The Best Holiday Dining in New York City 2025: A Luxe Guide to Seasonal Feasts

New York reveals an entirely different rhythm during the holidays. Lights glow brighter, dining rooms feel more theatrical, and chefs put forward menus that lean into tradition while honoring the spirit of celebration. This year’s lineup captures that magic through tasting menus, festive prix fixes, and culinary storytelling shaped by some of the city’s most acclaimed talents.

The following guide spotlights fifteen standout destinations for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the broader holiday season, each offering a distinctive experience that reflects the city’s appetite for both creativity and comfort.

Williamsburg’s Michelin-starred Shota Omakase takes holiday indulgence to a new tier with a twenty-course omakase experience served on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The progression begins with Otsumami, a series of intricate small dishes such as barracuda, scallop, horsehair crab, and Asari Dashi Soup. Nigiri selections include red sea bream, winter yellowtail, sweet shrimp, O Toro, and A5 Wagyu. Dessert adds a final layer of refinement through creations like Mocha Tiramisu and Japanese musk melon. Reservations are available on Resy and Tock for this rarefied celebration of Edomae tradition.

Bazaar Meat’s holiday offering centers on two elaborate multi-course experiences: the Feast of the Seven Fishes and the Christmas Feast, both available for full-table participation. These menus showcase the restaurant’s signature wood-fired meats and high-touch seafood preparations. Guests may elevate the evening further through an optional one hundred fifty dollar wine pairing crafted to complement the progression of dishes. It is a dramatic, celebratory setting for those seeking a holiday meal that feels theatrical in scale and culinary ambition.

Inside the JW Marriott Essex House, Bourbon Steak dresses its Art Deco dining room for the season while offering a three-course prix fixe on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Highlights include bacon-wrapped scallops with cranberry chutney, winter truffle risotto, Chilean seabass with winter bean conserva, and the signature center-cut filet mignon. Seasonal sides are served family-style and conclude with a duo of holiday desserts. The dining room’s holiday decor sets a festive tone for a refined Midtown Christmas.

COTE presents one of the city’s most coveted Christmas Eve feasts. The Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse builds the evening around banchan, scallion salad, lettuce wraps with ssam-jang, and signature Steak & Eggs featuring hand-cut filet mignon with Daurenki caviar and milk toast. The centerpiece arrives in the form of a Feast of Seven Steaks, showcasing USDA Prime, dry-aged cuts, American Wagyu, and Japanese A5. Soy sauce caramel soft serve and seasonal fruit complete the progression. This is holiday decadence expressed through the lens of Korean-style steakhouse dining.

Inside the landmark Beekman Hotel, Temple Court marks the holiday with a Christmas menu offered on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The experience includes chilled Maine lobster with artichokes, orange and salsify, chestnut agnolotti with black truffle and Brussels sprouts, and entrées such as diver scallops, halibut, roasted Rohan duck breast, or American wagyu Denver steak. Dessert brings sticky toffee pudding, eggnog custard, chocolate bûche de noël, or sorbet. The restaurant’s historic setting amplifies the sense of occasion.

Few New York dining rooms feel as transportive during the holidays as The Russian Tea Room. Its three-course Christmas Day prix fixe features Eastern European classics including RTR Borscht, Boeuf à la Stroganoff, and Côtelette à la Kiev, along with Apricot Glazed Duck, Roasted Red Snapper, and Cranberry Orange Crème Brûlée. The Art Deco interiors, dramatic palette, and long-standing cultural history create an atmosphere made for holiday nostalgia.

Inside Grand Central Terminal, Grand Brasserie leans into holiday tradition through its Classic Chocolate Yule Log with hazelnut praline and crème chantilly, served on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as part of its three-course prix fixe. The dessert honors the medieval practice of burning a decorated log for good luck, reinterpreted by Executive Pastry Chef Jamai Brown. Between the twinkling lights of the terminal and the nearby Holiday Fair, the restaurant offers a festive pause during the city’s busiest season.

