The Dilworth room on Scott Avenue, the Charlotte original of a wood-fired pizza company that now runs twenty locations across four states and still keeps its corporate office on East 7th Street in Charlotte. It publishes a kids menu and a separate gluten-free menu as downloadable PDFs, along with an allergen sheet.
Dilworth Neighborhood Grille is a bar and grill on East Morehead Street that is open until 2 a.m. every day of the week, which makes it one of the few genuinely late kitchens in this part of the city. Wings and pizza are the signature items alongside sandwiches, burgers, salads and barbecue. The room calls itself family friendly and has outdoor seating.
A grill and taphouse whose own line is that it makes non-pretentious menu items and pours beer selections that cannot be found just anywhere. It runs a kids deal that changes by location: one free kid's meal per $12 of adult purchases, dine in only, one child per adult, on Wednesdays at the SouthPark and Rea Farms rooms.
Flower Child serves bowls, wraps and salads at The Bowl, with clearly marked vegan and gluten-free choices. The menu also has a Healthy Kids section with a choice of protein and two sides. This is the Bowl Street branch in Ballantyne.
BellyUp! Charlotte / Family
17 spots
The Dilworth room on Scott Avenue, the Charlotte original of a wood-fired pizza company that now runs twenty locations across four states and still keeps its corporate office on East 7th Street in Charlotte. It publishes a kids menu and a separate gluten-free menu as downloadable PDFs, along with an allergen sheet.
Dilworth Neighborhood Grille is a bar and grill on East Morehead Street that is open until 2 a.m. every day of the week, which makes it one of the few genuinely late kitchens in this part of the city. Wings and pizza are the signature items alongside sandwiches, burgers, salads and barbecue. The room calls itself family friendly and has outdoor seating.
A grill and taphouse whose own line is that it makes non-pretentious menu items and pours beer selections that cannot be found just anywhere. It runs a kids deal that changes by location: one free kid's meal per $12 of adult purchases, dine in only, one child per adult, on Wednesdays at the SouthPark and Rea Farms rooms.
Flower Child serves bowls, wraps and salads at The Bowl, with clearly marked vegan and gluten-free choices. The menu also has a Healthy Kids section with a choice of protein and two sides. This is the Bowl Street branch in Ballantyne.
Harriet's first freestanding restaurant brings its hamburgers to Bowl Street. The company describes this Ballantyne location as relaxed and family-friendly, with an open-air setting where guests can stay awhile. Its own menu and ordering link are on the branch page.
A New York style pizza room on East 7th Street in Elizabeth, established in 2004. The company's own site invites guests onto the patio, calls the restaurant family and dog friendly, and publishes a kids menu with pizza, chicken, pasta, ravioli and macaroni and cheese. Its current specials page does not publish a kids-eat-free offer, so this profile does not treat the older Tuesday promotion as current.
The South Boulevard Mac's Speed Shop brings barbecue, a published kids menu, and a casual room to South End. The official recurring Kids Night listing ended May 26, 2026, so this profile does not treat the former Tuesday price as a current offer.
Mellow Mushroom's Ballantyne restaurant serves stone-baked pizza with a draft beer and cocktail selection. Its own branch menu offers vegan and gluten-free pizza choices, and the location has a patio. This is the Ballantyne Village Way restaurant.
Come for shepherd's pie and a pint, then stay for the music. Nora Mac's brings a traditional Irish pub to Ballantyne Corners, with live music on Friday and Saturday nights and a rooftop patio for an outdoor drink. The menu reaches beyond burgers: try the Irish spice bag with curry sauce or a full Irish breakfast with black and white pudding. Kids have their own menu, including smaller fish and chips and shepherd's pie. Co-owner Dominic Kennedy opened the pub in the former Blackthorne space in late December 2024. Football is shown on TV too, so the same room can suit a family meal, a match or a lively music night.
An Italian restaurant in the Shoppes at Ardrey Kell in south Ballantyne, run by Eloy Roy. Handmade pasta and classic Italian dishes are the menu, with catering on the side. Its own site says the restaurant was originally founded in Miami before this Charlotte room.
Optimist Hall fills the 1892 Highland Park Gingham Mill on North Brevard Street between Optimist Park and NoDa. The long brick mill and its 1895 smokestack now hold more than 25 food stalls, dine-in restaurants, a full-service bar, a brewery and shops. It is the kind of place where a group can split up for tacos, dumplings, barbecue, pizza or Ethiopian food and still eat at the same table.
A Charlotte-grown Latin street food group whose current specials page lists a Wednesday kids deal: children under 12 eat for 99 cents with an adult meal.
The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery opened in 2009 and calls itself Charlotte's oldest standing independent brewery. It brews German-style beer to the Reinheitsgebot, using only water, malt, hops and yeast. Its LoSo home sits on a one-acre biergarten shaded by mature oak, pecan and hickory trees, which the brewery calls the largest biergarten in the Southeast. A second room opened in Ballantyne.
A rotisserie chicken counter at the quiet end of Montford Drive, known locally as RoCo. The chicken is marinated Costa Rican style and served with vegetable sides, sandwiches, wraps and bowls. The company's own copy dates the business to 1991.
A Plaza Midwood Mexican kitchen and cantina whose current official page lists kids eat free on Mondays with an adult purchase. The page does not publish an age limit for the offer.
Two Scoops was founded in 2016 by three partners its own site names as Marques, who makes the ice cream, Jae, who runs operations, and Rich, the entrepreneur. The shop makes everything in house and keeps more than 100 flavours in rotation through the year, plus ice cream cakes.
Vaulted Oak opened on 9 June 2021 inside a refurbished BB&T bank building on Monroe Road in east Charlotte, which is where the name comes from. Outside there is a large patio, covered seating and lawn chairs around a fire pit, plus cornhole. There is no kitchen; food trucks run Wednesday through Sunday, Sal's pizza is across the street, and people are told they can bring their own food.
The same family spots, sorted by the reasons people actually pick them.
Recommendations from real Charlotteans, always attributed to whoever wrote them.
Nobody’s shared a family recommendation yet. Be the first.
Every Charlotte spot here already has a free profile going, put together from what you publish publicly. If we have you filed wrong, or we are missing what you most want to be known for, tell us.
Get BellyUp! finds for your city and the things you love.
