Mother’s Day is this Sunday, and if you still haven’t made plans, don’t worry. Grub has you covered. If you need to book a last-minute table at a great restaurant, we’ve found 25 places that should be able to accommodate you, your mom, your kids’ mother, your grandmother, or any other combination you can think of. (You’re on your own for the flowers and the card, though.)
Alta Calidad
Availability: reservations for brunch or dinner
Price: à la carte
Alta Calidad’s Mexican-ish menu is as fun as it is strange: Think pumpkin-blossom quesadillas, yucca tater tots, Mexican roti. This is where you take the mom who doesn’t quite fit into any categories; she’ll really enjoy herself here. Make reservations here.
Atoboy
Availability: plenty of dinner reservations
Price: à la carte
For those who make Mother’s Day into a big, generational affair, look no further than Atoboy for a nice family-style Korean meal. It’s the perfect place to order one of everything and enjoy a game of pass-me-that-plate. Make reservations here.
Café Boulud
Availability: dinner reservations only
Price: à la carte or $125 per person; $45 per child under 12 (Mother’s Day menu)
We’re of the mind that every couple of Mother’s Days, you should go all out for a mom: Get her a really nice present, buy her a pricey bouquet of flowers, and generally treat her like a queen. That also includes taking her to an incredibly nice French restaurant with unrivaled service, like Boulud, where you might end up breaking the bank, but your mom will have an unforgettable meal she’ll talk about for years to come. Make reservations here.
Cherche Midi
Availability: late-afternoon and dinner reservations
Price: à la carte
This is a perfect “two birds, one stone” situation: Not only can you bid farewell to one of the city’s most down-to-earth brasseries before it shutters early next month, but you can treat the mom(s) in your life to a great, no-fuss meal and still be home in time for Westworld. Think of it as the anti–Café Boulud. Make reservations here.
Chicha Cafetín
Availability: plenty of dinner reservations
Price: à la carte
This brand-new, well-designed Nicaraguan joint just opened, and we think it’s perfect for the really fun moms in your life. Not only does the menu span South American cuisine, serving everything from salteñas to arepas to baleadas, but there’s an impressive menu of rum drinks for drinking and ‘gramming until you drop. Make reservations here.
Chinese Tuxedo
Availability: plenty of dinner reservations
Price: à la carte
There are some last-minute dinner reservations still available at this stylish Chinese-by-way-of-Australia restaurant, where you can order everything from roasted duck salad to beef short rib with chilies and shallots. Think of it as an extreme upgrade to ordering in. Make reservations here.
De Maria
Availability: plenty of brunch reservations
Price: à la carte
If the mom in your life is a card-carrying member of the wellness movement, then she’ll fall head over heels for spa-cum-restaurant De Maria. There’s coconut amaranth and chia overnight oats, vanilla-bean labneh yogurt, turmeric tonics, matcha lattes, grain bowls — the list goes on. Everyone will leave this place feeling renewed. Make reservations here.
Diner
Availability: two-top and four-top dinner reservations
Price: à la carte
Seeing that Diner is directly and indirectly the mother of several high-profile restaurants, including the Commodore, Pies ‘n’ Thighs, Roman’s, and the late Saltie, it only makes sense that you’d want to take your mother or the mother of your children here to enjoy a menu of New American cuisine. Make reservations here.
Empellón Midtown
Availability: plenty of dinner reservations
Price: à la carte or $48 prix fixe
The beauty of Alex Stupak’s Empellón is that when you dine here, you can really choose your own adventure. So, it’s a great place for the mom who just wants elevated versions of familiar meals like fajitas and tacos or moms who never, until now, tried ice cream that tastes like the wood from a tequila barrel, but always wanted to. Make reservations here.
Faro
Availability: plenty of two-top dinner reservations, a few dinner reservations for four-tops
Price: à la carte
If you want to convince your worrying mother that living in Bushwick is actually super awesome, then take her for fresh bread, handmade pasta, and delicious wine at Faro, which recently celebrated its three-year anniversary, and is just fancy and accessible enough to impress even the most slightly judgmental mom. Make reservations here.
The Good Fork
Availability: plenty of brunch and dinner reservations
Price: à la carte
The Good Fork isn’t easy to get to (if you don’t live in Red Hook), but this place is so worth it. Even 12 years after its opening, this Asian-influenced restaurant and its amazing dumplings remain as hip as ever while easygoing brunch staples (like two eggs any style and a tangy sesame granola) make it a fit for everyone at your Mother’s Day table. Make reservations here.
Hillstone Midtown
Availability: plenty of brunch and dinner reservations
Price: à la carte
Say what you will about chain restaurants, butHillstone has en masse dining down to a science. The menu at these fancy, but not too fancy, eateries cover every type of diet, and the service is, frankly, wonderful. Unless she’s dead set on eating at a one-of-a-kind restaurant, your mom will love this place. Make reservations here.
