What are the best play kitchens for kids?

Play kitchens are popular with all kinds of children as an excellent vehicle for pretend play, whether playing solo, with other kids or adults. Young cooks will love the chance to play at making their own recipes, but kids are creative and can make all kinds of games from a play kitchen.

With so many play kitchens on the market, picking the right one can seem baffling. It’s essential to choose one with all the features and accessories you want your child to have and look at some popular options to discover the best play kitchens.

What do play kitchens include?

What comes with your play kitchen varies depending on the model you choose. Focusing on the kitchen itself, some are more elaborate than others. The most extensive play kitchens may feature cabinets, an oven, a sink, a microwave, a washing machine, a recycling bin, a fridge and a dishwasher. More compact play kitchens will feature a smaller selection from this list. Then you get to accessories, such as pots, pans, utensils and play food. Some play kitchens include a wide range of accessories, while others expect you to buy accessories separately.

How much you can expect to spend on play kitchens

Play kitchens are a relatively significant investment compared to many other toys for young kids. The most elaborate play kitchens can cost as much as $250, but you can find compact options for less than $50. If you want a quality kitchen with a worktop, cabinets and range of appliances, expect to pay $100-$150.

Best play kitchens

KidKraft Ultimate Corner Wooden Play Kitchen

The corner design of this play kitchen gives kids more room to play while the unit tucks neatly into the corner of a room, not taking up too much space. The kitchen features a range of appliances, including an oven, cooktop, sink, fridge and washing machine. It’s made of a wood composite and is available in white or espresso finishes.

Melissa & Doug Wooden Chef’s Pretend Play Kitchen

This quality play kitchen features a fridge, cooker, sink and microwave. There’s some great attention to detail with this play kitchen, such as the ice dispenser that dispenses toy ice cubes and the oven dials that turn and click into place for different temperature settings. While it doesn’t come with any accessories, you can buy it bundled with various accessories.

Little Tikes Super Chef Kitchen

Made from plastic, this play kitchen is simple to assemble and wipes clean easily if kids make a mess. It features a cooker, sink, fridge, microwave and coffee maker, so there’s plenty of options for kids. The oven dials click into place, making electronic cooking sounds while kids are “cooking” food. The kitchen also comes with accessories, such as cups, plates, utensils and a frying pan.

Step2 Fun with Friends Kitchen

A reasonably large toy kitchen that’s perfect for two or three friends to play with together. This is another plastic offering, so it doesn’t look as realistic as wood composite kitchens, but it has some benefits, such as ease of cleaning and assembly. With a cooker, fridge, microwave, coffee maker and sink, plenty is going on. Plus, it comes with a 45-piece kitchen accessory set.

Teamson Kids Little Chef Chelsea Modern Play Kitchen

This contemporary-looking play kitchen is full of clean lines and is available in a range of pale finishes. It features a cooker, sink, fridge and dishwasher and has some great details, such as an ice dispenser and taps that turn. It doesn’t come with many accessories.

Best Choice Products Pretend Play Kitchen

If you’re looking for a stylish toy kitchen, this model fits the bill, with a faux tile backsplash and a chalkboard surface on the cabinet. It comes with some quality utensils and pans for kids to play with, plus fake ice cubes for the ice dispenser. The oven dials click into place, and the cabinets, fridge, oven and other appliances are nicely spacious inside.

Little Tikes First Oven

An excellent choice for parents on a budget or without the space for a larger play kitchen. This isn’t a full play kitchen but rather a play cooker with an oven and a cooktop. It makes realistic cooking sounds and comes with 11 accessories, including play food, a pan and a spatula.

Jumbl Kids Kitchen Set

With a tiled back wall, a chalkboard on the fridge-freezer, and plenty of shelves inside the appliances, a great deal of thought and attention to detail have gone into making this play kitchen both look great and be easy to use. Thanks to some battery-powered elements, it has a microwave that makes sounds when kids press the buttons, a realistic ice dispenser and oven dials that click when turned.

Step2 Lifestyle Custom Kitchen

A plastic play kitchen with a modern design that’s great for little kids. It features a sink, fridge with ice dispenser, cooker, cabinets and a cute little recycling bin. The included 20 piece accessory set is a nice touch and provides plenty for kids to play with, such as pans, bowls, plates, cups and utensils.

Prices listed reflect time and date of publication and are subject to change.

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The Minnesota Gophers might be playing themselves into the WNIT.

After winning their 20th game of the season last week at Purdue, and with a chance to pull to .500 in the Big Ten Conference, the Gophers were just plain outgunned on Wednesday in a 72-62 loss to Washington at Williams Arena.

Huskies guard Elle Ladine led four teammates in double-digits with a game-high 26 points as Washington scored over and through Minnesota’s defense, shooting 58 percent from the field and 50 percent (8 of 16) from 3-point range.

“They have five kids that can score, and score in different ways, and we couldn’t guard ‘em,” Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit told KFXN-FM after the game.

