I think you will be well advised to take your innkeepers' advice. There is no reason for any restaurant to be open that day unless it is offering a special,i.e. expensive, Christmas meal.

My point is that we do not want to spend (and cannot afford) what would amount to $300 for one meal. Are there no other options?

Where have your innkeepers suggested?

£150 for a meal? I'm assuming you mean as in £75 each. You'd have to make a real effort to spend £50 each normally, so I'd be very surprised if you can't do better that that somewhere, even on Christmas Day.

It's true that the vast majority of places will only be open if they're doing some sort of "Christmas Dinner special" ( but they can't all cost that much.

Where have they already recommended?

Spending £50 a head for a meal (without drinks) in a restaurant on Christmas Day in York will be easy - however it will be difficult to find such a comparatively reasonably priced place to eat!

You could try the Toptable website to find out which restaurants will be open that day. Other than MacDonalds, I think you'll be struggling to find anything less expensive though. If you do find somewhere, please let us know!

We were very surprised 2 years ago to find pubs in Whitby just serving their usual food on Christmas Day on a "drop in " basis.

Not sure is true of York but could be-I would suggest you ask your hosts to ask a few local pubs what they are doing. I will make some enquiries and post again. Which part of York are you staying and have you got a car to get out of City if necessary.

I have tried a "Google" of "York Christmas Day dinner" and find the city centre hotels charge from £49 (Park Hotel) to £85 (Dean Court). Non residential menus are hard to find and the main bet seems to be chains like Cafe Rouge who are charging £49.50 or (non chain) Lendal Cellars who are charging £39.95, or Grange Hotel (cellar bar) at £57.50 (NB not Brasserie which charges £85). Many of these may be booked up by now., so get moving!

Bearing in mind no public transport and few taxis running it is not surprising most non residential places are closed that day.

In York, unlike in London and other larger cities, Chinese and Indian etc restaurants will probably be closed as they have no real ethnic community to cater for,

I suggest you try the same Google I did to get web sites etc and ensure you do not get "New York" by mistake!

I know that Caesars, italian restaurant will be open on Christmas Day - £50 a head. Their Haxby branch is definetly open not sure about the York one though.

www.caesars-restaurants.co.uk/restaurant.php

However, if you're catching a taxi from the city centre to Haxby it will cost you normally £9 one way - though cheaper by about £1 if you pre-book. Add about 30% on top for christmas Day though - so expect to pay about £20 for transport on top of meal costs.

About three years ago, my parents and I walked around York city centre looking for a pub to have pre-dinner drinks but the only one we came across was the Blue Bell, and it was already full with all their regulars!

Hi there,

Not sure if this helps but I have just booked a table for 2 for cafe rouge today - for £30.

I have been before and it is very nice, excellent location and nice food atmosphere.

The menu, which can be found here:

http://www.caferouge.co.uk/menupdf/250.pdf

looks good too.

Good luck!!

Thanks for your suggestions. We'll be staying at the Hazelwood Hotel and will have a car.

The innkeepers suggested the Dean Court (85 pounds a person), the Churchill (not available), the Grange and the Monk Bar (60 pounds a person). We're American so, because of the exchange rate, those are VERY high prices.

Right now I'm trying to get information from a few pubs suggested by the tourist office. I'll look into Cafe Rouge. Any other ideas are most appreciated.