The Verdict
Let's be honest about what you are buying. At the Rainbow Room, dinner is a $175 prix fixe and the food is the least interesting thing on the bill. What you are paying for sits sixty-five floors up: the 1934 Art Deco room, the revolving dance floor, and a Manhattan skyline no other restaurant in the city can put outside your window. Frank Sinatra sang here. The New Year's Eve broadcast came from here for decades. That is the product, and it is a very good product.
The Kitchen
Executive chef Jonathan Wright cooks American classics built to flatter the room rather than upstage it: a Maine lobster pot pie with black truffle, oysters Rockefeller under bacon sabayon, herb-roasted Pennsylvania lamb. It is competent, sometimes genuinely good, and never the reason you remember the night. Do not come expecting a meal that rewrites your sense of New York cooking. Come for the one room that still looks the way people imagine New York looks.
The Room
The room is the entire case for the Rainbow Room: a high Deco ceiling, a revolving dance floor, and a 360-degree band of windows that drops the Manhattan skyline into your dinner. The catch is access. It runs mostly as a private-events space and opens to the public only a handful of nights a month, plus Sunday brunch. It is not on OpenTable, so you book direct and plan the evening around the date. Dress is formal; a jacket is required, and the room earns the effort.
Best for a Proposal
Book the Rainbow Room for a proposal because almost nothing in New York competes with the setting: the 65th-floor skyline, the Deco room, the revolving floor, and staff who handle big moments every week. Tell the host it is a proposal when you book, ask for a window table, and let the room carry the moment the kitchen never could. Frank Sinatra sang here; aim that high.
Not For
Not for a serious eater chasing the best plate of food for the money, and not for anyone who wants to walk in tonight. The Rainbow Room is a view-and-occasion restaurant open to the public only a few nights a month; if the cooking is the point of your evening, your $175 goes much further almost anywhere else in the city.
Frequently Asked
Is the Rainbow Room worth it?
Yes for the occasion, not for the cooking. The Rainbow Room has sat on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza since 1934, and the $175 prix fixe buys the best skyline view in New York and an Art Deco room with a revolving dance floor. Jonathan Wright's lobster pot pie and oysters Rockefeller are competent and beside the point. You are paying for the room, and the room is genuinely unmatched.
How do you get a reservation at the Rainbow Room?
With planning, because it is barely open. The Rainbow Room runs mostly as a private-events space and opens to the public only a handful of nights each month, plus Sunday brunch. It is not on OpenTable; book direct through Rockefeller Center or by phone, two to three weeks ahead, and lock the date before you plan the evening around it.
What is the dress code at the Rainbow Room?
Smart formal, and a jacket is required for men at dinner. This is a 1934 supper club that still trades on glamour, so dress to match the room: jackets, no sneakers, no shorts. The dress code is part of the experience you are paying for, and turning up underdressed undercuts the entire point of the evening.
How much does dinner cost at the Rainbow Room?
The dinner is a prix fixe at about $175 per person before wine, tax and service, with a black-truffle lobster pot pie offered as a supplement. With a bottle and the trimmings a couple should expect well north of $500. It is expensive for the food alone, which is the honest catch: the view and the room, not the kitchen, are what the price buys.
Is the Rainbow Room good for a proposal?
Yes, book the Rainbow Room for a proposal. The 65th-floor skyline, the Art Deco room and the revolving dance floor give you a setting almost no other New York address can match, and the staff handle big moments routinely. Tell the host it is a proposal when you book, request a window table, and let the room do the heavy lifting.
Also in New York City
Explore the full New York City dining guide, or read our best proposal restaurants and impress-clients picks for more rooms that match a big occasion.