Where To Book A Rosh Hashanah Restaurant Dinner
Honey and Ice at ‘Intersect’ Image by Intersect
Restaurant table Image by iStock
If you’re looking forward to Rosh Hashanah dinner – but not necessarily to cooking – fear not. Restaurants around the country are rolling out special menus for the High Holidays this year. Here are some of our favorites. Please note: None of these are kosher. Prices are per person, and don’t include taxes, beverages, or wine/alcohol. And some venues also offer kiddie menus.
Abe Fisher, Philadelphia
Sunday, September 29
$65
At $65, Chef Yehuda Sichel’s inventive, whimsical Rosh Hashanah menu sounds like a steal. Start with peach challah and gem lettuce salad with pomegranate before feasting on chicken/matzoh-ball “tamale”, brisket-braised short ribs, and more. Finish with apple and peach hand pies — think turnovers — with whipped vanilla quark.
Summer House Santa Monica, Chicago
Sunday September 29/Monday September 30
$44.95
Usually a haven of seasonal California-style cuisine, Summer House Santa Monica gets trad for the holidays, with chopped liver and gefilte fish, matzo-ball soup, salmon, brisket, or chicken as mains, and family-style sides of latkes, tzimmes, kasha varnishkes, and couscous. Apple galette with cinnamon ice cream starts the new year on a sweet note.
Tocqueville, New York City
Sunday September 29/Monday September 30
$88
This refined, relaxed French-American mainstay will welcome 5780 with homemade challah and Greenmarket apples, chicken bouillon soup with chicken truffle ravioli, sriracha-marinated filet mignon, and more. Holiday-inspired desserts include warm apple tart with acacia-honey ice cream.
Joe’s Seafood Prime Steak and Stone Crab, Washington DC Sunday, September 29 and Monday, September 30 $49.95 From the name, you’ve probably figure out this one’s not kosher. But Joe’s is offering a heart-warmingly traditional Rosh Hashanah dinner this year, including gefilte fish with horseradish; matzo ball soup; brisket; potato pancakes with homemade applesauce; and ginger-glazed carrots — fancy tzimmes, we think.
Freedman’s, Los Angeles
Sunday, September 29
A la carte
This white-hot Los Angeles deli, run by siblings Amanda and Jonah Freedman, reboots tradition for Rosh Hashanah. Think coal-fired tzimmes with Japanese sweet potato and heirloom carrots; black pepper and apple kugel; whole roasted head of broccoli; glazed brisket with bone marrow and rye toast; and more. Available for pre-order, and in the restaurant on Sunday.
Kubeh, New York City
Sunday, September 29 and Monday, September 30
$68
Savor a Sephardic spin on Rosh Hashanah at this West Village Middle-Eastern hotspot. Start with ash reshteh, traditional Persian soup of herbs, beans & noodles; munch on mezes like muhamarra, rich roasted red pepper, walnut & pomegranate dip; and feast on fesenjan, Persian stewed chicken with walnut & pomegranate over basmati rice. Wine pairings include vintages from Israel, Italy, and Spain.
Free Times Cafe, Toronto
Sunday, September 29
$48 (CDN)
Judy Perly’s Toronto haimish haunt always feels like a celebration, so it’s perfect for Rosh Hashanah dinner. It’s tradition all the way this year, with chopped liver and gefilte fish; salads like coleslaw and eggplant; brisket, roast chicken, flanken, and salmon; and kasha, tsimmes, and noodle kugel. Homemade honeycake makes a sweetly nostalgic dessert.
Lexus Intersect, NYC
Through September
This is the coolest Rosh Hashanah foodie offering — literally. Kakigori is a Japanese delicacy whose shaved ice is meant to mimic fallen snow; it’s covered in flavorful concoctions. This month, chef Kajuo Fukimura is offering apple-and-honey kakigori, a tip of the toque to the Jewish new year. It’s not a kiddie dessert; cognac syrup, caramelized honey foam, honey comb, Granny-Smith apple-cider syrup, and nepital mint pack a punch. P.S. Lexus Intersect is where Argentine-Jewish chef just opened a pop-up version of Mishiguene, his hit Buenos Aires restaurant.
Honey and Ice at ‘Intersect’ Image by Intersect
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
