In this article we’ll take a look, at the various food options that tend to work for kids in Mexico but of course, it’s important to remember that Mexican cuisine is vast and varies by region. You can always ask waiters for advice, and at the end of this article I’ve included some basic vocabulary to help you ask for plain food.

A lot of this is based on my own experience with my kids and with the kids of my friends over many years.

🧇 You’ll often also find waffles and hotcakes on breakfast menus, as well as fruit plates. Waffle (pronounced waff-le) and hotcakes are served with fruit, and honey (miel) or syrup (jarabe).

🥮 Pan dulce (sweet breads) are popular breakfast foods, and are often dunked in coffee or hot chocolate (especially in Oaxaca).

🥣 If you’re staying in a hotel that offers breakfast, it’ll often be buffet style and will have plenty of international options as well as Mexican breakfast foods. You’ll find toast, cereals, bacon etc.

→ The MexicoCassie breakfast guide contains more information about other (awesome) breakfast options.

Lunch / Supper in Mexico

So now that you’re feeling confident about breakfasts, let’s take a look at lunch and supper options. Again, the most important thing to remember is that Mexico is extremely child and family friendly. Your kids are welcome pretty much everywhere, and staff will generally be more than happy to help you find something for them to eat on the menu if you ask.

🛝 There are plenty of dedicated kid/family friendly restaurants around Mexico that have play spaces where the kids will be entertained and monitored (or not, depending on the restaurant). Sometimes, particularly when it’s really hot and you’re all exhausted, these are a great option.

The kids’ menu (menu infantil)

→ see the MexicoCassie guide to drinks in Mexico for more information about drink options in Mexico (includes soft and alcoholic drinks)

→ see the MexicoCassie guide to safe drinking water in Mexico

Tortillas – the mainstay of the meal

Tortillas are an absolute staple of a Mexican meal, a pile of them will generally be placed on the table like bread is in Europe (the ones in the photo above are special blue corn tortillas).

Broadly speaking, in the north of Mexico you’ll often find flour tortillas (tortillas de harina), and in the rest of the country, they’ll be corn (tortillas de maiz). When you’re lucky they’ll be handmade (hecho a mano).

If asked, my kids will always, always choose corn tortillas, because my babies are Yucatecans at heart. And if there’s a pile of them on the table they’ll always bite holes in one and use it as a mask before eating it.

👣 Did you know that there are plenty of cooking classes around Mexico that welcome kids, like this excellent option in Mérida where you visit the market, try various local dishes and then spend the afternoon making a delicious 3 course meal?

Choosing meat dishes for the kids

Tacos

When ordering your tacos, you may be asked, “¿con todo?” (with everything?). “Everything” is generally cilantro, onion, sometimes a salsa. In some taco spots, the toppings will be on the table for you to add yourself.

Non spicy tacos the kids can enjoy

Dry meats

Pastor – pork. This is my kids’ favourite, photo on right

Carne Asada – grilled pork or beef

Carnitas – slow cooked pork with a gentle seasoning, shredded into tacos

Milanesa – breaded pork or chicken

Lechon – suckling pig

Saucy meats

Birria – goat or beef

Cochinita pibil – pork, another favourite for my kids

Barbacoa – lamb or beef

Tinga de pollo – chicken

Other meat options

Mole – typical in Oaxaca and Puebla particularly. It’s practically impossible to find the same mole twice but in essence, it’s a heavy, rich sauce over chicken or pork. People often assume that mole is a chocolate sauce but that’s not quite accurate. Some moles have chocolate as an ingredient but you’d really not know it from eating it. It doesn’t taste of chocolate.

(But I do admit that this is how we got our kids to try their first mole – you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do, right?)

Cochinita Pibil – a speciality from Yucatán. This is slow roasted pork that has been marinated in citrus. It’s my kids favourite food in the entire world (photo above is cochinita pibil)

Empanizado – breaded chicken / pork. This is on many menus and will a life saver for you, I’m sure. My kids tend to order this in seafood restaurants if they’re not feeling like eating seafood (I have one with a prawn allergy so it’s helpful to always have an easy non seafoody-option)

A la plancha – a chunk of meat (chicken or beef generally), served with fries/rice and veg

Soups – look out for sopa azteca, sopa de lima & pozole.

Sopa azteca is a traditional tortilla soup generally with tomato, cheese, meat, avocado, cilantro and onions. The broth may be tomato or meat based. It can be made vegetarian.

