Family-friendly Melbourne restaurants and fun activities for junior foodies

School's in for budding food buffs, with this round-up of food-related activities, classes and kid-friendly restaurants.

It's every food-loving parent's civic duty to educate their offspring in the ways of deliciousness. An appreciation beyond chicken nuggets and spag bol are more than mere boasting rights: research shows that food preferences are formed in early childhood and can affect a person's eating habits for life.

But we also know there's a fine line between gently cultivating the next generation of connoisseurs and letting your little darlings practice their restaurant manners on an unappreciative audience.

So we've taken a kids'-eye view and rounded up a bunch of things that make Melbourne's food scene tick.

From fun restaurants that even parents will love to a bunch of food-related activities the junior set can get stuck into, we've got you covered.

For dinner and a show

The site of the former Dracula's theatre restaurant near the Queen Victoria Market sure didn't lose its sense of fun when it was reborn as Panda Hot Pot at the end of 2019.

Resplendent in gold and red, the $6 million fitout is a close approximation of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meeting Kung Fu Panda: the "Wuxia martial arts" design includes mighty warriors, a digital sky ceiling and a floating 1.5-tonne steel dragon.

Nightly shows are part of the deal, whether that's the Changing Face (Bian Lian) dance or sugar art demonstrations.

And the food? The chain's signature flavour is a spicy 12-hour broth, but the kids can choose from three mild broths: tomato, mushroom and pork bone.

For adventurous eaters

While we're on the subject of hotpot, Chinatown stalwart Mrs Zan's Kitchen (shop 7, 206 Bourke Street, Melbourne) has a DIY smorgasbord stacked with all kinds of intrigue-provoking ingredients, from purple potato noodles to cheese rice cakes and monogrammed tofu.

Grab a plate and have it weighed (it's priced per 100 grams – a good maths teaching moment, if you're that kind of multi-tasking parent).

For unadulterated Middle Eastern fun

Even the fussiest young eater will love Miznon, a rollicking pita party where the ampitheatre-like setting (pictured) encourages a frenetic atmosphere, the orders are called with the blast of a cornet and the Israeli street food is equal parts delicious and approachable.

From a "bag of golden meat" to the city's fluffiest falafel, it's a menu designed to be eaten with the fingers.

For diffusion-istas

Just like the fashion world, the restaurant world is replete with examples of the diffusion label: otherwise known as big-name restaurateurs going less fancy and more fun.

Montalto is a serious Mornington Peninsula power player but the menu at the more casual Piazza also enjoys the kitchen garden smarts of chef Matt Wilkinson while offering a broad lawn and sculpture garden for restless legs to be stretched.

Just down the road, Pt Leo Estate has its own amazing sculpture park as well as profiteroles filled with whipped white chocolate ganache guaranteed to breach any age gap.

And if St Kilda's Stokehouse is too high-flying, downstairs Pontoon has a festive beachside vibe, an easygoing menu and the dessert talents of the restaurant group's new chief pastry chef, Ash Smith.

For sweet tooths

Going out on a limb here, but the Japanese Forest Cake at St Kilda's Black Star Pastry (pictured) kicks the contents of the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book to the kerb (or at least proves it's much easier to outsource the work).

If it's explosive good times you're after, the billowing clouds of liquid nitrogen at CBD gelato shop Dex2Rose will spark any kid's imagination.

Think of it as a public service to introduce the kids to the art of queueing for breakfast at the likes of Carnegie's Left Field, where they can test their Instagram skills on the rhubarb and strawberry waffles with white chocolate soil.

And you can have wish fulfilment delivered to your door thanks to LuxBite's Lolly Bag Cake, a seven-layered paean to the corner milk bar with banana lolly sponge, freckle crunch, mandarin jaffa ganache, musk mallow, spearmint leaf buttercream and a Red Ripperz glaze.

For active eaters

It's hard to forget Bill Murray's immortal line in Lost in Translation – "What kind of restaurant makes you cook your own food?" – but there's plenty to love when the kids take possession of the tongs.

Carlton's Shinbashi is all about the Japanese DIY barbecue art of yakiniku, with a menu bathed in the fatty excess of wagyu beef and pork belly, alongside seafood and veg.

Also worth noting: from Monday to Wednesday you can book a 90-minute all-you-can-eat session where kids eat for $19.

For digital natives

Most parents are engaged in an endless battle to reduce their children's screen time. But we submit to the court that the touch screen ordering at places like Melbourne pioneer China Red adds an engaging layer of novelty experience for junior restaurant refuseniks (plus the prawn dumplings made to look like dolphins, complete with eyes, are pretty damn cute).

For interactive fun

Nothing can beat a sushi train when it comes to a food delivery device that will encourage the kids to eat enthusiastically, but Federation Square hero Chocolate Buddha went one better in its recent renovation.

