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Gwen christmas eve
Photograph: Courtesy Andrea D’AgostoGwen

Where to dine out for Christmas Eve and Day in L.A.

Not in the mood to cook for a crowd again? Head to one of these L.A. restaurants open on Christmas Eve and Day for excellent, hassle-free Christmas dinner.

Patricia Kelly Yeo
Written by
Patricia Kelly Yeo
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If you're spending this December checking out holiday lights, decorating your tree and shopping for gifts, you might not exactly have the mental bandwidth to plan, shop and cook for a big Christmas gathering at home. That's where some of L.A.’s best restaurants come in. Whether you're hoping to dine in this year or don't celebrate Christmas at all (the best Chinese restaurants, anyone?), we've gathered the best restaurants open for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2023.

Take advantage of your ability to leave the house this year, support L.A.'s small businesses and enjoy a hassle-free Christmas gathering with loved ones at these amazing restaurants offering both á la carte and multi-course prix-fixe Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals—no dishwashing by you required. Make sure to book ahead and then just relax! Christmas dinner’s ready.

RECOMMENDED: Check out our entire guide to Christmas in Los Angeles

Christmas Day Only

  • Restaurants
  • Californian
  • South Park
  • price 3 of 4

Menu: Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne's Downtown hotel restaurant will be open and offering two holiday specials, including veal cutlets in mustard cream and suckling pig with slow-cookedc cavalo, plus a selection of wines tailored to the occasion. For dessert, enjoy a selection of housemade Christmas sweets, including a pear cranberry tart, chestnut praline mousse and marzipan fruitcake.

Hours: 5–9:30pm seatings

Price: A la carte.

Reservations: Book via OpenTable.

  • Restaurants
  • Californian
  • West Hollywood

Menu: This upmarket hotel in West Hollywood will serve a three-course prix fixe menu in its lobby restaurant on Christmas Day. Highlights include a lobster risotto, dry-aged ribeye and prime filet mignon with black truffle and turnips. A supplemental seafood tower for two can be added for $75—just note that Boxwood charrges a 20% service charge.

Hours: 12:30–8:30pm seatings

Price: $110 per adult, $55 per child 12 and under

Reservations: Book via OpenTable.

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  • Restaurants
  • American
  • Downtown Financial District
  • price 3 of 4

Menu: Situated high atop the US Bank Tower, Downtown's 71Above offers a stunning city views and modern American fare. The restaurant will be open on Christmas Day and offering its usual $98 three-course dinner in the dining room—just note that window seats aren't guaranteed, and you must put down a credit card to book a reservation.

Hours: 5–8:30pm seatings

Price: $95 per person

Reservations: Book via OpenTable.

Christmas Day + Eve

  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Californian
  • West Hollywood
  • price 4 of 4

Menu: The West Hollywood EDITION's vegetable-forward lobby restaurant will be open on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, serving the regular menu as well as a few holiday specials, including a 14-ounce Kurobuta pork chop, braised short rib and roasted chestnut ravioli with a black truffle supplement. For dessert, indulge in festive desserts like pine nut cremeux with milk sorbet and and a chestnut-themed confection made with eggnog, persimmon and dark chocolate.

Hours: December 24: 5–9pm seatings; December 25: 1:30–7pm seatings

Price: À la carte.

Reservations: Book online via OpenTable.

  • Hotels
  • Spa hotels
  • Beverly Hills
  • price 4 of 4

Menu: It's a very 90210 Christmas at the Beverly Wilshire, where the dining room overlooks a fully decked out Rodeo Drive. THEBlvd is offering prix-fixe menus on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Start with French onion soup, seared Maine scallops or red gem Caesar salad, before moving onto Wagyu short rib beef wellington, Alaskan halibut, jidori roasted chicken or barbecued red beets. Caviar, oysters, prawns and truffles will also be available as add-ons. Those dining on Christmas Eve will receive a chocolate ganache "ornament" for dessert, while those on Christmas Day can enjoy an entire buffet of sweets to finish.

Hours: 5–9:15pm seatings Christmas Eve, 11:30am–9:30pm seatings Christmas Day. 

Price: $145 per adult, $65 per child 12 and under.

Reservations: Book via Tock.

