Thanksgiving Restaurant Specials and Turkey Dinners 2027

Canadian Thanksgiving falls on the second Monday of October, at the end of a three-day long weekend. Most families hold the big meal at home on the Sunday or the Monday, so restaurant offers come in two forms: dine-in turkey dinners and set menus served over the long weekend, and take-home turkey dinners that you order ahead and reheat.

Dine-in offers are usually a three-course prix fixe (a starter, roast turkey with stuffing and cranberry, then pumpkin pie) served alongside or instead of the regular menu, often from the Friday or Saturday to the Monday. In Toronto and Vancouver these menus have run from about $50 to $140 per person before tax and tip, with hotel restaurants at the top of the range and pubs selling single turkey plates for $25 to $40. Sunday and Monday dinner seatings book up first, and some places sell turkey plates only until they run out.

Take-home dinners come in sizes for 2 to 12 people, with an order deadline four to six days before the weekend and pickup windows from Saturday to Monday. Prices are per package before tax, and some caterers add a service charge or a fee for hot pickup. Chains sell seasonal plates too: Swiss Chalet has sold a Thanksgiving Feast of rotisserie chicken with stuffing, cranberry sauce, a side and pie, plus a larger Family Feast, for the weeks before the holiday in recent years.

Thanksgiving Day is a general holiday for federally regulated workers and a public holiday in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba, but not everywhere: Nova Scotia lists it as a retail closing day rather than a paid holiday. Restaurants may open, and Ontario and Manitoba rules name restaurants among the businesses that can schedule staff on the holiday. Regular Monday deals can still apply, but some restaurants exclude statutory holidays from weekly specials, so read the conditions on each deal below.