Now boasting not one but two sushi trains, there's a regular train showing off individual serves of nigiri sushi and sashimi, plus a single-track "bullet train" (pictured) that delivers izakaya dishes directly to your seat at pace.

All aboard Wed-Sun noon-2pm from July 1.

Bells and whistles

Memo: Places with playgrounds, space to run and kid-friendly entertainment don't always suck.

Look no further than Collingwood brewhouse Stomping Ground, where 30 beer taps ballast the adults-only vibes with a family-friendly menu and a split-level cubby house that could be the product of a bunch of year 3 kids taking over Grand Designs.

Spotswood newcomer Grazeland is more like a permanent festival, with around 50 food stalls, stages and roving entertainment (and it's right next door to Scienceworks).

For kid-friendly backyard barbecue vibes, also see Zymurgy in West Footscray, a charcoal-fired collaboration between Navi's Julian Hills and Hop Nation brewers.

Or check out the spectacular new Terra Wonder Adventure playspace at Brunswick East's CERES Environment Park – complete with a giant millipede – and incorporate a sidetrip to the wholesome on-site Merri cafe.

A classical education

Going strong since 1978, Stalactites' dependably late opening hours don't apply to the very young, but this institution on the Little Athens corner of Lonsdale and Russell streets remains a great spot to take the kids, thanks to scaled-down versions of Greek greatness such as gyros (pictured), calamari and kokkinisto (tomato-based beef casserole).

And what's not to love about a dining room where stalactites hang from the ceiling?

While we're on the classics, Pellegrini's provides an introduction to Melbourne's espresso bar culture, with a communal table tucked away inside the warm and inviting kitchen where the cooks will coo over the kids as they get stuck into Melbourne's most comforting lasagne.

To market

The Mini Marketeers program at Prahran Market is just the thing to induct the pre-school set into knowing a cabbage from a cauliflower and being able to pronounce kohlrabi with an emphasis on the middle syllable. Every Tuesday morning, Market Square plays host to free, non-preachy guided activities teaching youngsters about eating well.

Surf and turf

Australia's first surf park doesn't only have its location right near Melbourne Airport to recommend it. URBNSURF scored a coup with the Three Blue Ducks group taking charge of in-house dining.

Send the grommets onto the waves with a professional lesson, then follow up with lunch based on the pleasures of a pizza oven, rotisserie and charcoal pit.

Learn to cook

Fun fact: Involving kids in preparing their own meal often means they'll end up trying – and liking – foods they wouldn't have otherwise given a chance.

Sign them up (and yourself, should you wish) for a themed cooking class at Otao Kitchen, with a choice between Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese and others.

Pack the juniors off to learn the art of bao, sushi and more at Brunswick Kitchen's kids' classes and you'll reap the dinnertime benefits forevermore.

Get baking in your own home with pastry whiz Darren Purchese's July 4 online cookie class, complete with ingredient kit, available to click and collect from Burch & Purchese in South Yarra or have delivered statewide by Providoor.

Kits in the kitchen

Double down on the excitement of a parcel delivery with a home meal kit.

The damper-making kit from Yarraville's Indigenous cafe Mabu Mabu – complete with ingredients and recipe card – lets you make three kinds of damper at home with wattleseed, saltbush or pumpkin. And if you want to step it up a notch, try your hand at their wattleseed pavlova with strawberry gum cream and lemon myrtle jam.

Or head Sicily way with a cannoli-making kit from Cannoleria – an offer the kids surely can't refuse.

Put the hot into choc

The winter school holidays call for the repeated application of hot chocolate – and there's nowhere better than the North Melbourne HQ of specialty chocolatier Mork.

At this converted 1950s-era bakery, you'll find hot chocolate treated as an artform, with five blends to choose from, including the Junior Dark 50% or, as we like to call it, the gateway drug to rich dark chocolate.

Read all about it

A visit to specialist culinary bookstore Books for Cooks at the Queen Victoria Market is a must-do on any aspiring gourmand's journey.

"We make bespoke recommendations based on the child's age and interest," says co-owner Tim White. "For middle-school readers, authors like Alice Zaslavsky, Jamie Oliver and even Yotam Ottolenghi are great – Mediterranean cooking in particular has fairly simple cooking techniques and are a good way to show kids how to use vegetables."

• Ten top books for young cooks

Go back to the source

Hit the road and take a day trip to the heart of Victoria's dairy country. Just off the Great Ocean Road near Port Campbell, the cafe at Timboon's Schulz Organic Creamery was recently relaunched with a menu by pastry chef Hila Perry (Bibelot, Vue de Monde, Fat Duck and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal) that outshines the nearby Twelve Apostles (don't go past the "earthquake" chocolate cake served with the dairy's luscious cream).