NYC restaurants roll out $26 game-day menus for World Cup fans

This summer, New York City is rolling out a citywide dining promotion timed to the World Cup, offering a string of budget-friendly specials designed to steer fans and residents toward neighborhood restaurants. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s six-week program promises hundreds of participating spots with meals and drink deals priced at $26, an attempt to make dining out more affordable during the tournament.

With restaurant bills and cocktail prices grabbing headlines lately — even prompting debate over some very pricey menu items — the new initiative aims to give New Yorkers and visitors a clear, lower-cost option when choosing where to eat. The timing also targets the wave of fans traveling to nearby MetLife Stadium in New Jersey for matches.

The effort, organized through the city’s tourism office, is billed as the Five Boroughs Winners Specials. Participating establishments can present the offer as a fixed-price menu, a food-and-drink combo, or discounted beverage bundles. Officials say the goal is twofold: provide dependable, wallet-friendly choices for working residents and direct more foot traffic into neighborhoods across all five boroughs.

• Program length: June 11–July 19 (six weeks)
• Price point: $26 specials at participating restaurants and bars
• Scale: Nearly 300 venues signed up so far, with the full list to appear on the city’s website before the World Cup kickoff
• How offers appear: prix fixe meals, food + drink combos, or drink deals
• Registration deadlines: restaurants by Wednesday, July 1; those wanting the special World Cup cups by Tuesday, June 11

Among the businesses already on board are a mix of neighborhood favorites and well-known destinations — from Staten Island’s Kills Boro Brewing Company to Harlem’s Red Rooster, Jackson Heights’ Armondo’s, Rockefeller Center’s Naro, Little Neck’s La Baraka, and Prospect Heights’ Morgan’s. The selection reflects the program’s borough-wide reach rather than a focus on Manhattan dining corridors.

The city is also offering an optional, collectible touch: participating venues can serve drinks in a specially designed World Cup cup, created by designer Arsh Raziuddin, to give the promotions a unifying look and a bit of tournament flair.

For anyone planning to combine match schedules with meals, the offer is intended to be straightforward and broadly accessible. Passengers and locals can use the deal to explore different neighborhoods; it ties into the mayor’s companion neighborhood passport program, which encourages visits to cultural sites and events across the five boroughs. Physical passports are being distributed at New York Public Library branches.

Where to find details: the city will publish the complete roster of participating restaurants online before the World Cup begins, and businesses that want to join still have until early July to register.