NYCGuide
Where To Have Your Birthday Dinner In NYC
photo credit: Coqodaq
One of the questions we get asked most is: “Where should I have my birthday dinner?” Let us guess—you’re looking for something “fun” and informal, where you can get a table for a group of your friends. Believe it or not, such restaurants do exist in New York City. Whether your idea of fun involves dancing on tables, a relaxed come-and-go-whenever type of gathering, or something in between, we have ideas. You only celebrate getting older once a year. Better make it good.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
A birthday classic, Wu’s Wonton King is always filled with groups sitting at big round tables covered in suckling pig, roasted duck, and whole fried crab. Situated at the southern tip of the Lower East Side, this place serves standout Cantonese food, and it also happens to be BYOB. Bring a few bottles of wine, start with a vat of the wonton soup, and be sure to place the order for your whole suckling pig in advance.
If you had your last two birthdays at Wu's, try Congee Village next. They take reservations for up to 60 people, so you’ll never have to cull your guest list at this cavernous LES institution that has neon palm trees on the roof and a real tree growing inside. There are currently 28 varieties of congee on offer (we’re eying the abalone and frog porridge for our next visit), but their seemingly endless menu has dishes to suit all tastes and dietary restrictions. The line between party and after-party gets delightfully blurry if you pre-book one of the four private karaoke dining rooms, where cocktails are available by the pitcher.
photo credit: Kate Previte
Coqodaq is a fancy Korean fried chicken restaurant that looks like a nightclub and sells baby bottles of champagne and chicken nuggets with caviar on top. So, duh, people flock to this place on their birthdays. Groups should do the Bucket List, a meal format for the table that comes with two types of fried chicken served in silver buckets, banchan, noodles, and frozen yogurt for $38 per person—a surprisingly decent price. Go ahead and use that extra cash to buy the birthday person a caviar nugget.
photo credit: Kate Pauley
If you don’t yet own a brownstone with a 300-square-foot dining room, host your next celebratory meal at Dinner Party, where you can book for up to eight people at a communal table. With its stained glass light fixtures and crowded wall of art in mismatched frames, this Fort Greene restaurant feels quaint and homey, and it serves a four-course prix fixe that changes weekly. Expect unpretentious, seasonal dishes like crab ravioli and chilled corn bisque.
photo credit: Kate Previte
Anixi is a vegan spot in Chelsea that looks like a glamorous Art Deco-inspired mansion from the 1980s. It’s the perfect restaurant for when you want to get some use out of an impractical outfit that you spent too much money on, and the plant-based food is just as deluxe as the space. Bring the person who pays the other half of your ConEd bill, and eat some “chicken” kebabs and faux tuna tartare with seaweed caviar under a crystal chandelier.
photo credit: Carina Finn
At Chong Qing Lao Zao, you can eat in what is essentially an indoor theme park. This Flushing restaurant is decorated like a rural village, with grass huts, water wheels, and even some trees and fake chickens. Choose a few broths for the hot pot in the middle of your table, then pick from a huge variety of meat, seafood, and vegetables—and be sure to take advantage of the extensive sauce station. Just keep in mind that this place doesn’t take reservations, and there’s usually a wait.
photo credit: Teddy Wolff
At Vatan, you and a group of six to eight can grab a big booth with its own thatched roof and have a fun AYCE vegetarian meal for $45 per person. You can ask your server to bring a refill of anything you finish, so you won't have everyone scooting over every 10 minutes to grab more mini samosas, sev puri, and chana masala from a buffet station. There’s also a wishing well, so you can make a birthday wish for a bigger apartment on your way out.
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Wenwen will immediately put you in the mood to celebrate another year on earth. The bathrooms at this Greenpoint restaurant could double as private karaoke rooms, and their cartoonishly large Shyboy 4XL is big enough to share with a full table of friends. Come for a fun, casual birthday, and split a bunch of comforting, homestyle Taiwanese dishes, like the whole fried chicken and tender braised pork belly with big chunks of cuttlefish.
photo credit: Adam Friedlander
You know what’s more fun than an “adult” night out? Recreating all the birthday pizza parties you had at Chuck E. Cheese when you were too short to ride roller coasters. For this, try Leo in Williamsburg. Their sourdough crust has a noticeable tang, and it’s always easy to get in here, even if you need a last-minute table for a group.
photo credit: Adam Friedlander
Rolo’s is perfect for a birthday dinner that feels like a scene out of Bushwick fan fiction. You might see a DJ fueling up before a 2am set or a group of artist friends who once did an impromptu cabaret show on the dance floor at Mood Ring. The menu has everything from grilled shrimp and minimalist two-sheet lasagna to a cheeseburger and housemade charcuterie, in addition to some ice cream you can enjoy while your friends sing you "Happy Birthday."
Let’s Meat is loud, so if towers of beer and unlimited marinated hanger steak turn your birthday dinner into a Major League Eating competition, feel free to cheer each other on. Your group will have 100 minutes to order as much as you want from the $43 classic or $49 signature meal set. Invite a bunch of friends to pregame from a beer fountain before heading to Karaoke City around the corner, where you can keep the party going in your own private room.
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
This place is part fish market and part restaurant, and there’s a big display in the back where you get to pick your own seafood and bag it up before you hand it over to the kitchen. There’s always a big selection of things like snapper, porgy, shrimp, and octopus, and when your server delivers everything fresh from the grill, you’ll congratulate yourself for being such a good pick-your-own-seafood person. The waits can be long, so bring some friends, and crack open some bottles you brought while you wait for your table. (Astoria Seafood is BYOB.)
The last time you thought about spending your birthday in Times Square, you were probably a child, brainwashed by gigantic M&Ms, or on your way to see Wicked (or all three). But hear us out. The dangling chandeliers, celebrity caricatures, and checkered tablecloths at this family-style Italian spot set the scene for a good time that’s just the right amount of tacky. It all feels like the childhood birthday parties we had at Bucca di Beppo, except the food is actually really good. Come here with six of your friends, order the huge, shareable platters of caesar salad and rigatoni alla vodka, and drink a boat load of wine next to a painting of Mario Lopez.
You probably don’t like to celebrate your birthday the same way every year. Sometimes, you want a night out that’s the equivalent of lying on an inflatable mattress in a pool. Other times, you’re in more of a rave mood (even though you’ve never been to a rave). For the latter, plan a meal at Rebel on the LES, where you'll find rainbow globe lights, plenty of rum cocktails, great Haitian food, and usually a live band or a DJ.
photo credit: Neha Talreja
With its colorful lights and loud music, Republica is sort of like a club, except you can sit at a table and eat a whole fried snapper. Try this three-story Dominican rooftop restaurant in Inwood if you want to have a lively birthday with people dancing to thumping bachata under purple strobe lights. While dishes like the tres golpes plate with slabs of fried cheese and saffron-lime salmon are decent, the food’s main purpose is to give you enough sustenance to keep pouring drinks.
