RFK Rankings · Fort Lauderdale
Best Family Restaurants in Fort Lauderdale 2026
Family-friendly · Fort Lauderdale · 6 rooms ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 18, 2026 · Updated June 18, 2026 · Reviewed by Fredrik Filipsson, Editor-in-Chief · How we rank · Corrections
Fort Lauderdale is a boat town, and the best family meals here happen with a mallet in hand or a dock outside the window. The signature move is messy and loud: butcher paper, a wooden hammer, a bucket of garlic crabs, and nobody minding if a six-year-old wears half of it. Add a 24-hour diner with comically large coffee cups, an old-school Italian room doing a Sunday feast, and coal-fired pizza, and you have a city that makes eating out with children easy. Ranked on the food, how genuinely welcome children are, and what the whole table gets once seated.
1.Rustic Inn Crabhouse
The mallet-and-butcher-paper garlic crab institution since 1955; the messiest, happiest family table in town. Book a canal-side seat.
Rustic Inn Crabhouse has cracked garlic crabs on the canal at 4331 Anglers Avenue since 1955, and it remains the defining family meal in greater Fort Lauderdale. Tables are covered in butcher paper, every seat comes with a wooden mallet, and the house dish, blue crabs sauteed in garlic and herbs, lands by the bucket for around 30 to 40 dollars. Children are handed a mallet and encouraged to make a mess, which is the entire point. Boats slide past the windows, the room is loud, and nobody flinches at a dropped fork. Open Monday to Saturday from 11:30 and Sundays from noon. Come early for a canal-side table and ask for bibs all round.
Book a canal seat on Anglers Avenue; order garlic crabs by the bucket and ask for bibs.
2.Coconuts
Intracoastal dock-and-dine with garlic blue crabs and a boat-watching deck kids love. Reserve a railing table at sunset.
Coconuts sits right on the Intracoastal at 429 Seabreeze Boulevard, an open-air deck where the boats drift past close enough to wave at, which keeps a child occupied through a whole meal. The kitchen leans seafood and beach-American, with the garlic blue crabs nicknamed "Scoobies" the thing to order, plus burgers and fish tacos for less adventurous eaters, mains broadly 18 to 30 dollars. Families can even raft up at the dock and step off the boat to a table. It is casual rather than formal, with a Sunday brunch from 10. Come for an early evening table by the railing so the children can watch the boats while the kitchen cooks.
Reserve a railing table on Seabreeze Boulevard; order the Scoobies and let the children watch the boats.
3.Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza & Wings
The blistered coal-fired pizza and crispy oven-baked wings that started here; a fast, easy weeknight with children. Walk in.
Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza began in Fort Lauderdale, and the original-style room at 2203 South Federal Highway is the easiest weeknight family dinner in the city. The coal oven runs hot enough to blister a thin crust in minutes, so the well-done pizza and the crispy, slightly charred oven-baked wings arrive fast, which matters with hungry children. A large pizza runs around 18 to 22 dollars and feeds a small family, with the eggplant marina and meatballs worth adding. The room is bright, casual and unfussy, open daily from 11. There is no need to book. Walk in, order a well-done pie and a tray of wings, and you are eating within fifteen minutes.
Walk in on South Federal Highway; order a well-done pizza and the crispy coal-fired wings.
4.Runway 84
The reborn old-school Italian room near the airport, built for the long Sunday family feast. Book the Italian Sunday Feast.
Runway 84 reopened after a full renovation at 330 West State Road 84, and the family-owned Italian-American room is back to doing what it always did best: feeding a big table for hours. The signature is the cauliflower rigatoni, and the family-style Italian Sunday Feast is the order for a multi-generation gathering, with chicken scarpariello and the veal Milanese salad close behind, mains broadly 22 to 36 dollars. The booths are roomy, the staff are used to grandparents and toddlers at the same table, and the pace is leisurely rather than rushed. Booking is sensible at weekends. Come on a Sunday, order the feast for the table, and let the meal stretch out.
Book a booth on State Road 84; order the Italian Sunday Feast and cauliflower rigatoni for the table.
5.Lester's Diner
The 24-hour diner with the famous 14-ounce coffee cups; pancakes any hour, no judgement, no reservation. Just walk in.
Lester's Diner has run around the clock at 250 West State Road 84 since 1967, and a 24-hour diner is a quietly perfect family room: there is no wrong time to arrive and nothing on the menu a child will refuse. The house signature is the oversized 14-ounce coffee cup, and the kitchen turns out pancakes, omelettes and a full diner menu at any hour, with most plates around 10 to 16 dollars. Booths are big, crayons appear for the little ones, and an early or late meal here sidesteps every crowd. It is family-owned and unpretentious. Walk in whenever the day falls apart, order pancakes, and let the giant coffee cup do the rest.
