Best Group Dinner Spots
in NYC

The Verdict: the best group dinner in NYC, and #1 on this page. The Butcher’s Feast is $82 a head for four cuts of USDA Prime and American Wagyu, beef consommé, banchan, scallion salad, the egg soufflé and two stews. One set price means nobody does maths at the end, and the grill in the middle of the table means nobody checks their phone. Let the staff run it. The honest caveat: it’s steakhouse money once the wine list gets involved, and it books up weeks ahead. Tables bigger than a standard booking go through its group and events team. Go here instead if you want Korean for less: Her Name Is Han, nine blocks north. More in our best Korean restaurants.

The pick for ten or more. Buddakan’s three tasting menus are $95, $110 and $130 a head, open to parties of four and up, and every dish lands in the middle of the table to share. That’s the format a big group needs: one number per person, no one stuck with the cheap noodles. The room does half the work, with soaring ceilings and a long communal table on the lower level. The local move: a smaller group can skip the tasting and split the $80 Peking duck for two with dim sum. The honest caveat: $95 is the floor before a single cocktail, and it’s loud by design.

The best-value group dinner in Manhattan that still feels like an occasion. Rubirosa takes groups of 8 to 22 for a family-style lunch or dinner, and you build the menu yourself from its antipasti, pastas and pizzas. Get the vodka and the Tie Dye pies. The 18-inch large serves two or three, and any pie can be made with vegan cheese, which solves the one-vegan-at-the-table problem. Birthday? They’ll add a cake with candles. The honest caveat: the group menu is priced on request, not printed, and a walk-in table for eight on a Saturday is a fantasy. Book the group menu. More in our best pizza in NYC.

The group dinner where you can actually hear each other. No grill in the table, just Korean home cooking and a hot pot section the menu describes as made for sharing: galbi hot pot $45, seafood soondubu $38, mushroom tofu $35. Put two pots and the $34 LA galbi in the middle for four people and you’ve got a proper dinner well under Cote money. The Verdict: the best conversation room in Koreatown. The honest caveat: it’s a cosy room, so call it six to eight, not twenty.

The themed group dinner that’s worth it. It’s $65 a head for a three-course dinner and the show that runs through the dining room, in a gothic room where every day is Halloween. One fixed price, a built-in spectacle, and nobody has to plan anything. Big parties send an inquiry ahead and they’ll set the tables up. The honest caveat: it’s open Thursday to Sunday only, and a 3% surcharge goes on credit cards (none on cash or debit). Come for the theatre, not a chef’s tasting.

The biggest sit-down group table in Brooklyn. Two private rooms seat 45 and 70 and combine for 110, there’s a 16-seat semi-private area in the main room, and the gauchos carving meat at the table keep a big group entertained. This holiday season, groups of 15 or more who book a Sunday to Wednesday get a free extra (a Wagyu tasting, an appetiser, a sparkling toast or a $100 dining card). The local move: pre-dinner drinks at Bar Fogo, where it’s $6 beer, $8 wine and $10 cocktails all day, Monday to Thursday. The honest caveat: it’s a chain steakhouse in a shopping centre, and the per-person churrasco price isn’t published on its site.

The cheap group dinner that’s actually designed for groups. Golden Unicorn is a multi-floor Cantonese banquet hall, and its own booking rule tells you who it wants: at weekend dim sum, 10am to 3pm Saturday and Sunday, it doesn’t take reservations under ten people. Bring ten and you skip the line everyone else is standing in. For a dinner banquet, the manager builds a custom menu with you. The honest caveat: banquet prices vary by menu and season, so there’s no published figure. The local move: go as ten on a weekend morning and point at everything.

The easiest private room in Chinatown. Jing Fong lists its spaces plainly: a Red Room for 14, a Mountain Room for 30, and the whole dining room for 130. That covers everything from a family lunch to a company dim sum. It’s open 10:30am to 9pm daily, so a group dinner doesn’t mean a late one. The honest caveat: this is the smaller Centre Street hall that replaced the old Elizabeth Street room, and room pricing isn’t published.

The best group dinner per dollar on this page. Barbecue sold by weight is made for a crowd: brisket and turkey $20 a half pound, pulled pork $17, spare ribs $16, beef rib $40 a pound. One person orders the trays, everyone eats off them, and the maths is easy. Two bars keep the line moving. The honest caveat: it’s counter service, so there’s nothing to book, Red Hook has no subway, and the meat can sell out. More in our best BBQ in NYC.

The only free room on this page. Loreley’s Party Room & Lounge is free to reserve on Fridays and Saturdays, with no minimum, and it has its own fully stocked bar and bartender. The food is pub food served to share: burgers, tacos, nachos. The honest caveat is in the word free: the room is shared with other parties. Want it to yourself? That’s a minimum spend, covered in our bars with private rooms guide.

Not the critics’ pick, and the right answer more often than people admit. Everything at Carmine’s comes on a platter meant for the table, so a group of eight orders four or five dishes, not eight entrées. That’s the whole trick. It sits on a theatre block and is built for volume. The honest caveat: its own online menu prints no prices, and two people ordering two entrées each is the classic mistake. Order one dish for every two people and add a side.

The answer when the group is 40 and nobody can agree. Haswell Green’s publishes its event menus: family-style dinners served to the whole table, a three-course prix fixe where each guest picks one dish per course, and buffets, with minimums of 10 to 12 depending on the menu. Spaces run from the West Wing bar (30) and the Stage Area (120) to the first floor (300) and a full buyout of 600 with Winnie’s upstairs. The local move: book a Friday or Saturday and stay for the dueling pianos at 10pm. The honest caveat: no menu prices are published, it’s a sports-and-music hall rather than a destination kitchen, and every choice has to be pre-ordered a week out.