The Last-Minute Christmas And New Year's Eve Dining Guide

It's a conundrum we all face at some point: that big holiday meal that you just don't want to cook. Two huge holidays are coming up, as you might have heard, and while cooking a big meal usually goes hand in hand with Christmas Eve a little bit more than New Year's Eve, it's always nice to have the ability to just head to your favorite restaurant and get a great, festive dinner as opposed to slaving away in the kitchen.

Click Here For The Last-Minute Christmas and New Year's Eve Dining Guide Slideshow

But where to go? On New Year's Eve especially, many restaurants offer prix fixe meals that are overblown, too expensive, and leave you unsatisfied, sober, and with an empty wallet come midnight. And on Christmas Eve, restaurants almost seem to go out of their way to lure you in with unfulfilled promises of a meal to remember.

If you live in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, or Chicago, we have a cure for what ails you. In New York, we've found a restaurant serving up a traditional Danish New Year's Eve dinner, and a Christmas Eve meal that will transplant you into a French Quarter courtyard. In Boston, we'll set you up with a harborside Christmas Feast of the Seven Fishes to remember, as well as a New Year's Eve starting point with $1 oysters. In Los Angeles, we have your need for a low-key Christmas Eve dinner satisfied by a festive English pub that serves up traditional roast goose and mince pies, and found a couple lesser-known options for that New Year's Eve dinner that you've saved up for. And in Chicago, we tracked down a quirky "Jewish Christmas Dinner" inside a swanky hotel, complete with Chinese food and a movie ticket, as well as a place to get your New Year's Eve fix of caviar, foie gras, truffles, and filet mignon.

Read on for all the details. You can thank us later.