Walk in on State Road 84 any hour; order pancakes and a 14-ounce coffee.
6.Shooters Waterfront
The polished Intracoastal deck for an easy family brunch with a view; boats, burgers and a weekend buffet. Reserve ahead.
Shooters Waterfront has anchored the Intracoastal at 3033 Northeast 32nd Avenue since 1982, rebuilt into a polished, glassy room that still trades on its dock-and-dine view. It is the more comfortable of the city's waterfront options, with a broad American menu of burgers, seafood and salads, mains broadly 18 to 32 dollars, and a weekend brunch buffet that suits a family wanting one calm sit-down with a view. The deck and the passing boats keep children entertained between courses, and the wide tables take a stroller easily. Book a railing table at weekends. Come for the Saturday or Sunday brunch, when the buffet lets everyone pick their own and the boats are out in force.
Reserve a railing table on the Intracoastal; come for the weekend brunch buffet by the water.
Not for everyone
Skip these for this list
YOLO and the Las Olas late-night bars. The Las Olas Boulevard scene tilts to cocktails and a loud after-dark crowd, with kitchens and energy aimed at adults. Lovely for a date, wrong for a child's bedtime.
The omakase counters and tasting rooms. Fort Lauderdale's serious sushi counters and multi-course rooms run long, quiet and seat-bound. Save those for a night without the children rather than a family dinner.
How to eat with children in Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale makes family dining easy because so much of it is built around the water and a relaxed beach-town pace. The defining experience is the messy one, a bucket of garlic crabs and a mallet at the Rustic Inn, and the second is the view: rooms like Coconuts and Shooters Waterfront sit right on the Intracoastal, where passing boats keep a child happily occupied between courses. For a fast weeknight, the coal-fired pizza at Anthony's gets food on the table in minutes, and Lester's Diner never closes.
A few habits help. Many of the best rooms are casual and welcome a stroller, but the waterfront tables go quickly at sunset, so book a railing seat at weekends. Brunch, served late at Coconuts and Shooters, is often the calmest meal for younger children. And do not fear the mess at the crab houses; bibs and butcher paper are the whole idea. For more rooms across the city, browse the Fort Lauderdale dining guide and the Fort Lauderdale walk-ins ranking.
Frequently asked
What is the best family restaurant in Fort Lauderdale?
For most families, Rustic Inn Crabhouse is the sweet spot: butcher paper, a wooden mallet for every seat, and buckets of garlic crabs on the canal, a meal children remember. For a fast weeknight, Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza gets food on the table in minutes, and Lester's Diner never closes. Pick by the night: a messy waterfront feast, a quick pizza, or an any-hour diner stop on the way home.
Are Fort Lauderdale restaurants good for children?
Yes, unusually so. It is a relaxed beach town built around the water, so many of the best rooms are casual, open-air and used to all ages. The crab houses positively encourage children to make a mess, the Intracoastal decks at Coconuts and Shooters Waterfront keep them watching boats, and a 24-hour diner like Lester's removes any worry about timing. Strollers fit, bibs appear, and nobody minds the noise.
Do you need to book family restaurants in Fort Lauderdale?
It depends on the room and the hour. Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza and Lester's Diner take walk-ins and suit a flexible family schedule, so you simply turn up. Rustic Inn Crabhouse, Coconuts, Shooters Waterfront and the Sunday feast at Runway 84 are worth booking ahead, especially for a railing table at sunset or a big multi-generation table at the weekend.
Where can you eat on the water with children in Fort Lauderdale?
Coconuts at 429 Seabreeze Boulevard and Shooters Waterfront on the Intracoastal are the two standouts, both open-air decks where boats drift past close enough to keep a child watching through a whole meal. Rustic Inn Crabhouse sits canal-side in Dania Beach for the same effect with a mallet in hand. All three let a family stretch a casual meal into an easy afternoon by the water.
What should children order in Fort Lauderdale?
Start with the garlic crabs at Rustic Inn or the garlic blue crab "Scoobies" at Coconuts, messy and fun to crack with a mallet. For surer eaters, the well-done coal-fired pizza at Anthony's and the pancakes at Lester's Diner rarely miss, and Runway 84's cauliflower rigatoni is an easy pasta. Most rooms keep simpler burgers and fish tacos on hand for the cautious.
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Browse the full Fort Lauderdale dining guide, find a no-booking table in the Fort Lauderdale walk-ins ranking, compare family tables in the best family restaurants in San Diego and in New York, read our take on a date night in the best Orlando anniversary restaurants, or open the full RFK rankings index.
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