On the menu: Turkey is so Thanksgiving. At the Driskill Hotel’s renowned restaurant, your choices for a main course—the final of four courses, not counting dessert—beat the hell out of the standard holiday bird: cast iron-seared halibut, lamb osso bucco or black garlic tuile followed by a choice between mushroom tart or bacon-wrapped scallops, plus the chef’s signature Caesar salad and a roasted butternut squash soup to start. This fantastic prix-fixe fare wraps up sweetly with a holiday “bouche de noel,” aka the most incredible chocolate mousse (infused with frozen eggnog custard, y’all). Reservations for this annual feast fill up quickly, so you’ll want to snag one sooner than later.
Time: Seatings from 2-7:30pm
Cost: $130 per person/$180 with wine tastings
Going to a restaurant open on Christmas Day isn’t a tradition as near-and-dear to our hearts as, say, checking out Christmas lights and making sugar cookies. Maybe all you want for Christmas this year is to prepare a nice, home-cooked meal. But remember in A Christmas Story, when all Ralphie Parker wanted was a Red Ryder B.B. gun and everyone told him he’d shoot his eye out if he got one— and then he almost did?! The point is, cooking can be hazardous, and, let’s be real, nobody wants to clean all those dishes when you could be spending time with family and friends. Our gift to you: a shortlist of restaurants open on Christmas Day, including some of Austin’s best Chinese restaurants and top diners. So you don’t accidentally, you know, cook your eye out or anything like that.
RECOMMENDED: Our guide to Christmas in Austin