Follow That Foodie :: A-Z Guide To Thanksgiving In Los Angeles

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Takeout | Pick-up | To Go

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Akasha

Want Akasha Richmond to do her culinary magic for you this Thanksgiving? Just get your order in by Monday, November 23, and all her turkey day treats can be yours to take home. Start by choosing from the bread selections, like the cheddar-bacon biscuits or the jalapeno cornbread. Throw in an arugula salad with persimmons and pomegranate, then add sage and chestnut stuffing, an order of Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, candied yams with Ceylon cinnamon, a green bean casserole with skinny fried onions and maybe some cheddar mac and cheese, then decide what kind of pie you want for dessert. The sweet potato with maple pecans is even vegan. The only thing you have to do is cook the turkey. Then again, you could just go to Akasha for dinner, and forget about cooking everything.



Dakota

Why do any work this year when Dakota is willing to do it all for you? Rather than spending all your money and slaving away in the kitchen, just pick up your food on turkey day and spend the rest of the day unwinding. For $200, you get a traditional meal that feeds eight (or just six if you're really hungry). It includes an 18-lb turkey, Caesar salad, butternut squash bisque, dried fruit stuffing, potato puree, bacon Brussels sprouts and a pumpkin cheesecake. There are also add-ons like mac and cheese, green beans and cranberry orange relish. It might be a little more expensive than doing it yourself, but how can you put a price tag on convenience?



Grace

Have the turkey your way, from deep-fried ($145) to plain old oven-roasted ($70 per breast -- serves 5), along with all your favorite fixings like Yukon Gold mashed potatoes or green beans with toasted almonds, along with some new classics like thyme and black truffle turkey gravy and cream cheese and chive biscuits. Just be sure to place all your orders by 5pm on Tuesday, November 24, and be ready to pick them up during the day on Wednesday, Nov 25.



Josie

Everything to-go is a la carte at Josie's, meaning you can pick and choose your own personal take-home menu. This is good since many of the dishes come in servings of either 2-4 or 6-8. Start with a wild mushroom and gruyere quiche or a baked pear and endive salad. Definitely get an order of the cornbread stuffing with wild sage and baby artichokes, and maybe the sausage stuffing too (you can never have too much!). The yams with maple syrup, raisins and butter-toasted walnuts sound like a warm, gooey scoop of heaven on earth. Now you just have to figure out dessert: chocolate bread pudding or sticky pecan pumpkin cake? The turkey you have to do for yourself, but it's better that way. Get your order in before 1:00pm on Tuesday, November 24.




Little Dom's Deli

Have a Cajun-Italian Thanksgiving with ready-to-eat items from Brandon Boudet's menu. A 12-lb. organic, free-range, deep-fried turkey with giblet gravy will cost you $69. Then just choose your sides, like homemade fennel sausage and mushroom stuffing, shaved raw Brussels sprouts with shaved parmesan and hazelnuts or sweet potato gratin. Add in a dessert like spiced pepita brittle or gingerbread cupcakes and you're done. Place your order by Tuesday Nov. 24, and then you can pick up your whole meal on Thursday morning.



The Oaks Gourmet

This is one of the bargains on the list, with a full-on Thanksgiving turkey plate going for $19. That includes garlic and herb-roasted white and dark meat turkey with foie gras gravy, sage and chestnut dressing, roasted brown butter sugar yams, grilled Brussels sprouts with pancetta and shallots, truffle mashed potatoes and a slice of pumpkin pie. Want some wine with that? The Oaks Gourmet also has three suggested pairings of bottles at discounted rates.



Real Food Daily

Orders must be placed by noon on Tuesday, November 24th, for your vegan extravaganza this Thanksgiving, courtesy of Real Food Daily. On the menu? Butternut squash bisque, faux turkey breast, corn sage stuffing, candied garnet yams, mashed potatoes and parsnips, herb-roasted veggies, golden gravy, cranberry relish and pumpkin pie. All that for just $38.95 per person. You won't even miss the turkey.

