The best restaurants open on Christmas Eve and Day in NYC

Feste, this year’s seasonal restaurant at The Standard, East Village, will host both a Christmas Eve dinner and a Christmas Day brunch this year. The former will be a classic Feast of the Seven Fishes on December 24, available from noon to 8pm—for $95 fer person, you can enjoy seafood-forward plates like red wine braised octopus with sunchoke puree, poached yellowfin tuna with fennel and citrus, and bucatini with sardines and saffron, with ricotta cookies or rum cake to finish things off on a sweet note. And on December 25 from 11am to 4pm, the festively festooned restaurant will be serving a la carte brunchtime dishes such as bacon-onion quiche ($18), burrata toast with blood orange marmalade ($18) and Bananas Foster buttermilk waffles ($20).

Chef-owner Christopher Cipollone and owner-operator John Winterman invite you to celebrate the season with a touch of understated style and, of course, duck. Along with the Brooklyn brasserie’s usual à la carte menu, the kitchen will be offering festive additions for its Christmas Eve dinner, including caviar service, king crab tortelloni with sea urchin, and a shareable fromage flambée with chartreuse verte and black truffle vinaigrette. You can book a table from 4pm to 9pm on December 24 via Resy.

Inspired by Executive Chef Lena Ciardullo and her team’s Christmas Eve traditions and family recipes, Union Square Cafe will be hosting its third annual Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. The four-course menu ($195 per person, with an optional $95 wine pairing) will include festive stuff like caviar with tater tots, antipasti in abbondanza, a choice between two seafood pastas, and a choice between swordfish piccata and beef tenderloin. For dessert, enjoy orange sorbetto and an Italian-inspired cookie tin alongside a special Strega Nona Spritz cocktail with which to toast the holiday. Reserve your spot here.

Jean-Georges' Four Twenty Five in Midtown invites guests to indulge in a luxurious three-course holiday menu to celebrate the season. On Christmas Day, the restaurant will offer a three-course holiday menu from noon to 8pm for $188 per person. Menu standouts from the three-course prix fixe include: Nantucket Bay scallop tartare with tahini citrus dressing; butter-poached lobster with a black peppercorn condiment; seared Wagyu beef tenderloin with roasted pistachio crumb; and a Mont Blanc dessert with hazelnut praline and cassis sorbet. Reservations are available on Resy.

It's the most wonderful time of the year at Cecchi’s! Michael Azzolina-Cecchi and his team are celebrating the festive season in style with a Christmas Eve repast on December 24. (Reservations are available from 5pm to 10pm.) Along with their usual à la carte dinner, the holiday menu will include starters like cod cakes with tartare sauce and charred lemon, mains including butter-glazed roasted lobster with root vegetables, and stuffed pork Belly with chestnut-cranberry stuffing, caramelized apples, potato cake and pork gravy. For dessert, enjoy toffee cake with crème fraîche mousse.

New American staple ABC Kitchen is celebrating Christmas with a delicious three course menu: on December 25 from noon to 8pm, you can settle in for your choice of festive plates, from peekytoe crab toast to seared scallops to hand-cut tagliatelle pasta. It can be all yours for $168 per person; reserve your spot here. 

One of our favorite new restaurants of 2023 will be open on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with a seasonal menu of Georgian foods. We’re especially partial to their khachapuri, a bread bowl full of gooey cheese, topped with butter and a raw egg. Pad out your spread with khinkali (Georgian dumpling), mtsvadi (skewers) and Jonjoli salad, and toast to the holiday season with Chacha, Georgian grape vodka. Reservations are available here.  

For $125/pp, you can head to the Ludlow Hotel for dinner on Christmas Day—not the most eye-wateringly expensive prix fixe in the city, but a lot spendier than those dumplings from your favorite neighborhood takeout spot. The holiday menu from this “sexy bistro” features tuna tartare, grilled oysters, filet mignon and chocolate cake for a festive meal that you won’t have to clean up after. Reservations are available here. 

Lovely Temple Court at the ornately grand Beekman Hotel will be open on Christmas Eve and Day. An à la carte menu will be available in The Bar Room. A four-course prix fixe including options like tuna tartare, chestnut agnolotti with black truffles and Brussels sprouts, roast duck and eggnog flan will be $195 per person in the dining room. 

Fabulous Birds of a Feather—from the restaurateurs behind Midtown's formerly Michelin-starred Cafe China— is open every day, including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Some of our favorites from the menu include the mapo tofu, three pepper chicken and the tea smoked duck.

Time Out New York Best of the City award winner and one of 2021’s best restaurants, convivial Sidney’s Five will be open for brunch from 11-3pm and dinner from 5-9pm on Christmas Eve.  

Each of MáLà Project’s three locations (East Village, Midtown East, Midtown West) will serve their sensational spicy and numbing signature menu items (along with less spicy and numbing options) on Christmas Eve and Day. 

Cozy French bistro Chez Moi will be open for favorites like steak frites, foie gras and escargots on Christmas Eve only. 

Wayan’s interior, exterior, and chef’s counter seats are still wide open for service on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The French-Indonesian restaurant will serve its standard brunch in addition to festive specials.