Le Fond
Availability: brunch reservations only
Price: à la carte
Looking for something more French? Le Fond in Greenpoint will have a special menu for Mother’s Day, featuring a skillet burger, steak-frites, tuna niçoise, and other classic fare. Make reservations here.
Llama Inn
Availability: email reservations@llamainnnyc.com or call 718-387-3434
Price: à la carte
The menu and food at this Peruvian restaurant in Williamsburg is just plain fascinating, and you’ll spend as much time discussing your meal as you will catching up with your mom on all the PG things going on in your life.
Little Park
Availability: plenty of dinner reservations
Price: à la carte
For the health-minded mom, there is Little Park at the Smyth Hotel. The brunch menu here is teeming with all the right buzzwords (read: spelt, heirloom, flax, kale), but, worry not, there are more filling options for those of us who like to let loose on weekends. And if you choose to drop by for dinner instead, may we suggest the dry-aged duck? Make reservations here.
Ops
Availability: walk-ins only
Price: à la carte
The pizza at walk-in-only Ops is very good and definitely worth visiting for, but another reason you should take your mom here is because it’ll be your chance to show her one of the city’s best natural-wine lists. She’ll thank you for the introduction.
Pizza Moto
Availability: plenty of dinner reservations
Price: à la carte
Pizza Moto is the consummate neighborhood restaurant, though whether that neighborhood is Red Hook or Gowanus is really up to you. Whichever you choose, this is a good place to take a whole group of people, kids (or grandkids) included. You have the option of splitting wood-fired pizzas between the whole table or ordering your own plates, including a classic take on fried chicken or a standout smoked-trout salad. Make reservations here.
Pok Pok NY
Availability: plenty of brunch and dinner reservations
Price: à la carte
So, you’ve just taken your mom on a walk through Brooklyn Bridge Park and now everyone’s famished. Thank goodness for West Coast import Pok Pok NY, then: Here, you can expect heaping plates of Thai food that are perfect for post-walk carb-loading. Make reservations here.
Reynard
Availability: reservations for brunch or dinner
Price: à la carte
Last year, Christina Lecki, previously of the Breslin and White Gold, took over as executive chef at this Williamsburg restaurant with the goal of making the menu “a little slower, a little more simplistic.” She’s succeeded handily, but you don’t have to take our word for it. Make reservations here.
Roman’s
Availability: plenty of brunch and dinner reservations
Price: à la carte or $75 chef’s menu
It’s looking like Sunday is going to be a great night for some al fresco dining, and Roman’s — Andrew Tarlow’s Italian eatery — just happens to have outdoor seating. So, grab a reservation and your most breathable clothes and book a table here for Mother’s Day. (And be sure to take advantage of every menu item featuring ramps.) Make reservations here.
Rosemary’s
Availability: some brunch reservations and plenty of dinner reservations
Price: à la carte or $35 prix fixe
Maybe you’ll be charming a mother-in-law this Mother’s Day. Well, in that case, you should take her to the most charming place in town: the West Village. This Sunday, Italian restaurant Rosemary’s will have a special menu for Mother’s Day, featuring nonna-style favorites like chicken Milanese and panzanella salad with focaccia croutons. Color your mother-in-law impressed. Make reservations here.
Speedy Romeo (Brooklyn)
Availability: plenty of dinner reservations
Price: à la carte
If pizza’s the name of the game, Speedy Romeo in Clinton Hill has dinner reservations left for Sunday night. Order a few pies for the table, a round of Negronis, and toast it up in the light of a wood-fire oven. Make reservations here.
Tamarind
Availability: some dinner reservations
Price: à la carte
With 11,000 square feet of space, it’s extremely unlikely that you won’t be able to get a table at this Indian restaurant in Tribeca on Sunday. Plus, the menu really runs the gamut of Indian cuisine, so your mom should have no problem finding something she likes. Make reservations here.
Untitled at the Whitney
Availability: some brunch and dinner reservations
Price: à la carte
Should you decide to make a whole day of it, may we suggest spending the late afternoon at the Whitney? (Hot tip: Grant Wood’s American Gothic is currently on display.) Then head to the Whitney’s Untitled restaurant, where the vegetable-forward fare is just light enough to enjoy a nice afterdinner stroll through the surrounding cobblestone streets once the bill’s paid. Make reservations here.
Via Carota
Availability: walk-ins only
Price: à la carte
This restaurant’s rustic Italian food, rooted in 17th-century Tuscany, somehow feels perfect for every mood. And the “no reservations” policy puts everyone on equal footing when it comes to getting a table here. If you end up waiting, no worries: You’re in the West Village, so good luck not finding a good bar to hang out at.