 

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Dine-In | Restaurants

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Bistro LQ

This is actually a pre-Thanksgiving feast, available on both November 24 and 25. Chef Quenioux's menu will highlight classic dishes of his native France, with the centerpiece being the famous choucroute (a sort of pork and cabbage pot), served here with sauerkraut poached in Riesling wine, and including eight different types of pork sausage. But man cannot live on choucroute alone, so for a first course, the chef is serving a simple herring topped with sautéed quail egg. And for dessert, there will be assorted mignardises, all for $45 per person (and you must have a party of two people or more).



BLT Steak

Starting at 5 pm and running till 9 pm, Chef Laurent Tourondel will serve a three-course prix fixe Thanksgiving dinner for $68 per person ($34 per child) focusing on fresh, seasonal ingredients like endive salad with gorgonzola, walnuts, apple and honey-mustard vinaigrette; roasted turkey with chestnut stuffing and cranberry-grenadine sauce or seared Scottish salmon with braised fennel, leeks and cockles; and desserts like a chocolate tarte with pistachio ice cream and chocolate sauce or hazelnut pumpkin pie with pumpkin spice ice cream and honey whipped cream .



Caché

You don't have to hit Mélisse to enjoy Josiah Citrin's Thanksgiving this year. He's offering a three-course tasting menu at his new Santa Monica hideaway, Caché. For $65, you get to choose from starters like Maine lobster ravioli or seared foie gras with glazed apples in a Calvados reduction. All the entrees are served with praline-pecan yams, potato puree, roasted root vegetables and cranberry sauce, but then you get your choice of roasted free-range turkey with mushroom-chestnut stuffing, prime rib with horseradish butter, potato-crusted sea bass in a brown butter caper sauce, or herbed potato gnocchi with confit tomatoes. There are also four desserts to choose from, like the pecan pie with bourbon crème anglaise. Dinner will be served from 3:00-7:45pm.



Edendale Grill

They'll be serving a traditional three-course meal with all the usual sides for just $26 per person ($13 for kids) at this upscale Silverlake eatery occupying a former fire house. The regular menu won't be available though, so don't ask.



Jar

Suzanne Tracht has made a name for herself serving up American classics with a California flavor, so you know her Thanksgiving feast is bound to be one of the best around. The starters include chestnut-chickpea soup and apple celery salad with Marcona almonds and parmesan. Dinner is served family-style with roasted turkey for everyone, stuffing with cornbread and turkey sausage, sweet potatoes au gratin, braised Brussels sprouts and a few other sides. Then for dissert, there's classic pumpkin pie or fall crisp with ice cream. Vegetarian meals are available upon request. Adults pay $85, kids $40.



Jiraffe

Enjoy a "Coastal Thanksgiving" at this Santa Monica brasserie from 1:00-8:00pm on turkey day. The three-course prix fixe menu includes choices of three appetizers, entrees, optional sides and homemade pies, and runs $68 per person ($35 for kids). Starters include seared scallops with green lentils and an herbed polenta galette in lobster sauce and a salad of butter lettuce with roasted red beets, Satsuma tangerines, goat cheese and a champagne-Dijon mustard vinaigrette. The main course is a choice of turkey with all the fixings or osso buco with a wild forest mushroom ragout and Brussels sprouts. The pumpkin pie with honey-mascarpone cream sounds out of this world.



Joe's

For the random price of $52 per person ($20 for children), you get a four-course extravaganza at this Venice eatery. Start with sunchoke soup flavored with smoked baby artichokes and hazelnuts and choose from five appetizers -- like crispy sweetbreads with autumn vegetables and bacon foie gars espuma or seared scallops with cauliflower couscous and charred tomatoes -- before hitting the main course. Turkey's just one option. You can also get a rack of lamp with black trumpet mushrooms and pumpkin risotto in spiced pear jus, or eastern monkfish with gulf shrimp in a butter clam parsley broth. For dessert, the persimmon and pomegranate bread pudding with mulled wine broth and whipped agave cream sounds like the best option.



