NYC Christmas dinner miracle

December 23, 2011 4:12 PM

Bugdet Christmas meal NYC filter - Any recommendations for NYC restaurants serving a traditional Christmas meal (turkey, mashed potatoes, veg, etc) that won't break the bank?

So I'm meeting my friend in NYC for Christmas. We have the hotel and had plans--or so we thought--to have a nice traditional Christmas meal with her cousins. Long story short, she just found out that they've made other plans that don't include us.

I'd be happy with Chinese food and a movie, but know that she has her heart set on a traditional Christmas roast turkey dinner. We weren't counting on this expense and have already spent money on the hotel, travel, etc. so we'd like to keep it under $100, although we could probably swing $150 (total, not each). Worst case scenario I'm thinking that French Roast should be open and she could get the herb roast chicken, but I'm hoping to find something a little more special. I think she's really hurt about her cousins blowing her off and I'd like to save Christmas for her.

posted by kaybdc to food & drink (4 answers total)

Gossip Bar, an Irish pub, on 9th Ave btw 49th and 50th Streets is serving the traditional dinner on Christmas Day for $19. Yes, nineteen dollars.
posted by essexjan at 4:36 PM on December 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

Thanks essezjan! You may have saved Christmas (bonus points because she's Irish via Liverpool)!
posted by kaybdc at 4:43 PM on December 23, 2011

Here's another Irish pub menu in Times Square. It isn't going to be gourmet food, but it'll be turkey and all the trimmings.

Looking on opentable.com, it looks like there'll be a lot of places around the theatre district that'll be open and any Irish pub should be doing a traditional dinner.
posted by essexjan at 4:44 PM on December 23, 2011

We ended up going to the place in times square as their prix-fix turkey dinner sounded better and you know what? It was pretty good. Really fresh spinach salad with goats cheese, beets and walnuts. The turkey was a little dry, but the gravy helped and the sides, including mashed potatoes, mashed turnip and carrots (just like my sister used to make) and cranberry sauce were all pretty tasty. As essexjan wisely stated, "it's not going to be gourmet" but it filled the bill for a pretty decent traditional Christmas turkey dinner that didn't break the bank ($35 each) and didn't require a reservation 2 months in advance. The only thing that let us down was the dessert. Irish whiskey trifle should be neither orange or gelatinous. So essexjan saved Christmas. As for the atmosphere, well it's an ersatz Irish pub in Times Sq. I imagine you can guess what it's like.
posted by kaybdc at 1:09 PM on January 23, 2012