It seems like there’s nothing kids love more than “cooking” with food toys. Whether they like to copy you in the kitchen or run their own imaginary restaurant, you’ll find something perfect for them on this list of the best food toys for kids in 2023. As an adult who collects fake food, I can be pretty picky when it comes to quality so you can trust this list was carefully curated.
This 28 Piece wooden food play set is my top pick for teaching a wide variety of skills and having kind of fun details kids love.
It comes with a sturdy wooden ice cream counter with a plastic viewing window on one side and storage for ice cream and toppings on the other.
There are eight wooden scoops of ice cream in different flavor-colors including chocolate chip cookie dough, mint chocolate chip, and rocky road. These are easily picked up by the included ice cream scoop and released into the cup or two cones in the set. The scoops are also stackable so they can build their cones nice and tall.
Your little ice cream scooper, or their “customer”, can choose from six toppings including chocolate sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles, hot fudge, and realistic, dripping strawberry sauce. And whipped cream and a cherry of course.
The set comes with a menu to place orders with, wooden play spoon, and six play money bills for completing their ice cream sales giving them an opportunity to put their math skills to use.
Being a sturdy, wooden kitchen set, this will last for years of play. I like that the counter is its own storage box so there’s always place to keep all of its individual pieces together.
This 37 piece set is good for ages two and up and combines the Healthy Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner baskets from Learning Resources.
Each basket contains durable plastic play food for a healthy options meal.
All the pieces are easy to clean and are impressively detailed. The grapefruit at breakfast and the fillet of salmon for dinner are especially realistic. If you’d rather not having your kids playing with a basket full of pizza, cake, and burgers, this is a nice way to get in on the benefits of these types of toys but with healthier options like asparagus, grilled chicken breast, and oatmeal with fruit.
This 121 piece pizza making set is for children ages three to eight but really shines for kids closer to the top end of the range.
The pizza and toppings are made of sturdy wood and the six pizza slices fit together with velcro so they can be sliced apart by the included pizza cutter. To top the pizza, wooden topping circles stick to velcro slots on top of each slice and there are circles for black olives, pepperoni, red onion, tomatoes, and pineapple.
The cardboard pizza box doubles as a pizza oven with flame illustrations and a wooden pizza platter holds your child’s masterpiece. Plus the set includes a chef’s hat and six adhesive fake mustaches for your kids to roleplay characters.
It’s the inclusion of the menu with prices and cash register with fake money that makes this such a good educational toy. The menu gives pizza options, like “Veggie Pizza,” and shows how many of each topping should be on the pizza as well as how much the pizza costs. This helps them practice following directions, matching, and sorting.
Some of the prices are numbers like $11.49 and here’s where the cash drawer comes in with its variety of bills and coins. Older kids can practice math by making change so this is a toy that can grow with them and stay interesting.
Practice colors, sorting, and counting with ages three to six with this Learning Resources Farmer’s Market set. You get five baskets and 25 plastic fruits and vegetables–five purple, five yellow, five orange, five green, and five red.
The plastic foods are easy to keep clean and have nice detail. They’ll have plenty of free play opportunities cooking and serving their colorful foods.
If they love camping and making s’mores, they’ll love being able to play campfire all the time.
This set from Fisher-Price includes fabric marshmallows on sticks that are white on one side and look toasted on the other so they can switch them when holding the marshmallows over the pretend fire. Together you can build the perfect play s’mores with the included chocolate and graham cracker printed pieces.
To cook them over a pretend fire, there’s a felted stone circle mat and a velcro log they can “split” with the included felt axe and then attach the felted fire piece. The stone circle mat flips over for picnic setting to create a different play setting.
Plus, it comes with two bear paw mitts to create a little more fun while they’re having their imaginary camping trip.
They’ll love this ice cream play set that’s great for free imagination play as well as for a balancing game to see how tall you can stack your scoops before it falls.
The set comes with a base, magnetic scoop for picking up the ice cream, and 12 realistic ice cream scoops.
