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This year, as always, many of New York City’s finest restaurants will offer delicious Thanksgiving meals for those of us that are less kitchen savvy or apron inclined and prefer to leave the cooking to the professionals.
Don’t want to eat out but find the idea of preparing your own creamed onions daunting? Not to worry, many specialty stores and restaurants also offer take-home options to make your Thanksgiving especially tasty this year, and minimize the risk of a burnt pumpkin pie or dry turkey marring your festivities. You can get the full run in Time Out New York’s full Turkey Day Guide but here are a few of my personal favorite options in both Manhattan and Brooklyn.
WHERE TO DINE OUT:
Price: $245 + $135 wine pairing (optional)
Chef Daniel Humm and partner Will Guidara serve stylish, constantly reinvented New American fare at this much-decorated Flatiron dining room.
On the menu: The four-course menu offers plenty of reinterpreted classics, with several options available for each course. A selection of dishes includes a starter of chicken veloute with black truffles; scallops with uni and fennel; a main of slow-cooked beef with mushrooms and horseradish; and pecan pie with malted ice cream for dessert.
Price: $125, kids $55
Danny Meyer’s storied fine dining room opened in its new location on 19th Street this fall, the perfect occasion for tucking into chef Carmen Quagliata’s bistro plates.
On the menu: Four courses of fall-forward classics, with family-style sides. Appetizers include chestnut soup with roasted grapes and chicory-apple salad; a pasta course features ricotta gnocchi and butternut squash tortelli; and roast turkey and herb-rubbed pork are on offer for the main. Desserts include pumpkin bread pudding, apple pie and a chocolate pecan tart.
Price: $138 (vegetarian menu $125) + $75 wine pairing (optional)
Chef John Fraser’s New American restaurant has a dining room with vanilla Upper West Side looks, but the decor belies the kitchen’s inventive uses of luxurious ingredients such as foie gras, beef cheeks and trumpet mushrooms.
On the menu: The three-course prix fixe begins with a choice of Fuji apple salad with wild rice, truffled pappardelle and others; mains include slow-roasted turkey with dark meat agnolotti and sirloin steak accompanied by beef-cheek lasagna. Dessert offerings include cheesecake stuffed with port-poached pears and pumpkin pie with walnut brittle.
Price: $155 for both menus, kids $65
For an Italian-infused holiday meal, you can head to another Danny Meyer hot spot - Maialino. The restaurant is offering a choice between two four-course Thanksgiving menus: an Italian-American, turkey-focused meal and a more classically Italian option centered around roasted suckling pig.
On the menu: Besides the bird, the American-leaning menu offers chestnut soup with roasted Brussels sprouts, pumpkin-sage tortelli and a pecan torta with amaro crema. Alongside the pig, on the Italian menu, you’ll get stracciatella alla romana, cacio e pepe pasta and spiced apple cake.
Price: $55, kids $20
This homey spot serves rustic, French-Catalonian border fare, with country inn-stylized features such as stained glass windows and a dark walnut bar. On the menu: The three-course meal includes holiday favorites such as skillet cornbread, roasted squash with hazelnut butter, mashed potatoes with sausage gravy, and roasted heritage turkey. Sweets include sweet potato pie and apple gallette.
Price: $75
Along with its sister establishment, Buttermilk Channel, this homey BK restaurant is serving up a simple but delicious three-course menu. Options include cauliflower soup, an autumn salad, or mussels as your first course, with turkey and gravy as an entrée.
Note: Fifteen percent of food sales will be donated to Neighbors Together, a Brooklyn organization against hunger and poverty.
Price: $60
Prime Meats is serving a Thanksgiving prix fixe menu that comes with the works: Your thanksgiving bird is served with mashed potatoes, pretzel and biscuit stuffing, roasted squash, Brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, and gravy. The meal starts with wild mushroom soup or a fall salad.
WHERE TO DINE IN: Delivery & Pick-Up Options… Your secret is safe with us!
Marlow & Daughters is offering natural, pasture raised, white-breast turkey for $7/lbs. You can add a complete Thanksgiving sides packages for $120. Thanksgiving desserts can also be pre-ordered through Friday, November 20 - Apple, pumpkin, pecan, and malted milk chocolate pies are available for about $40.
Green Grape Provisions is offering a wide array of Thanksgiving options for pickup. Turkeys start at $5.99/lb, and you can kick things up a bit and make your meal extra fancy by adding oysters, goose, maple ham, stuffing, pie and more.
Macsgiving! Mac Shack offers a special Thanksgiving mac with candied yams, pumpkin, turkey, cheddar cheese, apple cornbread crust, and cranberry sauce on top. Mac & Cheese + Thanksgiving = Awesome.
If you like cooking the accouterments but are daunted by the bird, you can just order your turkey or can opt for the full Thanksgiving feast, which includes an assortment of sides for $220.
If you are like me and dessert is your Achilles Heel, head over for arguably (it has my vote) the BEST pie in town – from traditional flavors like pumpkin to out of this world creations like salted caramel apple, you are sure to find pies your whole family will enjoy. Prices vary but all pies are around $40.