It was the last home game and penultimate game of the regular season for the Gophers, who have now lost six of their past eight games. They will be underdogs when they finish their regular season at No. 23 Michigan State on Saturday afternoon.

With Minnesota post Sophie Hart on the bench for much of the game, Huskies post Dalayah Daniels finished with 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, and guards Sayvia Sellers and Hannah Stines each added 11 points.

The Gophers (20-9, 8-9) have one more chance to burnish their record for a possible NCAA tournament berth by beating a ranked team for the first time this season on Saturday against the Spartans. And a run in the conference tournament next week in Indianapolis would go a long way toward accomplishing that, as well.

Problem is, Minnesota just might end up playing Washington (17-12, 8-9) in the first round Wednesday.

“Obviously, we’ve got to get readjusted, and readjusted quickly, if we want a real chance of playing in the postseason,” Plitzuweit said in a postgame radio interview.

The Gophers used a 12-2 run to pull within 65-60 on a layup by Natalie Holloway with 1 minute, 56 minutes remaining, but it was all but over when, 34 seconds later, Nadine hit an off-balance 3-pointer to push that lead to 68-60.

Grace Grocholski and Annika Stewart, getting the bulk of the Gophers’ post minutes off the bench, each scored 13 points, and Mallory Heyer added 10 points and a team-high eight boards.

Hart, who came into the game on a roll — averaging 18 points, 5.3 rebounds and 27.5 minutes in her previous four games — played just 16 minutes, mostly in the first half. She finished with four points and three rebounds.

Minnesota led 17-10 after one quarter, and 24-12 after Mallory Heyer scored after an offensive rebound by Stewart after 2:14 of the second.

But Washington picked up the pace and started attacking the Gophers more aggressively, and Minnesota started getting sloppy with the ball. The teams traded baskets for a bit until the Gophers went cold while the Huskies suddenly couldn’t miss.

After Minnesota built its lead back to 27-17 on a 3-pointer by Grocholski, the Huskies made their next seven field goal attempts to finish off a run that tied the game 33-33 on Elle Ladine’s turnaround jumper in the lane with 46 seconds left in the half.

The teams traded turnovers after that, and Minnesota wing Tori McKinney missed a shot at the buzzer to keep the score knotted. Ladine scored the first basket in the third quarter and never trailed again.

The Huskies led by as many as 17 in the second half.

“They just beat us, cooked us in about every action that they had, especially on the ball screens,” Plitzuweit said. “We couldn’t stop ’em, couldn’t slow ’em down and couldn’t score enough to overcome them.”

Minnesota center Sophie Hart (52) shoots over Washington guard Chloe Briggs (11), left, and forward Brenna McDonald (20), right, during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

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A school bus driver for Park High School in Cottage Grove was arrested Wednesday afternoon after a school employee who was helping students board the bus noticed that the driver appeared to be impaired.

Police arrested the 36-year-old driver, an employee of Hastings-based Big River Bus Co., around 3:10 p.m., according to a news release from the Cottage Grove Public Safety Department. School administrative staff had already removed the keys from the bus by the time officers arrived, the release states.

The driver was brought to the Cottage Grove Police Department, where officers executed a search warrant to obtain a blood sample, and then transported him to the Washington County jail in Stillwater on probable cause of third-degree DUI, child endangerment, the release states.

“The Cottage Grove Public Safety Department extends our thanks to the quick-thinking of school staff that took immediate action to prevent the driver from leaving with children on the bus,” the release states.

In a letter to Park High School families, Principal Todd Herber wrote that school administrators responded to the scene and contacted the school resource officer for assistance. Students were immediately removed from the bus, he wrote.

“I appreciate the quick response of our staff in recognizing that something didn’t seem right with the bus driver,” Herber wrote. “I also want to thank our School Resource Officer and the Cottage Grove Police Department for their prompt response to help keep our students safe.”

A school bus aide for Big River Bus Co. was charged last month with felony second-degree criminal sexual conduct for allegedly groping a 6-year-old Woodbury boy on a bus ride home last fall.

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A man called 911 Wednesday afternoon and reported that someone had killed his wife, but police arrested him after they found the woman fatally stabbed in a residence in St. Paul.

A baby and another adult were in the Summit-University residence at the time; they were uninjured, said Sgt. Toy Vixayvong, a St. Paul police spokesman.

The woman’s homicide was the first of the year in St. Paul. There had been four at this time last year.

Officers responded to the man’s 911 call just after 3:10 p.m. in the 400 block of Central Avenue. They found the man covered in blood and a woman who had an apparent stab wound, Vixayvong said. St. Paul Fire Department medics transported the woman to Regions Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Police took the man into custody and to police headquarters for questioning. He will be booked into the Ramsey County jail on suspicion of murder, Vixayvong said Wednesday night.

Police will release the woman’s name after it’s confirmed by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office. Police are also working to verify the man’s information that he and the woman were married.

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