19 Best Restaurants For Passover In NYC

Passover is a special time of celebration for Jewish people around the world, and New York is no different. As such, Passover dishes and traditions from around the globe have made their way onto the menus of more than a few restaurants in the city that never sleeps. Grains like wheat, spelt, rye, barley, and oats are forbidden for members of the Jewish diaspora who observe Passover. Any grain that leads to leavened bread is not allowed, which explains the symbolic reason matzo is eaten on Passover. The flatbread harkens back to God's instructions to the Israelites' before their escape from Egypt and is why you shouldn't expect standard dinner rolls at any restaurant observing Passover traditions.

When it comes to a typical Passover dinner party menu, also known as the traditional Seder meal, which is made with flavors and textures that symbolize different elements of the story. Expect standards like matzo balls and gefilte fish alongside some outside-the-box menu ideas that still fall within the guidelines for a traditional Passover Seder.

Upper West Side gem Dagon is a Mediterranean forward restaurant named after a Phoenician god with the motto "somewhere in the Mediterranean," a catchphrase from the Middle Eastern radio show "Voice of Peace" that perfectly describes the direction of the menu. The show had a popular 20-year run, and the nostalgia of that radio show is a major inspiration for the restaurant in both the food and decor.

Dagon's Passover menu extends over two days, April 5 and 6, and offers a pretty impressive Sedar spread. For $75 per person, you can enjoy a traditional Seder plate with Parsley tabbouleh, boiled organic egg, charoset, salad, matzo bread, and lamb bone marrow with matzo crackers and sea salt. It's not Passover without matzo ball soup made with roasted duck, and you have the  choice of roasted salmon, braised lamb, and harissa spiced bbq chicken. Dessert ends the meal with your choice of flourless chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, whip cream, and chocolate sauce, or matzo crumbled over ice cream with the aforementioned chocolate sauce. 

Mark's Off Madison isn't one of those restaurants trading in obscurity behind hidden doors and alleys. Mark's Off Madison is literally just off Madison Avenue and brings Chef Mark Strausman's Jewish heritage together with European cuisines from Italy and elsewhere. From April 4–6, $20 will get you set up with a Seder plate before jumping into the rest of the offerings on the menu.

Chef Strausman's homemade gefilte fish and chopped chicken liver continue the Passover dinner alongside roasted proteins like salmon with salsa verde and lemon and herb-stuffed chicken. A whole pound of brisket accompanied with baby carrots, asparagus, and, of course, mashed potatoes is enough for a duo or trio of diners. Matzo pops up here as a chocolate-covered dessert, while coconut macaroons, which qualify as unleavened, come dipped in vanilla or chocolate in a dozen or half a dozen.

We consider Le Marais to be one of the best kosher restaurants in NYC because of its unique focus on French cuisine with a fine dining flair that still adheres to Jewish culinary customs. The kosher steakhouse offers its own family-style Seder menu on April 5 with 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. holiday hours. Meant to be shared with groups of up to four people, Le Marais' Passover meal makes the grade.

Starters include matzo ball soup for up to two people, a classic Seder platter with Charoset, a chicken wing, hard-boiled egg, and bitter herbs, an artisanal garden salad, and a smoky gravlax platter. As far as the entrees are concerned, you're covered with a braised brisket for four, coq au vin braised in red wine with onions and mushrooms, or a whole roasted chicken. The steakhouse offerings like ribeye and tenderloin roast are spectacularly good and kosher. A root vegetable-heavy option for sides stays away from grains and ensures the sanctity of your Passover meal. 

Talia's Steakhouse has been making fantastic kosher meals for New Yorkers in the know for 21 years. The romantic mood-lit restaurant offers Jewish holiday meals for special occasions like Shabbat, and Passover is no different. With two Sedar seatings at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., Talia's is offering diners a great opportunity to leave the Passover dinner preparations to them.