Palate Food + Wine

The folks at Palate say that Thanksgiving is their favorite holiday to cook, so why not take advantage of their four-course tasting menu for just $48 per person ($25 kids)? Appetizer choices include an autumn salad, a smoked white fish terrine with cauliflower and smoked-tomato crème fraiche and ricotta gnocchi with blood sausage and quail eggs. For a main course, there's organic turkey with all the trimmings, but also pumpkin risotto with dandelion greens and chestnuts in brown butter, king red salmon with a bacon garlic crust and roasted Berkshire pork loin with quince in maple syrup butter and cider. For dessert, you can have pumpkin pie, date bread pudding with cardamom-vanilla sauce or crème fraiche panna cotta with currants and pistachios. You can make a reservation for any time from 2:00-7:00pm that day.



RH

It's all about a market-to-table Thanksgiving at the Andaz hotel's restaurant. Here you can watch the kitchen staff whip up your dinner in the open exhibition kitchen before dishes like roasted free-range organic turkey with hazelnut and pork stuffing, cauliflower gratin and pear pie come to your table. You might not be eating at home, but at least you'll be eating "local." Meals will be served from 10:00am-5:00pm and will cost $56 per person ($20 children).



Simon LA

From 11:00am-11:00pm, Kerry Simon's special Thanksgiving Day menu will be available for $46 per person ($21 for children under 12) including dishes like roasted kabocha squash soup with granny smith apples and cranberry relish, moist cornbread and sage stuffing and Brussels sprouts with fall herbs and pancetta. The signature Junk Food Platter will also be Thanksgiving-themed, with treats like pumpkin cupcakes, orange coconut snowballs and candy corn Rice Krispy treats.




Tavern

Thanksgiving runs from 11:00am-7:00pm at Suzanne Goin's newish Westside haunt and will cost $65 per person ($35 for kids under 12). It starts with a persimmon and pomegranate salad with arugula, walnuts and triple cream, followed by herb-roasted organic turkey breast and stuffed leg with mashed potatoes and gravy or kabocha squash gratin with poblano chilis, queso fresco and candied pepitas for the vegetarians. All are served with two stuffings: a traditional one and then another with chestnuts, prunes and cavolo greens. There are also sweet potatoes and a few different pies.



Vinoteque

Though you can just get the food for $55 per person, we say go for the wine pairing for just $15 more. Thanksgiving dinner will be served from 1:00-8:00pm, and you'll have a choice of starters like a wild mushroom risotto with speck, parmigiano-reggiano and toasted pine nuts. For the main course, you can get the vegetarian three-cheese ravioli, a crispy black sea bass with chorizo in a saffron mussel broth, prime rib with creamed pearl onions and potato gratin, or, of course, organic farm-raised turkey with sausage stuffing, broccoli, cranberries and potato puree. For dessert, there's tarte tatin, pear bread pudding or pumpkin pie with ginger ice cream.



Zucca Ristorante

Enjoy an Italian Thanksgiving at this downtown favorite. Seatings for the four-course prix fixe meal ($39 adults, $15.95 children) begin at 2:00pm on the big day. Among the first course choices are roasted pumpkin salad and white polenta with while mushrooms. There's homemade papardelle with wild boar ragout, pumpkin tortelloni in brown butter sauce, crab lump ravioli with heirloom cherry tomatoes or risotto with Parma ham for a second course. Then the main event: wood oven-roasted turkey with stuffing or a choice of veal shank (with onion casserole), salmon (with eggplant caponata) or beef tenderloin (in a Barolo sauce with celery root puree). For dessert: chocolate mousse with caramel and macadamia nuts or creamy pumpkin pie with cinnamon Chantilly and cranberry compote. Don't forget to ask about the special Thanksgiving cocktails.

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Additional Resources

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Turkey Time: Thanksgiving '09
(via Zagat)

Where To Go For Thanksgiving Dinner
(via Daily News)

Guide to Thanksgiving
(via LA Times)

L.A. Thanksgiving Planner 2009
(via Citysearch)

Thanksgiving 2009
(via OpenTable)

No Fail Thanksgiving
(via Rundown)