Best museum cafes for kids in NYC

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Photo by David Rosenzweig

El Museo del Barrio
After glimpsing artworks at the institution dedicated to Latin American culture, introduce your brood to its myriad flavors at El Café. Kids can savor the menu’s simpler offerings for $3.50 apiece or less: soft- and hard-shell tacos, tamales, cheese and guava empanadas, flan de coco. Or share a lunch entrée ($9; selection changes daily) like braised chicken with black mole or pork mofongo. The spot boasts a variety of Pan-Latino beverages as well: Tots might sip sodas from Colombia or Ecuador, tropical fruit juice or (nonalcoholic) Jamaican ginger beer. The café, which in good weather spills out into the courtyard opposite Central Park, will coordinate its menu with the museum’s programming, to highlight the palate along with the palette of each showcased culture.—James Lobo

Museum of Modern Art
As sleek as a Mondrian painting, Café 2 features an Italian-inspired menu with an organic, seasonal bent. For tykes with pickier tastes, the kids’ menu ($8) offers a choice of pasta noodles topped with tomato sauce or butter and Parmesan, or a panino either savory (mozzarella) or sweet (peanut butter, Nutella and bananas). If you’ve got a more adventurous eater, share a salumi and cheese board ($21) or a hearty pasta dish like rigatoni with Italian sausage ($15). Creamy polenta with just a hint of cheese ($10; baby- and toddler-sized portions offered free) is perfect for tots, who get to recline in style on mod Stokke high chairs. Communal tables evoke a chic Euro-bistro, so you and your brood can feel cultured without looking at a single artistic work (not that we recommend that).—Eleni Crush

Rubin Museum of Art
Featuring a largely Himalayan-inspired menu that mixes in a few American classics, The Café @ RMA is a favorite among those who like to eat with their hands. Vegetable momos ($9.50), or Tibetan dumplings, are served with both a creamy, spicy (but not too spicy) sauce and a sweet ginger soy sauce. The “naanini” melt ($8.75), a grilled cheese-and-tomato sandwich, switches out the typical bread for subtly spiced nan and comes with snap pea crisps or chips. Finish off the meal with a gooey, cardamom-infused brownie or an orange-tinged saffron tea loaf (priced daily) while soaking up the café’s tranquil hues and soothing, regional Himalayan soundtrack.—EC

Scandinavia House
The Smörgås Chef central kitchen cranks out 100,000 Swedish meatballs each month, so you can bet that the mini-chain takes its köttbullar quite seriously at each of its three branches—including the one located at the family-welcoming Scandinavian cultural center. The signature dish, served with lingonberry jam, features prominently on the regular menu as well as the $9 children’s menu (for those under age 13). Other entrées include “under the sea soup”—or seafood bisque—plus smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, baked chicken fingers and a burger. Each comes with mashed potatoes or a salad, lingonberry juice or milk, plus a slender vanilla waffle half with strawberries and cream for a sweet finish. Kids will quickly destroy the elegantly plated portions as they gobble their way to dessert, perhaps pausing to crayon in the dinosaurs on their menu. Parents, meanwhile, can address more adult concerns, such as the great gravlax-versus-smoked-salmon debate.—Caitlin Brody