Christmas and New Year's Eve dinners in NYC

December 14, 2006 6:38 PM

My family and I will be in New York city for the holidays. My mission: to find great restaurants for Christmas and New Year's Eve dinners.

I'd like personal recommendations for restaurants for Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day brunch, and New Year's dinner. We are four adults and two teenagers (ages 16 and 18). Our budget is about $100 per person, per dinner (although I think it should be less for brunch). If we could make reservations online, it would be a big plus.

We'll be staying near the Carnegie Hall. We were planning to go to Times Square for New Year's Eve, but after reading this, I guess we'll go somewhere else.

Thank you!

posted by clearlydemon to travel & transportation (6 comments total)

NYC has tons of great restaurants in that price range, so some additional guidance would be helpful. Ambience? Type of food? Do you want to stick around midtown or are you willing to take a subway or taxi?
posted by brain_drain at 7:00 PM on December 14, 2006

Most of the Mario Batali restaurants seem to be doing a Christmas Eve "Feast of the Seven Fishes". Last year we went to Esca, I think with last-minute reservations (for two) and it was very good. Here's a recent Chowhound discussion on Christmas Eve Batali fish feasts.

I would do dim sum for brunch, at Jing Fong or at Vegetarian Dim Sum. Chinese is of course the great Christmas refuge for the non-observant.

New Year's Eve? I think you should go somewhere in Brooklyn. Maybe do the countdown in Grand Army Plaza instead of times sq.
posted by xueexueg at 5:37 AM on December 15, 2006

Over Thanksgiving, my family and I ate at Osteria al Doge, in the theater district. Nice ambiance, and everyone enjoyed their food except for my dad who was disappointed by the veal. They take reservations by phone. Here's a link to the NYTimes review; you can look up lots of restaurants using their search function.
posted by Sprout the Vulgarian at 6:12 AM on December 15, 2006

Manhattanusersguide.com had a list out of "Open on Thanksgiving" joints, I suppose they'll be doing something for Christmas too - keep an eye on that.

Not sure if they'll be open for your respective times, but I'd highly recommend Freeman's for your Christmas Eve dinner - its got a rustic, holiday feel. This is the kind of place no concierge would know about - very local joint, good luck finding it.

And as far as brunches go, I love the brunch at Blue Water Grill.
posted by allkindsoftime at 7:05 AM on December 15, 2006

Try Tavern On The Green for dinner. It's inside Central Park and it's absoluately brilliant!
posted by pikaboy202 at 10:01 AM on December 15, 2006

Thanks everybody! Your suggestions have been very helpful.

Sorry if my question was too open, I have only been to NYC once and it's a big responsibility to decide the venues for Christmas and New Year's dinners. I'm afraid I'll choose a bad restaurant and my family will disown me because I ruined Christmas :P

brain_drain, we don't have anything too specific in mind. We like international cuisine, but anything but Mexican will do (we are from Mexico and it's just not the same).

A place near our hotel would be a big plus, because we'd need two cabs to transport and I'd rather not take the subway in high heels.

Also, I see most restaurants offer brunch on weekends, but January 1st will be a Monday. Do they make an exception for this date?
posted by clearlydemon at 10:26 AM on December 15, 2006