For the kids who love going through the drive-thru, help them set up their own fast food joint with this set.
It comes with pieces including a tray, plates, cardboard to-go food boxes, utensils, drinks, desserts, condiments, sides, breakfast, and sandwiches.
I love the construction of the burger and sub sandwich in this one as each as six separate layers to build up to create the complete food item. It uses a peg and hole set up so you can attach the lettuce to the bottom bun and the burger to the lettuce and so forth including cheese, tomato, onion, and the top bun. The sub sandwich includes bottom bread, lettuce, cheese, tomato, lunch meat, and top bread.
They’ll have a blast running their own little restaurant.
In 2011 these pita pockets won the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award and the Parents’ Choice Approved Award. It was a good year to be a pita.
I like the set because it’s a fun mix of felt and wood, allowing for a range of textures and sounds for the little cooks to play with. It comes with two felt pita pockets, two felt pieces of lettuce, two felt slices of Swiss cheese, and a mix of wooden sandwich fillers including red onion, green pepper rings, cucumber slices, and salami.
The set is durable, brightly colored, and I love the brown spot details on the pita pockets. The wood for the fillings is sourced from sustainable forests and they’re colored with non-toxic, child-safe paint.
Plus, they’re affordable for the quality you’re getting.
For a durable play kitchen for ages three and up, check out this wooden set by Melissa & Doug.
The stylish charcoal and faux-steel kitchen has a real but miniature look to it with faux-tile backsplash and dark wood grain pattern.
The ice cube dispenser actually dispenses fake ice cubes (included) which is a feature I have yet to see elsewhere. The kitchen lights up and can be set to a motion sensor so that when your child goes to cook the light above the stove turns on for them.
There are lots of moving parts in this one with stove, microwave, fridge, and freezer doors that open. The faucet swivels and the knobs for the gas-style cooktop turn and click. Even the plate in the microwave spins.
It’s a fair bit easier to assemble than other brands, but like all play kitchens, make sure you give yourself a decent block of time to set this up if you want to reveal it on Christmas morning.
This one also comes as a Kitchen Accessories Bundle Set so you get the kitchen as well as some plastic pots and pans, realistic salt and pepper shakers, olive oil bottle, dishware, and oven mitt.
The kitchen also comes in pink which also has a bundle set.
Do your kids love tacos? Get this 43-piece Mexican food play set from Melissa & Doug and they can cook up tacos, fajitas, and burritos with a range of different fillings.
The set includes three durable menu cards on a ring to order a hard taco, fajita, or burrito, what you would like on it, and instructions on how to make each one.
For protein they can cook up wooden shrimp, beans, chicken, or beef. The chicken and beef are each two wooden pieces that connect with velcro that kids can “cut” them in half with the wooden knife. Then we get to the fun toppings. For wooden pieces there are tomato, onion, avocado, and green pepper slices. There are felt lettuce leaves and felt shredded cheese that comes in its own queso plastic bag. The can of pinto beans and box of yellow rice each contain a felt sheet printed to look like beans and rice that an easily be rolled into the taco.
For sauces, there’s a wooden hot sauce bottle, tub of felt crema strips, and a bottle of squeezable red felt salsa. Everything is “cooked” on the included flat skillet with a cast iron look to it that even has a heat-protective cover on the handle. There are so many combinations here and the pieces are durable enough to last.
If you’re going for quantity, check out this 202 piece plastic set from Mommy Please.
There’s everything in here from boxed mac and cheese to fried eggs to a whole chicken to cherry cola. There’s loads of variety and at least double of nearly everything so it’s a good choice for homes with multiple kids. Even the boxes are made of BPA-free plastic so they’ll last. These aren’t as realistic as other sets but for this price, I don’t mind.
For something a little more healthy, check out this 52 piece Slice & Toss Salad set from Melissa & Doug.
