Whoever first thought of miniaturizing the kitchen for kids to play with was a genius. These versatile playsets are all-stars of a kid’s play arsenal, loved by parents and kids alike. The parents for encouraging independent play, and the kids for the worlds it unlocks. Whether you’re buying for your own children or giving as a gift to the new parents in your life, the best kid’s play kitchen is a cornerstone of a playroom. It encourages development, allows young ones to safely practice cooking and baking skills, and opens the door to pretend play.
But not all are created equal, so we polled product experts and early childhood development specialists to shortlist the best-of-the-best, then tested them head to head with our very own children as hardworking imaginary chefs. The five on this list rose to the top as the best-of-the best play kitchens.
Best Kid Play Kitchens
- Best Overall: KidKraft Farm to Table Play Kitchen
- Best Budget:Hape Gourmet Kitchen Set
- Best Multi-level:IKEA DUKTIG Play Kitchen
- Best for Small Spaces:
- Best Outdoor Option:Hape Outdoor Mud Kitchen
What to Consider
When you’re buying a play kitchen for your kids, there are so many to choose from, and a good deal of them are OK. The kitchens on this list are spectacular, but there are still a few key things you want to look out for when you’re buying a play kitchen, and those are the stability, the interactive elements, the overall pretend play potential, and, of course — the accessories. (What is a chef without their tools?)
Stability
Children are rambunctious and unpredictable and like to use things as ladders. Sure, a play kitchen doesn’t look like a climbable structure to you, a fully grown adult. But to a 2-year-old, it’s a jungle gym. Consider the stability of the structure. How well grounded is it, does it have wall anchors, and does it.
Interactive Elements
Parents have different experiences with interactive toys. More Montessori-leaning parenting styles eschew batteries whatsoever. And some contemporary parents embrace screens and music-playing devices. Play kitchens come in both varieties — purely imaginative and fully sensory. On this list, you’ll find a mix of both types of kitchens. We also consulted with early childhood education experts to ensure these picks helped children meet developmental milestones (and with kids to make sure they were fun to play with). But consider your own family’s parenting style as you make your choice.
Pretend Play Potential
Emily Schelhaas, an Early Childhood Educator and founder of the TreeSchool outdoor education program with a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education, says that pretend play potential is a cornerstone of play kitchen consideration.
“Play is how children learn—it helps them solve problems, try new things, and develop the muscles needed for later skills like writing and cutting, as well as the language and vocabulary essential for reading,” says Schelhass. “Pretend play creates a safe space for children to make mistakes, use their imagination, and get creative.”
“When choosing a play kitchen to encourage pretend play, opt for a simple, open-ended design. This approach allows children to use their imagination and creativity in various ways. A neutral kitchen setup can be adapted into a bakery, ice cream shop, coffee shop, restaurant, or home kitchen. While realistic food truck kitchens or pizza shops might seem appealing, they can limit creativity by dictating a specific use for the kitchen, which may lead to a loss of interest.”
Accessories
What good is a kitchen without food to cook? Some kitchens, like our first overall pick from Kidkraft, ship with accessories. Most don’t. Keep this in mind as you shop: The budget pick is cheaper, but you’ll likely want to augment it with play food of store-bought or homemade variety. And keep in mind your children might be more interested in neutral, imagination-oriented accessories. Schelhass found that, with her own three children, “they were much more engaged when they used dried beans, playdough, or other loose parts like wooden beads, paper balls, or pinecones to create their own food” rather than toy food.
Differences Between Outdoor and Indoor Play Kitchens
The pros of traditional play kitchens are numerous and can foster pretend play in an intimate, enclosed setting, with all the benefits we mention above. Outdoor play kitchens are a little different because they’re also engaging the environment and the elements. According to Emily Schelhaas: “An outdoor play kitchen or mud kitchen serves as a versatile educational tool, exposing children to various educational concepts.” These may include but aren’t limited to:
- Science: Children explore how different ingredients (dirt, water, gravel, etc.) mix and interact.
