Restaurants serving Thanksgiving + Christmas dinner

Does it seem as if there's an unusually large number of local restaurants opening for Thanksgiving this year? Here's a list of 25 restaurants open on Thanksgiving, and it only scratches the surface.

Some of them are hotel restaurants, which typically open on holidays, but others are standalone eateries. How many people are going out for Thanksgiving this year?

We're going out; first time ever.

My mother in law was to be staying with us and believes to her core that "cooking" = "trouble," and would only come if we promised not to go to any "trouble." So, I thought, why not try going out just for once. We'll make up a lot of pies and snacking things anyway and see what it's like to go out and keep everyone happy.

Chose Texas de Brazil partly because we had done Fogo for my dad's birthday a couple of years ago and it was a great success on the 'bread and circuses' scale. I'd heard some good things about Texas and figured we'd try. Upside is that both mom-in-law and picky child can choose, down to the very slice, exactly what they want, how they want it, and how much of it, so there's less fear of a whole entree disappointing.

Final irony: mom-in-law can't come due to illness elsewhere in the family and it's too late to invite anyone else over, so we're going out anyway.

Hoping for the best.

I'm going out with a friend -- we did this last year, and it was a nice meal and a nice way to spend the day when you can't be with family.

We went to Viand last year -- three course meal -- i believe that the options were turkey, salmon, ham and roast beef -- although that's a simplistic memory. They had a salad table set up and a dessert table -- so it was sort of a half buffet. I was really impressed by my turkey and stuffing -- some of the most tasty stuffing I can recall having. The best part was the price -- $24.95. We're going again this year -- we're both trying to save money and we had such a nice time last year.

I love to cook Thanksgiving but really, for two people -- it's so much easier to go out.

Viand
155 E Ontario St
Chicago, IL 60611-2822
(312) 255-8505

Another 60 restaurants serving Thanksgiving dinner! Many of these are open to last-minute reservations. And this list in the Sun-Times features restaurants that definitely expected to be able to take people who call on Thanksgiving Day.

mrbarolo wrote:Chose Texas de Brazil partly because we had done Fogo for my dad's birthday a couple of years ago and it was a great success on the 'bread and circuses' scale. I'd heard some good things about Texas and figured we'd try. Upside is that both mom-in-law and picky child can choose, down to the very slice, exactly what they want, how they want it, and how much of it, so there's less fear of a whole entree disappointing.

I was always turned off by TdB's price tag of $45, roughly twice what I have paid for churrascarrias in SLC and Las Vegas.

However, with a 50% off coupon, I went there for my recent birthday. Excellent food and service. And if you are celebrating an event, they will do something for it.

We will probably eat Christmas dinner there as we will be in Chicago for Christmas this year.

Not that it's of any use in connection with this thread, but we spent last year in Baton Rouge at my parents' home for Thanksgiving. My parents' next door neighbor ended up declining my parents' invitation to join us and went to Commander's Palace in New Orleans for Thanksgiving and raved about her meal there. So something to keep in mind if you ever end up traveling to NOLA over Thanksgiving. Menu this year looks great.

The best Thanksgiving deal may be the buffet at Red Apple: $16.95.

I hope those of you are dining out for Thanksgiving will report back here on your experiences.

We were at Chuck's last night and they were advertising Thanksgiving dinner (for reservations only which ended Monday) for $15.95. You can find out more here.

http://www.chuckscafe.com

Looks like we might be checking this out next year.

Muttster wrote:We were at Chuck's last night and they were advertising Thanksgiving dinner (for reservations only which ended Monday) for $15.95. You can find out more here.

http://www.chuckscafe.com

Looks like we might be checking this out next year.

they also have a weekly e-mail news letter now with the weeks specials listed

HI

We went to David Burke's. The food was good, if not particularly exciting. My appetizer (squash ravioli) was very unbalanced - the delicate squash pasta completely overwhelmed by the vinegar sauce and bacon chunks surrounding it. Mom's soup was tasty but only warm, not hot. The turkey was fine, my mom got the salmon which she declared "fishy" but I think it just tasted like salmon. The stuffing was particularly good, the sweet potatoes were tasty but a bit too sweet. I'd go again. It was busy but not crazy, our server was pleasant, as were the several bus-guys we encountered. The host staff were very helpful when we were getting seated.

Report back on Viand -- i have to say it was quite disappointing for me. This year was a major drop in quality from my memory of last year's offering -- and i ordered exactly the same thing.

The stuffing I remember being really tasty -- and this year's version was not. It wasn't bad -- it was average. My mother's very middle of the road stuffing was much better than this version -- I found myself missing it a lot (and it's basically sour dough bread with seasonings, butter, onions, carrots, celery and broth). The creamed spinach was meh -- it's not my favorite thing to eat any time of the year and I didn't finish the portion -- it was very tasteless. The saddest part was the turkey. Last year i got a very large serving of 3 thick juicy slices of white meat -- this year -- a paltry tiny slice of white meat piled with dry dark meat on top. Really disappointing. Honestly -- I had a better open faced turkey sandwich at Kitsch'n this past Tuesday -- and it was $8.

The salad table and the dessert table were fine -- my dinner highlight was a snickerdoodle cookie that was very well done but this is a hard cookie to mess up, I think.

I'm pretty sure that if I'm in the same situation in next year -- I'll be looking for another place to have dinner. It was very affordable ($24.95) but I'd find more cash to have better tasting food. I think i'll avoid David Burke's though <grin>.

Company was good though. My friend enjoyed her sirloin and mashed potatoes and we had a good time catching up on news and gossip.

First time ever going non-traditional, and the choice of Carmine's was a good one. Fortunately I had a reservation, as the place was busy as usual, and my out-of-town guest and I enjoyed Carmine's typically good Southern Italian meal. As one who could always take or leave the traditional, I may see a new tradition in the offing given that over 80 restaurants were serving yesterday, and many their regular menus.

As an aside, they apparently had a traditional meal from Noon until 3, but thereafter went strictly with the regular menu.

It used to be that Chinese restaurants were about the only places open on Christmas Day. No more.

50 Chicagoland restaurants and bars open on Christmas Day

LAZ wrote:It used to be that Chinese restaurants were about the only places open on Christmas Day. No more.

50 Chicagoland restaurants and bars open on Christmas Day

Thanks for this. Both locations of The Bagel Restaurant will also be open until 9pm on Christmas Day. I know this because this year the Chicago Cycling Club's Bagel Ride will end at the Old Orchard location.

The Bagel Restaurant
3107 N Broadway
Chicago IL
773-477-0300

50 Old Orchard Center
Skokie IL
847-677-0100

I noticed on my walk home tonight that Manee Thai will be open on Christmas Day.

Manee Thai #2
1546 W Chicago Ave
Chicago IL 60622
312-773-3339

The Tribune offers this list of restaurants open tomorrow.