The 9 Best Restaurants In America For Hanukkah Dinner

Hanukkah tends to have a reputation as not being an amazing holiday for food, thanks largely to the fact that the primary dish associated with it is fried potato pancakes with applesauce (tasty, but nothing special). But visit one of these nine restaurants this Hanukkah and you'll realize that when it's placed into the hands of a good chef, Hanukkah food can be very, very tasty.

Located at the Inn at Hastings Park, Artistry on the Green will be serving a $45 prix-fixe from Dec. 24 through Dec. 30 (closed on Dec. 26). The menu features potato latkes with crème fraîche, apple sauce, and smoked trout; matzo ball soup; keftes de prasas (Sephardic leek patties); Sephardic spiced fish served with Israeli couscous and roasted vegetables; pomegranate-braised lamb shank; and doughnuts with caramel chocolate sauce.

Lenoir chef Melissa Ross will be serving a family-style Hanukkah dinner on Dec. 27 for $60 per person. Snacks and spreads will include smoked vermilion snapper, chopped liver, and hard-boiled eggs; entrées include braised lamb shoulder with dried peaches, potato latkes with apple sauce and sour cream, and roasted vegetable salad; and desserts include sourdough doughnuts, persimmon sorbet, and sour cream fig ice cream. 

From Dec. 27 to 30, Nightbird will be serving a $125 feast featuring chicken consommé with smoked egg, golden eye snapper, and latkes. Diners will also be treated to challah bread service. 

Prairie Grass Café chefs Sarah Stenger and George Bumbaris will be serving a special slow-roasted barbecue brisket from Cedar River Farms with roasted cauliflower purée ($26) and a special side dish of potato latkes ($6) on Dec. 24, along with their regular menu. 

Shakewell is serving a $55 prix-fixe Hanukkah menu on Dec. 24. The menu includes latkes with roasted quince butter, slow-roasted brisket with beet and cabbage salad, and apple churros with buttermilk syrup.

Chef Alon Shaya's New Orleans gem will be serving a $55 Hanukkah prix-fixe from Dec. 24 to 26, and all proceeds on the 26th will benefit Rama's Kitchen, a 20-year-old Jerusalem restaurant recently destroyed in a fire. The four-course menu includes crispy potato latkes with salmon roe, pickled onion salad, and Turkish chile apples; winter lettuces with pumpkin seed tahini and pomegranate vinaigrette; roasted heritage turkey with creamy parsnip soubric, braised rainbow chard, and gribenes; and ricotta doughnuts with blood oranges and satsuma cream. 

If you're in the mood for a good old fashioned Las Vegas Hanukkah buffet, all of Station Casinos' buffets will include brisket, roasted chicken, potato latkes, matzo ball soup, potato and apple kugel, tzimmes, honey and ginger salmon, roasted beets with carrots, and jelly doughnuts. 

From Dec. 24 to 30, chef Julian Medina will be hosting a Mexican Hanukkah at his restaurants Tacuba and Toloache with a special à la carte menu. Specialties will include guacamole with house-smoked whitefish; latkes (potato jalapeño with horseradish crema, zucchini with tomatillo apple salsa, and Mexican cheeses with chipotle and agave nectar); brisket tacos; salmon quesadillas; branzino with cauliflower gratin; and Mexican doughnuts with dulce de leche. 

Chef Michael Solomonov's modern Israeli masterpiece in Philadelphia will be serving a special $54 Hanukkah prix-fixe from Dec. 26 to 30. The eight-course menu includes pita and hummus with olive oil-poached lamb, salads, squash soup with fideos and kale, mackerel escabeche, kibbe with beef and sweet potato, potato latkes with smoked labneh and salmon, chicken and saffron rice maqluba, and persimmon jam doughnuts with white chocolate.