Le Crocodile celebrates Christmas with a three-course prix fixe that captures the brasserie’s French spirit. Canapés include mushroom pâté tarts and Gruyère cheese puffs, followed by appetizers such as citrus, date and beet salad or roasted sunchokes with chestnuts and raclette. Shared dishes like roast beef with jus, baked Atlantic halibut, maple-glazed carrots, and pancetta Brussels set a convivial tone. Desserts, crafted by the all-female pastry team, range from Mont Blanc with Biscoff and cranberry to a maple butterscotch pear with honeycomb ice cream.

Rezdôra leans into the warmth of Emilia-Romagna during the holiday season through handmade pastas crafted by Chef Stefano Secchi. Signature dishes such as the Gnoccho Fritto, the Uovo Ravioli Di Nino Bergese, and the Cotoletta Bolognese offer a deeply comforting experience suited for celebratory winter dining. The wine program, rooted in regional Italian traditions and guided by Wine Director Michael Duffy, adds a thoughtful layer of pairing and storytelling.

Crane Club opens its dramatic dining room on Christmas Eve for an a la carte holiday dinner. Guests can enjoy dishes such as razor clams, preserved red tomatoes, braised pork agnolotti, frutti di mare spaghetti, grilled half chicken with greens and scallion jus, parmesan-crusted NY strip steak, and whole branzino. Desserts include coffee lava cake and carrot cake with pineapple spuma. Champagne flows throughout the evening, setting a celebratory mood within a space shaped by the culinary vision of Melissa Rodriguez and Jeff Katz.

Craft offers a Christmas Eve dinner built around a three-course seasonal menu. Beet cured arctic char with buttermilk and radishes, pumpkin agnolotti with black trumpet and sage, and Rohan duck à l’orange with endive and sherry define the savory selections. Dessert brings a chocolate chestnut bûche de nöel with roasted pears and brown butter ice cream. It is a polished interpretation of holiday comfort through Tom Colicchio’s ingredient-driven lens.

Peasant honors the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve with a multi-course dinner celebrating seafood and Italian culinary heritage. Octopus with burnt lemon, bacala with potato and smoked olive oil, and calamari with fermented chili provide depth and warmth within an atmosphere shaped by wood-fired cooking. It is a long-standing downtown favorite that speaks to holiday tradition through rustic technique.

Massara’s Southern Italian sensibility suits the festive season with dishes such as the Cheesemaker’s Raviolini and the sixty-day dry aged Ribeye Modo Compana. The pastry program, led by Dominique Canvin, brings made-to-order sfogliatella to the forefront. Large groups and spirited gatherings fit naturally into this lively dining room during the holidays.

Cuna serves a four-course Christmas Eve menu featuring parsnip soup with huitlacoche and sunflower seed, roasted sea bass in mushroom broth, grilled filet mignon with sweet potato and cranberry, and chocolate cake with Papantla vanilla ice cream. On Christmas Day, the restaurant offers brunch and dinner menus and gifts guests a Casa Bosques chocolate bar. A partnership with Casa Dragones introduces a holiday cocktail crafted with Reposado, lemon, ginger, and red wine.

The Central Park Boathouse, newly renovated and overlooking the lake, welcomes guests on Christmas Day with an a la carte lunch menu and specials such as Prime Rib of Beef, Lobster Pasta, and Diver Sea Scallops. Dessert includes Sticky Toffee Pudding and Olive Oil Cake. Its iconic setting in the heart of the park has long made it a holiday destination for New Yorkers and visitors seeking a classic seasonal backdrop.

New York’s restaurants continue to define the holiday season through menus that honor heritage, craftsmanship, and the pleasure of gathering. Whether experienced through an intimate omakase, a heritage-inspired feast, or a signature prix fixe, each destination captures its own expression of celebration. These fifteen standouts offer a pathway into the city’s most memorable festive dining experiences, each one shaped by a commitment to hospitality that feels especially meaningful this time of year.