Most kids-eat-free lists are copied from other kids-eat-free lists. That’s how a deal that ended in 2019 is still on page one. Here’s what we do instead.
Every deal gets checked against the restaurant, not another website
We’ll find a deal anywhere — another site, a reader email, a photo of a sign. But before it goes on this site, we open the restaurant’s own page and read the terms there. That link is on every deal page, so you can check our work.
Where the official page is vague — and it usually is about days and hours — we ring a location and ask. If we did that, the deal page says so.
Every deal carries the date we last confirmed it
You’ll see one of these on every card:
| Badge | What it means |
|---|---|
| Checked [recently] — green | Confirmed in the last 30 days. |
| Checked [X] weeks ago — olive | Confirmed in the last 3 months. Very likely still right. |
| Checked [X] months ago — amber | Between 3 and 6 months. Worth a quick call. |
| Needs a re-check — red | Over 6 months. We’re telling you we don’t know. |
| Not checked yet — grey | We’ve seen it reported but haven’t confirmed it ourselves. |
We don’t quietly delete deals that have gone stale. A listing that says “we don’t know, call first” is more use to you than a gap.
We flag the ones that vary by location
A lot of big chains leave this up to the individual restaurant. The deal is real at one branch and has never existed at the one down the road. Franchise variation is the single biggest reason a trip goes wrong, so we mark it on the card and give you the question to ask:
“Do you run the kids eat free offer, which night is it, and what does the adult have to buy?”
What we count as free
Free kids meal — the meal costs nothing. Usually needs an adult purchase. Free kids buffet — same, at a buffet restaurant. Free via rewards — free, but you need an account or an app. Discounted kids meal — $1, 99 cents, half price. Cheap, not free. Filterable separately so you can hide these. Free drink, side or dessert — the meal isn’t free but something is.
Watch out for drinks. Plenty of “free” kids meals don’t include one, which quietly adds $2–3 a child.
Corrections
If something’s changed, [tell us]. It goes into the queue with the restaurant, city and day attached, and we re-check it. We’d rather hear it from you than leave someone else to find out at the till.
What we don’t do
We don’t take payment to rank a deal higher. If a restaurant ever pays to be featured, it will say so on the listing, in plain words, and it won’t push a better free deal down the page.