53 W 53rd Serves Thanksgiving Dinner Plate by Plate

The holiday special is a lobster clay pot built on glass vermicelli, XO sauce and scallion, listed at 88 dollars on the Thanksgiving menu. Everything else stays on the regular list, sorted into cold, hot, steam, grill, wok and clay pot sections, with most plates between 18 and 135 dollars. Five desserts close the meal at 24 dollars each, among them mango pudding with pomelo, coconut lychee granita and an apple miso tart, with ice cream and sorbet at 8 dollars. Prices are menu prices, before tax and tip.

Guests can order à la carte rather than choosing a traditional Thanksgiving prix fixe. Every table orders from the same à la carte list and builds the meal plate by plate, with a clay pot, a plate of dumplings and a shared prime strip loin able to land on one table. The room spans three floors beneath MoMA's new wing, with a subterranean lounge behind a red door below the dining room. The booking system allots 105 minutes for a table of two, 135 for four and 150 for six.

Service runs 5:00 to 9:45 PM on Thursday, November 26, and the last bookable slot is 9:45 PM. Bookings run through SevenRooms, where a card is saved rather than charged, and parties of five or more need one to hold the table. Cancellations inside 48 hours cost 40 dollars per guest, and tables are held 15 minutes past the reservation time. The entrance is at 53 West 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue, four minutes on foot from the E and M at Fifth Avenue–53rd Street and about eight minutes from the N, Q, R and W at 57th Street–Seventh Avenue.