Salmon filet in a Moroccan peppery tomato sauce or your choice of garden or quinoa salad set things off right. The ever-present matzo ball soup has a competitor with potato leek soup as the soup of the day. Entrees get really interesting with prime beef brisket, chicken marsala, whole branzino, or lamb stew for carnivores. Aside from the salads and soup, vegetarians can rely on a cauliflower steak served with mashed potatoes and sauteed vegetables as a proper stand-in for steak. Fruit salad is the healthy dessert option, while sorbet and chocolate mousse address your sweet tooth.

Edith's Eatery & Grocery is the best of both worlds, where you can grab your Passover meal ingredients to-go or dine in and let someone else do it for you. Another "great" relative is the inspiration for Edith's, which is named after the great-aunt of owner Elyssa Heller. Located in foodie trendsetting Williamsburg since 2021, Edith's menu allows you to pick and choose your Passover meal path.

Starters like the Israeli salad, smoked labneh, and Khorasan tabouli with summer corn, hawaij spices, and mint-and-chive oil make sharing easy. Brunch offerings include the house-made pastrami steak and eggs with smashed fingerling potatoes. The house fish plate with smoked salmon, arctic char, and mackerel falls within Passover guidelines — as long as you hold the bagels. Romanian steak takes you from brunch to dinner.

This national home Ukrainian restaurant is a New York City classic in the East Village. With an origin story going back to founder Irene Sawchyn's 98-year-old grandmother, Veselka has been pumping out authentic pierogies and borscht for over 50 years. This lengthy experience is probably why It's one of the absolute best Ukrainian restaurants in the U.S., with a brand new location launching in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood this year. Veselka has also been doing its part to support Ukrainians displaced by war by offering work visas and $300,000 worth of borscht to aid Ukrainian war efforts.

While there's no obvious Passover dinner special, the daily menu items offer much in the way of Passover-friendly options. Cabbage stuffed with rice, sauerkraut, and mushrooms, or beef and rice with mushroom or tomato gravy works well within limits. Chicken breast, several omelets, matzo ball or split pea soups, or a veal goulash all make the grade. 

Perhaps the most unlikely restaurant on this list, Morso NYC is a classic Italian restaurant helmed by Chef Pino Luongo, a Tuscan transplant with several restaurants under his belt. The menu relies heavily on the Tuscan influence which makes it a little surprising that there's a whole menu specially curated for Passover.

A hybrid Italian Jewish experience awaits, starting with artichokes over fennel or a Florentine chicken liver pate with matzo for spreading. Speaking of matzo, a chicken soup with matzo makes for a worthwhile zuppa. With your choice of two entrees you have to decide between roasted salmon, whole roasted chicken, or a traditional brisket braised quite untraditionally with Barolo wine. Coconut macaroons in chocolate sauce or flourless chocolate cake alongside coconut gelato end the meal sweetly. At $90 per person, it's a steal.

Sarge's Deli is another long-standing deli institution with 55 years of service behind it. With a menu of over 200 items, it shouldn't come as any surprise that Passover would be given consideration on it.

Matzo ball, kreplach, and thick split pea soup stay in line with expectations. A Seder plate just makes sense here. Roast brisket, chopped chicken liver, roasted turkey, gefilte fish, Norwegian salmon, and Swedish meatballs make up a good portion of the meats on the menu. Add to that two different types of kugel — potato and noodle — and 10 various dessert items including cheesecakes and macaroons, and this becomes a perfect Passover dinner destination for celebrants who want to spend time eating a home-cooked meal rather than cooking one.

2nd Avenue Deli N.Y.C., originally launched in 1954's East Village, relocated to Murray Hill in 2007. Since then, a second location sprouted up in the Upper East Side to the delight of everyone familiar with the kosher caterer and restaurant. A Passover Seder for 12 diners clocks in at $575, which maybe seems steep until you take a look at what a dozen people get for that. Three types of soups, two appetizers including chopped liver and potato pancakes with applesauce, a choice of either six roast chickens or 4 pounds of brisket in gravy, three side dishes, traditional charoset, and maror, two boxes of matzo, and 3 pounds of macaroons. 

We won't do the math on all of that divided by 12 people, but it sounds like it's more than worth the expense for a hungry squad of Passover celebrants.