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  • Restaurants
  • Contemporary American
  • Santa Monica

Menu: Santa Monica's Casa del Mar lobby restaurant will offer a Christmas Eve brunch and Christmas Day dinner. Enjoy a Feast of the Seven Fishes-inspired pasta, lobster bisque and other highlights, plus a dessert buffet that includes chocolate Buche de Noel, peppermint brownies and eggnog creme brulee. For brunch, there's also more breakfast-y items like chocolate chip pancakes.

Hours: December 24: 11am–3pm; December 25: 3–9pm

Price: $115 per person for brunch, $125 per person for dinner

Reservations: Book online via OpenTable.

  • Restaurants
  • Seafood
  • Beverly Hills
  • price 3 of 4

Menu: The Peninsula’s ultra-posh ground floor restaurant will offer both a Christmas Eve dinner and an all-day Christmas meal. Highlights for Christmas Eve include a winter truffle risotto and a gingerbread bûche de Noel; the menu for Christmas Day varies slightly. On Christmas Day, expect live holiday music as well for an extra-festival feel.

Hours: Christmas Eve: 5–9pm; Christmas Day: 11am–8pm

Price: $180 per adult and $80 per child 12 and under; $190 per adult and $90 per child 12 and under 

Reservations: Book via OpenTable.

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Christmas Eve Only

  • Restaurants
  • French
  • La Brea
  • price 3 of 4

Menu: Walter and Margarita Manzke's critically acclaimed Californian French eatery is offering a special à la carte menu on Christmas Eve. Though the exact menu is yet to be determined, expect lots of seasonal produce, high-quality meat and seafood and maybe, if you're lucky, some winter truffles. (Note that vegans can't be accommodated at République at the moment.)

Price: À la carte.

Reservations: Book online via OpenTable.

  • Restaurants
  • Korean
  • Downtown Arts District
  • price 3 of 4

Menu: Katianna and John Hong's Arts District eatery will offer a family-style spread for Christmas Eve. For a large group of friends, or even just a pair, the industrial dining room and patio would make for a laidback holiday dinner without much fuss and plenty of Korean American flavor: think wood-grilled sea bream, a shima aji tostada with creme fraiche and charred cucumbers and rice cake "tteok" with kimchi cream and Parmesan cheese. Champagne, caviar, black truffles and steak supplements will also be available.

Hours: 5:30–9:30pm seatings

Price: $95 per person. Drinks, tax and gratuity not included.

Reservations: Book online via OpenTable.

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  • Restaurants
  • American
  • Hollywood
  • price 3 of 4

Menu: Curtis Stone’s Hollywood steakhouse is offering a four-course Christmas Eve feast, starting with parsnip soup and beets with house-smoked bacon and beer mustard vinaigrette. For mains, there will be Maine lobster with curry butter, 20-day dry-aged Creekstone Farm rib eye. Each table will also receive family-style sides of smashed fried potatoes with paprika aioli, brasied cabbage with miso and furikake and creamed spinach as well as apple fig cake with brown butter ice cream and smoked caramel sea salt for dessert.

Hours: 4:30–8:45pm seatings

Price: $160 per person

Reservations: Book via Resy.

  • Restaurants
  • Steakhouse
  • Beverly
  • price 3 of 4

Menu: Suzanne Tracht’s iconic Beverly Grove chophouse will be open on Christmas Eve, serving Jar’s traditional á la carte menu of modern American steakhouse fare along with a few to-be-announced holiday specials. The restaurant’s signature pot roast with roast carrots and caramelized onions, as well as its prime rib eye and red wine-based coq au vin, feel particularly Christmassy in our eyes.

Hours: 5–9pm.

Price: Á la carte.

Reservations: Book online via OpenTable.

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  • Restaurants
  • Californian
  • Beverly
  • price 3 of 4

Menu: Both the Beverly Grove and Brentwood iterations of Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne’s pioneering market-driven small plates restaurant will be open on Christmas Eve. While you’ll find consistent, globally inspired seasonal fare at both locations, we’re partial to the original Beverly Grove location, where the restaurant’s gorgeous heated patio and cozy fireplace make the perfect backdrop for a festive holiday dinner. 

