel’s Jackson Square	French Quarter	Shrimp and grits; chicken tenders	$30–45	$10–15	None
Picnic Provisions & Whiskey	Uptown	Crawfish-boil fried chicken and biscuits	$15–25	$5–15	Monday
Blue Oak BBQ	Mid-City	Pulled pork sandwich; garlic macaroni cheese	$15–25	$5–10	None
Pizza Delicious	Bywater	Plain cheese slices or cheese pie	$5–15	$5–10	Monday

The best choice is the one that matches your child’s usual order. Choose Muriel’s for a seated Creole dinner in the French Quarter, Picnic for seasoned chicken Uptown, Blue Oak for a counter-ordered barbecue meal in Mid-City, or Pizza Delicious for plain pizza in Bywater.

Reserve a seated dinner when a fixed time and seats together matter. Allow for queues at counter-service restaurants, eat earlier if your children tire, and treat outdoor tables as weather-dependent. If price is the deciding factor for your next meal, budget food stops in New Orleans offers a separate selection.

Muriel’s Jackson Square

Muriel’s Jackson Square gives you Creole cooking beside Jackson Square with familiar children’s dishes. Its polished, seated dinner suits a family wanting to eat together rather than carry food to a table. Children are welcome, and the children’s menu is available throughout the day.

For adults, shrimp and grits brings Louisiana Gulf shrimp over slow-cooked, stone-ground grits, a dish made from ground maize. Leeks, smoked tomato butter sauce and crispy garlic complete the dinner-menu preparation. It is a way to try a distinctly local main while a child chooses something familiar.

Chicken tenders with fries and rotini pasta with creamy Alfredo cheese sauce are both children’s options. Grilled chicken breast with mashed potatoes and the vegetable of the day, or fried shrimp with fries, give you alternatives if your child wants a different main. Let those preferences settle the order before adding extra courses.

Plan an early dinner here, rather than an afternoon main meal. Dinner runs Sunday–Thursday, 5pm–9:30pm, and Friday–Saturday, 5pm–10pm. Saturday brunch and Sunday jazz brunch have a separate 10:30am–2pm service window. For a longer seated meal, starters, dessert and drinks increase the bill beyond the main-course estimates.

Picnic Provisions & Whiskey

Picnic Provisions & Whiskey in Uptown centres the meal on fried chicken with crawfish-boil-spiced batter, rather than a plain coating. That seasoning is the important taste decision for children who already like chicken but prefer it simply prepared. Its dining room lets the family eat together indoors.

The chicken comes as thigh plates or white-meat tender plates, both with biscuits. An American biscuit is a soft, savoury bread, not a sweet biscuit. It gives you something to share alongside the chicken without building a separate meal around another main.

• Thigh plates: two pieces with one biscuit, or five pieces with two biscuits.
• White-meat tender plates: three pieces with one biscuit, or five pieces with two biscuits.

Choose an individual plate for someone with a full appetite, or divide a larger plate when children want smaller portions. The biscuit count matters when several people are sharing, so decide who wants one as well as how much chicken everyone will eat. White-meat tenders offer a familiar format, but they still carry the restaurant’s seasoned coating.

The lower end of the food budget assumes a child shares chicken and biscuit rather than having an individual plate. Larger appetites and extra orders move the meal towards the higher end. The service window accommodates both lunch and an early dinner, so the choice can follow your Uptown plans rather than require a formal evening meal.

Blue Oak BBQ

Blue Oak BBQ’s North Carrollton Avenue branch in Mid-City offers a pulled pork sandwich for a full meal and roasted garlic macaroni cheese for a smaller appetite. Pulled pork is slow-cooked pork separated into tender strands, served here in a sandwich. The macaroni cheese is a useful child’s side order, though its garlic flavour makes it different from a plain version.

Choose the sandwich for a child who wants a substantial main, or a smaller macaroni cheese order when that is enough. A side-sized order is not necessarily a complete meal for an older child, so base the choice on appetite rather than age alone. Extra sides and drinks raise the spending estimate.

Order at the counter, then take a seat, and staff bring the food to your table. This keeps the ordering casual without requiring you to carry the meal back yourself. Decide the family’s order before joining the queue, particularly if children are choosing between a sandwich and a side.

The covered outdoor patio gives you a place to eat outside at the North Carrollton Avenue branch. Food service runs 11am–8:30pm, accommodating lunch and early dinner.

Pizza Delicious

Pizza Delicious on Piety Street in Bywater offers plain cheese pizza by the slice as well as whole New York-style pies. The large, thin-crust format makes a slice a straightforward child’s order, without extra toppings to negotiate. Adults can also build a meal from slices rather than committing the family to a whole pizza.

Start with individual slices when appetites differ or only some of you want pizza. Sharing a cheese pie makes more sense when the group wants the same topping and will eat enough to justify a whole one. The food budgets assume a slice-based meal or a share of a pie, with children taking smaller portions than adults. Additional slices, toppings and drinks increase the bill.

For eating in, order at the counter and take your food to a table. Decide whether everyone wants slices or a shared pie before ordering, so you are not committing to more pizza than the group needs.

Takeaway is also available, ordered online or by phone, if eating elsewhere suits your family better. The same service window covers dine-in and pickup, so either works for lunch or an early dinner in Bywater.

Sources & fact-checking

Checks against the sources below cover: services, opening hours, key figures, and closures.

• Muriel’s Jackson Square — service
• Muriel’s Jackson Square — opening hours
• Contact – Muriel’s Jackson Square
• Muriel’s Jackson Square — key figures
• Children’s Menu – Muriel’s Jackson Square
• Blue Oak BBQ — service
• Blue Oak BBQ — closures
• Blue Oak BBQ — Toast ordering page
• Blue Oak BBQ online ordering menu
• Bratz Y’all! — service
• Pizza Delicious — opening hours
• Picnic Provisions & Whiskey — key figures