Sopa de lima is mainly found in Yucatán and is contains shredded turkey, lima (like a lima), onion, avocado etc.

Pozole is traditionally made with corn, pork and chiles (although I’ve never found it spicy and my kids do eat it)

➕ Of course, you’ll find plenty of international restaurants, burger joints, pizza spots etc. No one is going to go hungry in Mexico.

Vegetarian options for the kids in Mexico

This is both hard and easy. There are plenty of vegetarian options in Mexico but if your kids aren’t into vegetables like cactus (nopal), or huitlacoche (corn fungus), they might not enjoy themselves. If your family is vegetarian you may find non-Mexican restaurants easier than traditional Mexican ones.

People may claim the refried beans and the tamales are vegetarian but these are NOT usually vegetarian as they tend to be cooked in animal fat. You’ll need to ask to be sure. Same with taco fillings that seem innocuous such as ‘papas’ (potatoes), that could well have bits of chorizo in them.

Sides and small dishes are very often vegetarian

Quesadillas – you’d expect these to always be with cheese but you’ll need to confirm you want cheese if you’re in Mexico City

Guacamole and totopos – mashed avocado and chips, just be sure to ask if it has chiles as everywhere makes their own version

Feeding the kids at the beach

→ Read the MexicoCassie guide to the best family beaches in Mexico (picture above is in Sayulita)

Pretty obviously, there’s going to be a lot of fish served at the beach. Most dishes at the beach are served with (weirdly always cold) rice, fries and some salad

Big wins with kids are:

Fish tacos – sometimes in batter, sometimes not, but it’s pretty much always going to be a basic white fish that any fish eating kid will be able to cope with

Camarones al coco – prawns (again sometimes in batter, sometimes not) served with a coconut/coconut & apple sauce.

Empanizado/a la plancha – usually chicken, sometimes beef, breaded or not. Perfect for the non-seafood eating kids

Snacks / Street food

There’s always street food to be enjoyed in Mexico, and much of it will feel like heaven to the kids.

Tamales – an acquired taste if you’ve not had them before but a huge, huge win with my kids and all the kids I know. Various meaty centres wrapped in a corn dough. Sometimes also possible to find delicious sweet tamales.

Esquites / elotes – corn in a cup with toppings, corn on the cob with toppings. It’s important to warn the kids that corn in Mexico is not sweet or they’ll get a nasty shock.

Marquesitas – a hard ice-cream cone cylinder stuffed with toppings (usually cheese and peanut butter)

​Fruits – Mexico is fruit heaven. It’s safe to eat, fresh and delicious.

Kid friendly restaurants

​Generally all restaurants in Mexico are kid friendly as in the kids are welcome pretty much everywhere everyone will be happy to provide plain food for your child. 

Los Trompos – In Yucatán, my kids’ favourite is, without a doubt, Los Trompos. This is a family friendly chain restaurant with decent Mexican dishes and monitored kid play spaces

VIPS – a Spanish chain that’s found across Mexico serving decent Mexican food and often with a kid friendly space

Pollo Feliz – also across much of Mexico, this is good options for rotisserie chicken and fries/sides. Also offers play spaces for the kids

Useful phrases for eating out with small kids in Mexico

Yes, I know, you’ve got google translate but you might not always have time to grab your phone or your data might be used up so here is a quick list of useful phrases.

Basically, they’re all variants of ‘can you make that plain, my kid is too fussy to try interesting food?’

Hay menu infantil? – do you have a kids’ menu? Many places will have a kids’ menu and it’ll be stuffed full of burgers, pizzas and quesadillas, possibly even a sandwich or two. And it’ll often have pictures, making it easy to understand.

¿Tiene comida simple?  – ‘do you have plain food?’

Sin nada– ‘with nothing‘/’plain’, otherwise, of course you risk contamination by evil salad, condiments or refried beans.

sin ensalada’ – without salad, ‘sin frijoles’ – without beans, ‘sin salsa’- without sauce, ‘sin queso’ – without cheese, many a time.

¿Tiene quesadillas? / ¿hay quesadillas? – do you have quesadillas? For when you give up and just accept your kids are eating quesadillas for a week. Even when they’re not on the menu, most places will rustle up a quesadilla or two for a child. I refer you to the text above though to ensure your quesadilla is nice and plain!