Hello to all! Two items please:
(1) Heard a lot of NY restuarants are not open Thanksgiving Day. Can anyone suggest a good Thanksgiving meal at not too expensive prices
(2) Is the Tavern on the Green worth the $$.

Thanks

It's true that many restaurants are not open on Thanksgiving Day, but many are - serving traditional Thanksgiving dinner, at lofty prices mostly.

You can find listings on the web - at www.newyork.citysearch.com, www.nytoday.com, etc., though, usually not until several weeks before Thanksgiving (unless you can do a search and find last year's list).

Another good place to check is www.opentable.com - but, closer to Thanksgiving, as many places do not accept reservations more than 30 or 60 days in advance. Be advised that there will be restaurants open that do not participate with Open Table, and some restaurants only give Open Table early/late times, even though they may not yet be fully booked for, say, the usual 7PM.

Best bet is sometimes a hotel dining room. We've enjoyed Thanksgiving Dinner many times at the Algonquin Hotel. The restaurant, Gaby, at the Sofitel is wonderful as well.

There are a few small French bistros where Thanksgiving dinner is a steal - Bistro Les Amis in the Village/SoHo, for example.

Tavern on the Green is worth a visit for a look-see and drinks. I've never actually dined there, just perused the menu and prices. Do a search on this forum for comments from those who've dined there. Or, check the Restaurant Rants & Raves page.

I cannot say strongly enough DO NOT go to Tavern on the Green for Thanksgiving!

My family went 2 years ago - paid the extra $$$ to be in the Crystal Room ($110/pp I think) to make it really special. It was an absolute zoo. They had shoveled so many extra tables into the room that it was difficult to push your chair back without hitting the person behind you. The food had the quality of cafeteria food and was delivered lukewarm. Certainly no fine service and special requests (like for water to drink) were forgotten (actually, felt more like ignored because any request seemed to annoy the staff). Not only that but it took 20 min. to check our heavy coats so we almost lost our reserved table. It was such a disaster we simply laugh about it now. Please, please go somewhere else for your holiday meal!

One of the best things about going to NYC at Thanksgiving is watching the giant balloons being blown up the night before the parade. I would try my very hardest to see this and they do it on the west side around 77th.

2 years ago we at a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at Carmine's. Not bad prices because you do get a mountain of food..I know the one dinner could have easlily served 8-10 people. And they do take reservations not to mention that the food is out of this world.

I second Carmine's...great Italian food, served family style, and close to everything. Just bear in mind the portions are large, and you will definitely want to walk off that food! Maybe walk by Macy's or down 5th Ave to see all the window decorations...

Actually there are 2 Carmine's in NYC...one in times square and one on the upper west side of the park on broadway (i think). Both or wonderful...the one on the upper west side was less conjested.