Hours: 5–10pm

Price: Á la carte.

Reservations: Book online via OpenTable.

  • Restaurants
  • Californian
  • Beverly Hills
  • price 4 of 4

Menu: The holidays are the perfect time to indulge, so why not spend Christmas Eve in one of L.A.'s most lauded fine-dining institutions? Wolfgang Puck’s flagship Beverly Hills restaurant is celebrating with a three-course prix-fixe meal from executive chef Tetsu Yahagi and the menu won’t be the only music to your ears: Spago also plans to host a festive live show from the Santa Sisters Singers. All guests will also receive a glass of sparkling Ca'del Bosco.

Hours: 4–9:30pm seatings

Price: $225 per adult and $85 per child under 8, plus beverages, tax and gratuity.

Reservations: Book via OpenTable.

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  • Restaurants
  • Italian
  • Old Pasadena
  • price 3 of 4

Menu: Pasadena's Union has brought back their Feast of The Seven Fishes  dinneron Christmas Eve. Chefs Sandro Hernandez, Breandan Rielly and Andrew Mercado have created eight unique seafood dishes this year for the traditionally over-the-top Italian American feast. There's also a $45 supplemental wine pairing and, of course, dessert. 

Hours: 5pm and 7:30pm seatings.

Price: $125 per person, plus tax and gratuity.

Reservations: Book online via Resy.

  • Restaurants
  • American creative
  • Downtown Historic Core
  • price 3 of 4

Menu: Neal Fraser's Downtown restaurant housed in an old Catholic cathedral will be offering a three-course prix-fixe dinner on Christmas Eve with a supplemental $75 wine pairing. Menu highlights include girella pasta with chicken liver, apples, currants and brandy molasses; wild board tenderloin with beluga lentils, confit bacon, charred cabbage and mustard jus; and gingerbread pudding with candied kumquats and eggnog ice cream.

Hours: 4–9pm seatings

Price: $125 per person.

Reservations: Book via OpenTable.

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  • Restaurants
  • Italian
  • Hollywood
  • price 2 of 4

Menu: This Hollywood pizzeria will host a Feast of the Seven Fishes-themed pasta tasting menu on Christmas Eve complete with an optional $135 wine pairing. The same menu will also be available the day after Christmas, and includes truffle tagliolini, spaghetti Vongole, black squid ink capunti and more.

Hours: 10am–6pm

Price: $90 per adult

Reservations: Book via OpenTable.

  • Restaurants
  • French
  • West Third Street

Menu: This longtime restaurant hidden along West 3rd Street is serving an elegant, Mediterranean-inspired prix-fixe menu for Christmas Eve. Seatings run from 4 to 9:45pm.

Price: $110 per person. Drinks, tax and gratuity not included.

Reservations: Book via Tock.

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  • Restaurants
  • Contemporary American
  • Koreatown
  • price 3 of 4

Menu: What happens when a Michelin-recognized chef opens a boutique-hotel restaurant? You get Josiah Cirtrin helming this airy greenhouse restaurant in the heart of Koreatown with innovative plates prepped with a keen attention to detail. For Christmas Eve, Openaire will serve a three-course seasonal menu—exact menu details still forthcoming.

Hours: 4:30–9:15pm seatings

Price: $95 per person or $45 per child under 12, plus tax and grauity.

Reservations: Book online via OpenTable.

Also Open December 25

  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Contemporary Asian
  • Chinatown
  • price 2 of 4

Home to one of our favorite dishes of the year, this Laotian pop-up inside Chinatown's Lokels Only is sadly closing at the end of the month. Until then, chef-owner Tharathip Soulisak plans to keep serving the amazing crispy rice salads, noodle soups and rice platters. On Christmas Eve, Yum Sະlut will be open 11am–3pm, and the pop-up will even stay open on Christmas Day, 11am–7pm.

  • Restaurants
  • Chinese
  • Fairfax District
  • price 2 of 4

For New York-style Chinese banquet food on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in L.A., you always know there's Fairfax’s Genghis Cohen. Take your pick from old favorites like the pork potstickers, No Name duck and Crackerjack shrimp (the recipe of which was deemed good enough to be re-published by the L.A. Times).

Reservations: Book online via
Resy.

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