- Math: Measuring spoons and cups introduces concepts of measurement and volume, and counting ingredients helps with numerical skills, children often give their food a price thus introducing money.
- Language Development: Exposure to new textures and ingredients invites children to explore new vocabulary. Role-playing helps them practice storytelling and language skills.
- Social Skills: Working together in the kitchen fosters collaboration and problem-solving as children negotiate roles and create a plan for their play.
- Physical Development: Spending time outside meets sensory needs with diverse sounds, light, and tactile materials. Using kitchen utensils enhances fine motor skills, while activities like digging, stirring, and mixing promote gross motor development.”
How We Tested
When I told my four-year-old I had to try out different play kitchens for work, he said to me, in confusion, “Toys don’t work.” Fair enough, kid. But secretly, this time, they were. We consulted with early education experts, daycare owners, and kid’s product experts to narrow the field to finalists of the best play kitchens. Then, we put the finalists head-to-head with the most discerning audience we could find: toddlers. You know, the ones who sometimes would rather play with a handful of gravel than with a brand-new toy. Taking that into account with the safety and early education perspective, we came up with a list of finalists and tested them head-to-head, looking at their durability, ease of assembly, kid interaction, and even aesthetics. These five emerged as the across our collective categories and criteria.
Full Reviews
Pros
- Interactive and cleverly designed
- All wood construction
- Accessories included
- “Grow your own” veggie area
Cons
- Involved install
The only problem with this KidsKraft Farm-to-Table play kitchen is that it doesn’t cook real food — because if it did, I would seriously use it. It’s the best play kitchen on our list because it flows well, has removable baskets, is made of real wood, and ships with accessories—a real feature add.
It’s full of clever little features: planters where your kids can “grow” their (choppable) vegetables, a functioning ice maker that churns out plastic ice cubes, a light-up faucet with realistic sizzling cook sounds, and a faucet that imitates the sound of running water.
I found that these features walked the fine line of imagination and interaction for our 4-year-old and 2-year-old. It wasn’t the overstimulating barrage of flashing lights and loud noises that came out of many kids’ toys. Instead, each interactive function related to real kitchen skills, something I saw play out in the actual kitchen later. The ice function helped them understand how our ice machine works and the pace at which ice comes out. Useful since the 4 year has started to fill our water glasses as his pre-dinner helping task.
They also loved the chalkboard, though I have mixed feelings about allowing chalk in our carpeted playroom with a tornado of a toddler. What I don’t have mixed feelings about is the cuttable veggies, which our kids love chopping and serving up, even if my four-year-old and I disagree if it’s a radish or a carrot.
The downside of this kitchen? It does take some effort to assemble. I’d recommend using two people on the install as a good post-bedtime activity. To help, the brand has a 3D interactive manual, which makes the process way easier than these hard-to-read paper guides that are assemble yourself brands have popularized.
Key Specs
| Materials | Wood with plastic elements |
|---|---|
| Assembly Required | Yes, with 3D guide |
| Accessories Included | Yes |
Pros
- Great for small spaces
- Handles are easy for young kids to open
- Turnable range knobs
Cons
- Less interactive elements than pricier options
Price for value, nothing beats the Hape Gourmet Kitchen Set. Sitting well below $100, this play kitchen has many of the features of more expensive kitchens on this list. And what it lacks in bells and whistles it makes up in simply, well-executed construction.
It’s also quite compact, measuring a little larger than Lalo’s petite version, but not by very much. My kids found the interactive element to be engaging but not overstimulating: the range knobs turn, and the sink bucket removes. There’s a spice rack (or really anything rack) that my kids stacked first with food toys but then assorted stuffed animals on, which I don’t think was a gruesome understanding of eating meat, but maybe it was? Regardless, the shelf can handle imaginative aspects.
Best of all, the kitchen is a screaming deal at less than $90, leaving room in the budget to pick up other accessories or, you know, toss in that 529 plan. Which, it turns out, you can use for culinary school.
