All the Best Places to Dine Out in Philadelphia on New Year’s Eve
Ring in 2025 with caviar, tasting menus, and a whole lot of bubbly.
Oyster House’s 12 Days of Caviar runs through New Year’s Eve. / Photograph by Mike Prince
Making the holiday season merry and bright is a full-time job. Stringing lights on the house. Spending too much on fancy soap for the white elephant exchange. Hosting the neighborhood cookie swap. Making sure Santa got that shopping list (and is checking it twice). Once the desserts are cleared from the Thanksgiving Day table, it’s an arduous climb up to the romanticized expectations set by every Hallmark movie. And if creating all this holiday magic wasn’t enough, not even a full week later, New Year’s Eve sneaks up, demanding we put in even more effort to end the year with a bang.
New Year’s Eve is a tough holiday, but a number of restaurants around the city are making the planning easy with prix-fixe menus worthy of an end-of-year celebration. Book ahead, and ring in the New Year at restaurants you love. Most importantly, hang with people you love to be around. Whether you want to sip champagne and count down to midnight or plan to be asleep by 9 p.m., we’ve got a New Year’s Eve plan for you.
Little Fish, Queen Village
Little Fish is the perfect place to have a delicious, indulgent meal with friends. They’re doing a set menu for $195 per person (actually a good deal when you consider how much seafood they’re serving). You’ll have all the hits — caviar, uni, lobster, and their famous scallop toast. There are three seatings, so you can go early or toast in the New Year at the restaurant. Keep in mind that this is a BYOB, so you can go big on bottles at a nearby shop. 746 South 6th Street.
River Twice, East Passyunk
River Twice loves to go big for an occasion, and New Year’s Eve is no different. For $150 per person, they’ll be serving a special chef’s menu including dishes like scallops with chili and satsuma, quail glazed in pork jus, striploin, black grouper, and more. As usual, things will likely get wild after midnight. 1601 East Passyunk Avenue.
Oyster House, Center City
Oyster House’s 12 Days of Caviar continues through New Year’s Eve. For the event, the menu has been expanded to include caviar served with crispy sushi rice and house-made potato chips, latkes with crème fraîche and trout roe, and roasted oysters with caviar. They’re open for walk-ins for this à la carte service but recommend making a reservation. 1516 Sansom Street.
New June Bakery, Brewerytown
You don’t have to go out late — or even go out at all — to have a delicious New Year’s Eve. Instead, grab one of New June’s cake-tasting boxes and enjoy 10 of the bakery’s most popular flavors of the year, including chocolate chip raspberry milk chocolate mocha, cookies and tahini, strawberry rhubarb sprinkles, and more. Order ahead on their website or pick up on New Year’s Eve day. 2623 West Girard Avenue.
Mission Taqueria, Center City
Mission is bringing back their annual drag show for New Year’s Eve. General admissions tickets include two drinks and passed snacks for $65, while VIP tickets get you a table for the whole night (that’s 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.), a taco tasting and DIY margarita bar for your table, plus the drag show hosted (obviously) by Moonbaby & Friends. 1516 Sansom Street 2nd Floor.
Scampi, Queen Village
Queen Village’s new Italian-ish supper club restaurant is hosting Scampi and Champi, an event presented alongside Korbel. Starting at 11 p.m., after their dinner service (which you can book here), they’ll be passing around pastas and small plates as well as glasses of Korbel’s sparkling wine. At midnight, everyone will receive 12 grapes, a centuries-old Spanish custom that symbolizes good luck and prosperity in the new year. 617 South 3rd Street.
Kampar’s chili snow crab. / Photograph by Mike Prince
Kampar, Queen Village
For $150 per person, Kampar is serving as many snow crabs as you can eat — all doused in their spicy, delicious chili sauce. The a la carte menu is also available for that night, as well as the Kenduri menu, a chef’s menu for $75 per person. This is a fun, indulgent option that won’t feel stuffy or boring. 611 South 7th Street.
Mish Mish, East Passyunk
Mish Mish doesn’t serve dinner on New Year’s Eve; they throw a party. For $150 per person, you get a ton of food and drinks served family-style for a cozy but raucous vibe that’s basically what you want to create at your own home, but with way less cooking and cleaning up. 1046 Tasker Street.
a.kitchen and bar, Center City
If you have plans in or around Center City on New Year’s Eve, save yourself the headache of taking a car and just have dinner at a.kitchen, where Chef Eli Collins will be serving some of his favorite dishes from throughout the year. The menu promises to be comforting and surprising, with incredible wine and cocktail pairings available as an add-on. 135 South 18th Street.
Walnut Family Bake Sale at Kampar, Queen Village
Camille Cogswell, who won a James Beard award for rising star chef during her time as pastry chef at Zahav and was named a Food & Wine Best New Chef for her work as the opening chef at K’Far, is returning to Philadelphia to host a bake sale on New Year’s Eve at Kampar. The sale is a promotion for Walnut Family Bakery, her forthcoming project, and will raise money for the Community Housing Coalition of Madison County, North Carolina, which is helping flood victims in the western part of the state, where Cogswell now lives. Participants include Her Place, Fiore Fine Foods, Party Girl Bake Club, Second Daughter, and more. The bake sale will take place during the day at Kampar’s downstairs space. More details via Cogswell’s Instagram. 611 South 7th Street.
Bastia, Fishtown
Tyler Akin’s Bastia will host three seatings on New Year’s Eve — 5 p.m., 7 p.m., and 10 p.m., each serving a prefix menu including baby artichoke salad, sweet potato culurgiones, Entrecôte, gnocchi sardi, and more. For an extra-special night, book a room at the Hotel Ana & Bel, so all you have to do after dinner is stumble upstairs. 1401 East Susquehanna Avenue.
Townsend, East Passyunk
East Passyunk’s elegant Townsend restaurant will be serving a New Year’s Eve prix fixe menu of French standbys, including oysters, scallops, foie gras, sweetbreads, and chocolate soufflé. Reservations are available via Resy; the menu is priced at $100 per person. 1623 East Passyunk Avenue.
Meetinghouse, Kensington
Snag a reservation at Meetinghouse and celebrate New Year’s Eve at one of Philly’s most fun restaurants. In addition to their regular menu, they’ll be serving standing rib roast, foie gras torchon, and chocolate cake. Grab a late-night reservation and hang out all evening. 2331 East Cumberland Street.
