Finding fulfilling New Year’s Eve plans often proves difficult, which is why many people stay home or reschedule the holiday for June. Fill calendars and bellies with today’s Groupon: for $99, you get a three-course meal for two at Mantra Restaurant (a $179.90 value). Each meal includes the following courses selected from the chef's special prix fixe menu:
- Two roasted-tomato vodka shooters
- Any two appetizers
- Any two entrees
- Two fenugreek crème brûlée desserts
Choose from the following time slots:
- 5 p.m. on December 30
- 7 p.m. on December 30
- 9 p.m. on December 30
- 5 p.m. on December 31
- 7 p.m. on December 31
Served amid Italian-marble walls, saffron-colored drapery, and candlelight, Mantra Restaurant’s fusion of Indian and French cuisine has garnered high praise from Zagat and Gayot. As 2011 winds to a close, couples or friends sit with roasted-tomato vodka shooters and reminisce about the year’s romances, professional advancements, and apocalyptic predictions. A small course sates cravings for healthful bites, with seared scallops in a strawberry-chili chutney or a warmed asparagus and endive salad that combats the cold weather. Entrees of goat-cheese-and-potato tikki fill meat-free bellies with a hearty taste of South Asia, and the chai-spice-encrusted tuna edifies palates with a citrus glaze. Dinner fades out as fenugreek crème brûlée tops white tablecloths with a side of lychee panna cotta that marries dairy and fruit in a union of sweetness.
Mantra's dishes top tables within a renovated, circa 1800 bank. Bartenders pour drinks behind a former teller's cage, taking inspiration from the past, and halogen lights and lasered mirrors bring the space into the modern era and ensure that nobody's date is a vampire in disguise.