It comes with all the wood and felt ingredients you’ll need to create four distinct salad on the included recipe card. Making these salads helps build skills in following instructions, matching, and sorting. Free play with this set allows them to creatively build and name their own salad recipes.
The wooden cutting board and play knife allow them to “slice” the veggies and meats apart from their velcro connections as they prepare the salad. Wooden toys include shrimp, grilled chicken, croutons, mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and green peppers. For serving there’s a wooden bowl, salad tossing forks, and a velcro fork for eating so they can really pick up the salad pieces.
The felt toys include separate containers for felt lettuce, spinach, and kale leaves, black olives, and plastic salad dressing bottles that squirt felt strips.
This set of a stand mixer, toaster, and coffee maker with pods will help your little one copy some of the appliances used most frequently in your kitchen.
They can brew their own morning “coffee” by pouring in their water, choosing one of the two pods, and then the battery-powered maker will dispense the water into the included cup just like your coffee machine.
The toaster comes with realistic plastic bread and several settings to “cook” before the toast pops up. And the mixer is battery-powered for real turning action and the body of the mixer lifts up just like a real stand mixer.
They’re fairly small so these are best for younger ones at ages three and up.
Get kids excited about eating their veggies early with this salad set from Learning Resources.
This 38 piece set comes with three salad bowls, one large tossing bowl, play salad tongs, and flexible, durable plastic lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrots, and yellow pepper rings. The food itself is very highly detailed and realistic with wrinkly lettuce and even the crinkle-cut carrots have a visible core.
Being BPA-free plastic these are easier to wash and keep clean than felt or wood sets. This is best for ages two and up.
Made for kids two and up, this is the perfect set for a multi-child home because there are several cooking stations to share and it comes with a 102 piece set of play food and cooking tools.
The Walk-In Kitchen and Grill is closed on three sides and has four stations to play in: the sink and fridge area for cleaning and gathering, the stove for cooking, the grill on the outside for grilling, and the counter for cooking prep or, if they are on the outside, as an eating counter to serve “customers.”
There’s tons of room for kids to be doing their own thing and to work and role play together. It’s nice that there’s a grilling station so that the little cooks can copy you both inside the house and out on the patio.
The kitchen is equipped with sound effects and lights. The grill and cooktop glow red and make distinct cooking sounds when in use. The faucet sounds like running water and the microwave and phone beep.
There are storage cupboards and bins built-in which is good because the kitchen comes with a huge range of play food, pans, oven mitts, utensils, plates, and play condiments. This one really comes with everything you need besides batteries and an imagination.
For our up-and-coming bakers, we have this stand mixer set from Melissa & Doug so they can follow along with their own moving mixer.
The durable wooden construction means it will last even if it takes a few tumbles.
The mixer blades turn with a hand crank and the dial moves so you can adjust your “speed.” The recipe card shows what to add: the included box of cake mix, butter, and an egg, both of which are held together by velcro and can be cut in half with the included wooden play knife.
There’s a wooden loaf pan for pouring your ingredients into and a wooden cake loaf for pulling out of the oven.
The 50 piece Little Chef Kitchen & Shopping Set covers everything from shopping at the market to cooking up dinner and is the best set for pots and pans. It comes with a stainless steel grocery basket for gathering ingredients from the 24 included plastic fake food and three play food boxes.
Once they’re home from the market they can whip up a meal using the six stainless steel pots and pans with lids, strainers, as well as a metal mixing bowl. For cooking tools, there is a wooden spoon and spatula as a metal rake for hanging a set of steel spatula, whisk, ladle, and slotted spoons. For safety, the set includes an oven mitt and matching pot holder.
With so many pieces and tools, there are endless ways to play. Plus the cooking tools can help expand the fun with play food you may already own. The included fake food isn’t the best out there in detail or scale, but for the money and the amount you get, it’s so worth it and I doubt the little ones will notice or mind.
This set of velcro cuttable food comes with its own clear storage tote, play knife, and play cutting boards. The hard plastic is durable and the velcro creates a crunchy sound effect when they cut through it.
