If your child loves helping out in the kitchen (or just loves the idea of being in charge of one!), cooking games are a brilliant way to channel that energy. Beyond the fun of chopping, baking and serving up virtual dishes, these games quietly build real skills — following steps in order, managing time, thinking about ingredients, and even a bit of patience when things don’t go to plan.
We’ve rounded up 11 of the best cooking games for kids and budding chefs, covering everything from playful food-mixing apps for younger children to time-management restaurant games for older kids who love a challenge. Many are free to download, though some include in-app purchases, so it’s worth having a quick look at each one before handing over the tablet.
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Cooking games sit nicely alongside other learning-through-play apps too — if this list goes down well, our guides to maths games, reading apps, language learning apps and science apps are worth a look too.
Cooking Games for Kids
Dr. Panda’s Restaurant 2
Kids can take charge of their own kitchen in Dr. Panda’s Restaurant 2! Budding chefs have the freedom to choose what they want to prepare and exactly how they’d like to prepare it. Chop, grate, blend, fry and more with over 20 ingredients to create the perfect (or perfectly disgusting!) dish.
Feed the results to your customers and watch how they react — it’s different every time.
“My little lady (5) loves this game she can chop up food, bake things in an oven and serve customers! It’s great for her attention span.” – Caroline
Toca Kitchen
Ever wanted to play with your food? Now you can. Toca Kitchen lets your child cook and experiment with food for four hungry characters.
Pick any ingredient and prepare it any way you like — slice, boil, fry, cook, microwave or mix — then wait for your hungry friend’s reaction. The 12 ingredients can be prepared in 180 different ways, and there are no rules, so kids can play however they want.
Toca Kitchen Monsters
This free monster edition of the popular Toca Kitchen lets kids cook and play with food for two hungry monsters, each with their own favourite food.
There are 8 ingredients to prepare in lots of different ways. What happens if you mix a carrot and then fry it? Why do the monsters spit out food that’s been over-seasoned? As with the original, there are no rules, so kids can experiment freely.
Available on iOS.
“It’s fun to mess around with. You can mix random combinations. I like when the monster spits out the food!” – Fern, aged 9
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Cake Doodle
If your kids love decorating cakes but hate the mess of dirty pans and flour everywhere, Cake Doodle is the answer. Crack the eggs, shake the salt, pour in the liquids, squeeze the lemon, mash the bananas, sift the flour and toss in the dry ingredients. Blend the batter and bake in the super-fast oven — no need to wait for the cake to cool before icing and decorating.
With 14 cake recipes and 25 different cake styles to try, there’s plenty to keep young bakers busy.
Available on iOS.
Pizza Factory for Kids
Let your kids explore their culinary talents and become pizza chefs. They get to make the dough, cut the vegetables, and assemble and cool the pizza for some discerning customers — including dogs, penguins, robots and monsters!
There are two modes — Mission Mode and Free Mode — plus the added challenge of delivering the finished pizzas.
Available on iOS.
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Diner Dash Adventures
Roll up your sleeves for the breakfast, lunch and dinner shifts, because Flo needs your help in the latest instalment of the popular Diner Dash series.
Cook, match, serve and decorate across hundreds of levels as you help Flo fix Dinertown. Create and manage restaurants, cruise ships and all sorts of venues, serving up hundreds of unique foods and designing Dinertown your own way. It’s a fast-paced, action-packed time management game.
Restaurant Dash: Gordon Ramsay
Travel around the globe, master your skills in unique restaurants and build a restaurant empire, with Gordon Ramsay along as your guide.
Use strategy alongside your cooking skills to compete with other players online and climb the leaderboards. Upgrade recipes for better rewards by collecting rare and unique items as you go — and if you’ve got what it takes, face off against Gordon Ramsay and others in the Boss Battles.
Delicious: Emily’s Road Trip
With more than a dozen Delicious games available, Emily’s Road Trip is one of the best-loved.
In this game, Emily and her family travel through the American heartland along Route 66, discovering that sometimes it’s the journey — and the people on it — that matter most. Along the way, Emily juggles being a chef, wife, mother and vlogging celebrity. This is more than a simple cooking game: it calls for real time-management skills as you cook up dishes and serve customers before time runs out.
Virtual Families: Cook Off!
Cook, grill and bake your way to greatness in this time-management cooking game. Your Virtual Family is saving up their house-flipping fund, and it’s your job to help — one feast at a time — from their own backyard restaurant.
Become a top chef, whipping up gourmet food and drinks from around the world, from pizza and burgers to sushi and cupcakes. Manage the dinner rush well, and spend your earnings renovating the house and yard, working your way up to bigger, better homes.
Food Truck Chef: Cooking Games
Travel the world with your very own food truck, cooking up delicious dishes and desserts in this fun time-management game. With hundreds of tasty dishes, colourful levels and exotic locations, there’s plenty to keep young chefs busy.
Decorate your food truck to make it look super cool, earn tips, and unlock new items to upgrade your kitchen and equipment. Start with a Pasta Truck and work your way up to a BBQ Truck, Pizza Truck, Tex-Mex Truck, Baker’s Truck and more — then head to the Food Truck Carnival to battle it out against other food truck chefs.
Bistro Cook
In this app, your child becomes the chef, feeding a steady stream of hungry customers. You’ll be given a set of ingredients and customer orders, and need to find what you need in the pantry, cook the dish without burning it, and get orders out on time before they start to pile up.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Are these cooking games suitable for young children?
Most of the games on this list, such as Toca Kitchen and Toca Kitchen Monsters, are designed with younger children in mind, with simple, open-ended play and no strict rules. Games like Diner Dash Adventures, Restaurant Dash and Food Truck Chef involve more time-management pressure and levels, so they tend to suit older kids who enjoy a bit of challenge.
Are these cooking games free to play?
Many of the apps listed are free to download, though most include in-app purchases for extra items, levels or upgrades. It’s a good idea to check each app’s listing and adjust your device’s in-app purchase settings before handing it over to your child.
Do cooking games actually teach kids anything useful?
Yes — while they’re designed to be fun first, cooking games can help children practise following sequences of steps, thinking about timing, and making simple decisions about ingredients and preparation. They’re a playful introduction to concepts that come in handy in a real kitchen too.
Can I play these cooking games with my child?
Definitely. Many of these apps work well as a shared activity, especially the simpler, open-ended ones like Toca Kitchen. Playing together is also a good way to keep an eye on any in-app purchase prompts.
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Save This for a Rainy Day
Cooking games are perfect for those rainy afternoons when the kids need something engaging to do indoors. Bookmark this list or save it to your phone so you’ve got a handy set of options ready to go next time the weather lets you down.
Have your kids got a favourite cooking game or app we should add to this list? Leave a comment below — we’d love to hear from you!
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