Greg, Liam, Yibei and I decided to kick off the holiday season with a Christmassy dinner at Lille’s Victorian Establishment in Times Square.

This restaurant and bar is ordinarily pretty impressive, with massively tall ceilings and architecture meant to invoke the Victorian era. But during Christmastime it’s especially remarkable, and is adorned with tinsel, evergreen and lights to create a festive mood.

The bar area can get quite crowded, especially after work. So we sat in the back, which feels removed enough so you can relax, but isn’t so removed that you can’t enjoy Lillie’s unique ambiance.

We began by toasting with seasonal cocktails.

And we dug into the restaurant’s Curry Fries.

Now, I have to admit, which I first saw them on the menu I misread it and thought it said “curly fries.” So I was disappointed when regular fries arrived. However, since I don’t particularly like curry, I was relieved that the curry sauce was served on the side. I can live with just regular fries I suppose!

For dinner, I selected the Chicken Pot Pie with béchamel, peas, carrots and a puff pastry.

Liam had the Bacon Cheeseburger.

Yibei chose the Lillie’s Cucumber Sandwich with herbed goat cheese and tomato on wheat toast.

And Greg dined on the Pei Mussels served in a fire-roasted tomato broth with garlic, shallots and toast.

Overall the food wasn’t all that impressive. If I went again, I would just have a few drinks and enjoy the ambiance.

But I did enjoy the company, and that’s most important, right?

After dinner we walked over to Rockefeller Center. New York is one of the most beautiful cities in the world at Christmastime, and sometimes we don’t take enough advantage of living here!

So we made sure to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.

And then we walked over to Saks to take in their traditional holiday light show.

We even walked past Saks’ holiday windows which, I have to admit, were a little underwhelming this year.

But regardless, it still was a magical Christmas evening in New York City.

For more information on Lille’s Victorian Establishment, click here.

~A

P.S. My red dress (I’m obsessed with it!) is by Rachel Zoe. You can find it here.