Cucina 81/2 features a lavish red-carpet staircase that’s the centerpiece of the dining room (and yes, it’s been in Sex and the City). With dim lighting, a buzzy dining room that’s not too loud, Cucina features an Italian American menu in a spot that’s more elegant than your everyday red sauce restaurant. Sure, you can book one of four private dining rooms, but if your group is small enough, book the group table near the kitchen and order the tableside dishes: Caesar salad, spaghetti al limone, and chicken parmesan.

One of the more handsome Flushing Sichuan restaurants, full of dark wood and exposed brick, Szechuan Mountain House serves up huge portions that are ideal for sharing. Order dishes like mapo tofu, spicy mung bean jelly salad, stewed fish filet with pickled cabbage and chili, and fried lotus roots with celery. Be sure to get at least one of the artfully presented sliced pork belly with chile-garlic sauce. Call to reserve.

Dry pot is seemingly infinitely customizable, and Málà Project near Bryant Park allows each diner to make their own version or a few that the group can share. Throw in ingredients such as chicken thigh, pork belly, prawn, tofu skin, frog legs, Spam, or mushrooms, and choose a spice level that everyone can handle. Groups of six or more can reserve online (parties of 10+ must order prix fixe). There’s also an East Village location.

If your idea of a good time involves cheese corn pulls and sweating over a tabletop grill, Baekjeong might be your place. The meats at this Korean barbecue spot are more expensive than Let’s Meat around the corner, which still offers an improbable all-you-can-eat special for around $50, but the quality holds up and makes for easy sharing. Bottles of soju and pitchers of beer are par for the course at this restaurant that stays open until 1 a.m. on weekends, and the vibe only gets rowdier upstairs.

When Kokomo opened during the pandemic, the New York Times exalted it as the party restaurant to meet the moment. Some two years later, this spot is still serving up vibrant Caribbean cooking and keeping things just as lively. Reservations for groups of up to nine people are available to book on Resy. Parties of 10 and up can inquire on the Kokomo website for private dining pricing. 

For a celebratory group outing, we often find comfort in red sauce. And no one spot in Brooklyn is more iconic for it than Bamonte’s, open for more than a century. Eater critic Robert Sietsema recommends family-style portions of eggplant rollatini, but there’s also penne with vodka sauce and chicken parm. Call the restaurant to make a reservation for groups.

Menus like the one at Uncle Lou in Chinatown are made for big group dining. There are over 200 dishes listed here, appearing in portions that will probably frustrate you if you come with any fewer than four people. The Cantonese restaurant specializes in an older-school style of countryside Chinese cooking, with dishes like pork belly with pickled mustard greens and chenpi duck. Larger tables here had a wait long before Bon Appétit named Uncle Lou one of its 50 best new restaurants, thanks to a loyal following of regulars, but these days it helps to call ahead.

Wu’s Wonton King is peak group dining, a BYOB palace of glistening roast ducks and family-sized portions that’s perfect for a Lunar New Year gathering or a birthday with 14 friends (the maximum table size indoors). Everything is reasonably priced — even the legendary $600 king crab, a massive animal that’s priced by the pound, brought out to squirm on the table and then divided into three dishes capable of feeding a dozen or so people. The Cantonese favorite is a popular spot for celebrations, so expect to find at least one other group flashing disposable cameras. 

Sometimes there’s no planning ahead with large groups, and when that’s the case, Hometown is usually the move. This massive barbecue restaurant from the same team behind Red Hook Tavern, up the street, has ample seating to enjoy fatty brisket and Korean barbecue ribs, along with less conventional items, like a Frito pie with Texas chili and jerk rib tips, one of the best value items on the menu. Tables aren’t hard to find at peak dining times, but expect to find a line snaking up to the cash register; more time for mulling over a group order.

Though its Park Slope sibling has since closed, Nargis Cafe is still going strong in Sheepshead Bay after all these years. Eater critic Robert Sietsema recommends the Uzbeki spot as a rare group-friendly option that’s actually affordable. Even if you don’t live in South Brooklyn, Sietsema says “it’s well worth the trek out there” for a menu of “fist-size steamed dumplings filled with lamb or pumpkin called manti, soups flavored with dill and cilantro filled with just-made noodles, and salads of shredded carrots or sliced tomatoes and onions.”