Key Specs
| Materials | Wood with plastic elements |
|---|---|
| Assembly Required | Yes |
| Accessories Included | No |
IKEA DUKTIG Play Kitchen
Credit: Matt Medendorp
Pros
- Interactive elements balance
- Second level microwave and cupboards allow for expanded play
- Doubles as sneaky toy storage with all it’s cabinets
Cons
- Complicated assembly process
- Requires wall anchor
Assembling IKEA furniture is a widespread internet joke for a reason. It sucks. To be fair, I tried to involve the 4-year-old, which was a good parenting decision but a poor efficiency decision. It didn’t last very long before he and his sister departed to shred the cardboard packing into hundreds of tiny little pieces, leaving me to my private misery.
This play kitchen is one of the most popular play kitchens on the market, and for that reason, we knew we needed to evaluate it for our best play kitchen list. Once built, the kitchen is a delight to use. It has soft-close, lightly magnetic doors. My two kids especially love the pot hooks where they can hang kitchen accessories or, more likely, other random toys from the playroom. And the interactive burners tread the tightrope of pretend play, capturing imagination but not prescribing use.
The two-level construction is a bit “tippier” than others on this list, but IKEA addresses that with a cloth anchor that attaches to the wall. The downside here is that the kitchen is harder to move or rearrange.
Key Specs
| Materials | Wood with plastic elements |
|---|---|
| Assembly Required | Yes, with paper guide |
| Accessories Included | No |
Lalo The Play Kitchen
Credit: Matt Medendorp
Pros
- Aesthetically pleasing
- Easy to assemble
- Soft close doors and intuitive cabinet doors for little kids
Cons
- One drawer removes from kitchen entirely
Lalo’s play kitchen wins the easiest assembly, far and away. Based on my experience testing and assembling these other play kitchens, I set aside a weekend morning to put Lalo’s together. It took three minutes. All I had to do was screw on the legs and the faucet, and voila, play kitchen.
The kitchen is small and compact. Sturdily made, it feels the least likely to tip off any kitchen I tried. Part of that is because it’s a single layer – no upper microwave or pot hooks for this one. Its compactness makes it a great choice for small spaces or a playroom where you already have three play kitchens set up (though that might be an experience unique to writing this article.) We tried it in the appealing sage color, a green so pleasant I emailed the brand to try and get the Pantone color to imitate on our actual kitchen cabinets.
The Lalo option is interactive with knobs for the range burners and drawers that open and close, but nothing that lights up or makes sounds. Also, the bottom drawer came out entirely, which delighted my two-year-old but occasionally frustrated me since she could remove it but needed help to put it back into the kitchen. It’s worth noting that when it was the only play kitchen in our house, my two kids loved it. When others were added to the mix that had slightly more dynamic elements — like the IKEA DUKTIG—my kids abandoned the Lalo for more interactive pastures.
Key Specs
| Materials | Wood |
|---|---|
| Assembly Required | Minimal |
| Accessories Included | No |
Pros
- Sturdy, durable construction
- Interactive/functioning sink
- Ships with some accessories
Cons
- Takes up a large amount of space for small yards
Outdoor kitchens, or mud kitchens, are the all-stars of child development, according to Emily Schelhaas. I find that assembly that allows for power tools to be so much easier than the tiny, custom Allen wrenches that come in most sets. So I was delighted when Hape’s Outdoor Mud Kitchen assumed you own a drill to put it together. It makes a difference. Also delightful? A functional sink. My kids, like most young ones, love water play and getting messy. They’re delighted when they can do both with reckless abandon like they could with this kitchen.
Add to that a working chalkboard (outside is the right place for chalk) and the fact that it ships with buckets and some accessories included, and this Hape kitchen rises to the top of the list. It’s on the pricier side, yes, but it’s solidly constructed and can hold up to the elements. All it needs is some add-it-yourself mud.
Key Specs
| Materials | Wood with plastic elements |
|---|---|
| Assembly Required | Yes, power tools required |
| Accessories Included | Some |