With a total of 32 pieces is a nice set for a couple of kids because it comes with two cutting boards and two play knives. There’s a good variety of food for them to slice from carrots to dragonfruit to shrimp two a whole chicken. There are a couple of items that don’t make a lot of sense like cutting a bunch grapes in half or cutting the ice cream off of an ice cream cone but for the price and the durability, it’s easy to ignore these little quirks that your kids might not ever pick up on.
Give your little chefs a place to do work their magic with this realistic kitchen set. Designed for ages three to 15 with a 21 inch tall counter, the set is made of durable composite wood and plastic so it can last for years.
The fridge, freezer, microwave, oven, and washer doors all open and close. The knobs of the gas-style stove click when you turn them and the burners light up and glow red. Even the ice machine on the fridge lights up and makes that churning ice-machine noise.
The countertop has a faux-granite pattern to it with a stylish “tile” backsplash. There is convenient shelving storage and hooks for hanging your pots and pans. I love the windows so the little cooks can see “outside” and the washer adds another chore that they can copy you in their play.
This kitchen is big enough to fit several kids playing at a time so they can practice their cooperation and teamwork. It includes the cordless phone but no other cooking tools or food toys.
Right off the bat, these are dishwasher safe. They’re durable, solid plastic and if they get grimy from play you can toss them right in your dishwasher and then they’re germ-free and ready for fun again.
This Melissa & Doug’s Combine & Dine Set comes with four proteins, four starches, four vegetables, and four dessert options. A plastic menu shows all the items so you can design and order your own plates as well as four pre-selected combos to pick from that your kids can recreate and exercise their matching and direction following skills.
These are some of the most realistic foods on the list. The detailing is impressive down to the texture of the orange slice and tiny lines on the individual baked beans.
For little ones 18 to 36 months, this food truck is a play and learn toy that covers shapes, colors, counting to 20, sequencing sizes, the alphabet, expanding vocabulary, and recycling.
It would be cute and fun enough if it was just a toddler-sized food truck with play food, steering wheel, and light up grill, but there is so much more to this little truck.
Servin’ Up Fun Food Truck has 125 different songs, phrases, prompts, and sound effects to take their play to another level. There are three phases of play as well so you can increase the difficulty as they grow and keep the toy interesting and their brains engaged and learning.
As they work their food truck, the smart cash register reads and reacts to the menu card inserted into it. They may be told to find and sort the smoothies or prompted to do some counting on the cash register.
It’s a wonderful gift that’s fun for the little cook and teaches them along the way.
For something a little softer check out Ikea’s line play food. Made of soft fabric, these plush fruits and vegetables each come in their own baskets.
You get eight pieces of fruit in one basket and 12 vegetables in the other basket.
The fruit is sewn with great detailing with visible seeds, peelable banana, and lettuce with velcro leaves. This is certainly a more snuggly set of play food but there’s still lots of room for role play and matching and sorting.
They can be machine washed and dried so if you’re worried about them being fabric, they’re simple enough to clean.
Does your little one love LeapFrog toys? Keep them learning and challenged with this adorable ice cream cart. Perfect for ages two and up, this ice cream cart knows 10 songs and over 200 phrases to help them develop memory, counting, organization, matching, and following direction skills.
The benefits to child development of playing kitchen have been well documented. You can read more about it Early Years Resources.
It comes with six double-sided order cards with pictures of cute, cartoon animals and the ice cream that they’d like. Once a card is inserted into the cash register, the cart will help them complete the order. If the poodle wants strawberry ice cream and your little one uses the special scoop to pick up strawberry, the smart scoop can sense which flavor they’ve picked and praise them for picking the right one.
With eight ice cream scoops, three toppings, three cones, and a cart on wheels, there is so much potential here for their imagination to run wild even without using the smart device aspects of the cart. Plus it has its own built-on storage to keep things tidy when it’s not in use.
Looking for something a little more unique than another basket of fake food? How about a kid-sized sushi counter?
This 46 piece wooden and felt sushi making kit has ingredients for making their own nigiri, maki, and hand rolls with felt nori and detailed rice printing. There’s a bamboo rolling mat, just like real sushi chefs use, and the individual pieces are connected by velcro so once you’ve got your roll together, you can use the included wooden chef’s knife to slice the rolls up.
For serving there’s a wooden tray, soy sauce bowl, felt ginger, wooden wasabi, and velcro chopsticks. The sturdy menu gives choices and directions on how to build each dish.
When you’re not using it, the pieces fit inside the counter so it comes with its own storage. And since it’s a wooden toy, you know it’s durable enough to last.
Let’s face it, you’re probably using your tablet in the kitchen, so why shouldn’t the kids?
Turn screen time into an opportunity to learn and use their imaginations with this Smart Kitchen from Little Tikes. If you download their app the smart kitchen can sync to your tablet (tablet is not included) and walk your child through activities and recipes. The kitchen responds to what your little chef is doing. When they “cut” vegetables on the cutting board, the kitchen makes cutting sounds. When they turn on the faucet, there’s the sound of running water.
The app can even recognize the food that are being played with and respond in kind. Cook an egg and you can hear the sizzle.
I like that the set comes with play food and that it has a little garden section where they can pick their own fresh fruits and vegetables.
This cook and cut set uses velcro to hold the pieces of food together so that when your little chef uses the included play knife to “cut” them on the cutting board they make a satisfying crunching sound.
They have nice detail and you can see the seeds on the inside.
It’s a nice mix of fruits and veggies along with a fish, piece of steak, and hot dogs. Also included are mini stainless steel pots and pans with lids, spatula, and pasta fork.
One of the best things about this one is that it comes with its own storage box with lid and everything, including pots, pans, food, and plates, fits inside of it.
This set from Little Tikes creates play breakfast with an extra sizzle for more realism.
When the button on the included frying pan is pressed and food is added to the pan, it plays a sizzling sound that kids will love. It comes with classic breakfast foods to cook like pancakes, bacon, and an eggshell they can “crack” open to reveal a fried egg.
There’s also a peelable banana, a glass of OJ, and a bottle of maple syrup. To do the cooking, this set comes with a play spatula plate for serving.
Every kid loves pizza and now they can make their own with this pizza counter by Melissa & Doug.
It comes with a sturdy pizza workspace with built-in sale counter, topping organizers, and oven. The pizza is made up of four wooden pieces that connect with velcro so you can slice the pizza with the included wooden pizza wheel.
But that’s just the pizza crust and all the fun is in the toppings. There are red felt wedges for the sauce, yellow felt wedges printed with a cheese pattern, as well as wooden mushroom, pepperoni, green pepper, and black olive slices. All these compartments are a great opportunity for practicing their matching and sorting.
Kids use the wooden pizza peel to place the pizza in the oven and crank up the “heat.” When it’s done, the pizza goes in its own cardboard pizza box to be sliced. There’s even a shaker of realistic-looking grated Parmesan cheese, but don’t worry, nothing actually comes out.
To order your pizzas there is a menu and play money as well as an instruction sheet for how to create the pizza step-by-step.
This wood and magnet set comes with 26 pieces which become 72 pieces when cut apart with the included wooden cutting board and two wooden play knives.
There’s a nice variety of food here with lots of vegetables and fruit from the expected carrots and bananas to the unexpected leeks and dragonfruit.
The set also comes with steak that has a raw look on one side and a cooked design on the other so your little one can pretend to slap it on the grill and when they flip it over, grill marks appear. There’s even a bone-in ham for them to slice. The set has a lot of foods you’re not going to find in other products.
It does come with one dessert: an ice cream pop–which you can cut in half. But I’m not sure why you’d want to because it’s a popsicle.
All kids love food toys. These toys teach color recognition, coordination, preparation, cleanup, and foster imagination. These sets are good for hours of fun.
