Restaurants near MCC Theater should be the easy part of your evening, because the theater sits on West 52nd Street at 10th Avenue and Sesamo is right across the corner. You do not need a cab, a transfer, or a 20-minute march past Times Square. You walk out of dinner, cross the street, and you are at the show.
Right now that show is often Birthright, Jonathan Spector’s three-act play at the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space. It runs long and it runs deep, which is exactly why you want a real dinner beforehand instead of a rushed slice. Sesamo, a bold Italian restaurant with Asian influences at 764 10th Avenue, was practically built for this walk.
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Steps From the MCC Theater Door
The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space opened in Hell’s Kitchen because this is where the neighborhood’s real food is. Most people looking for dinner by the theater assume they are stuck with the Times Square corridor a few blocks east: overpriced pasta, chain kitchens, servers who want your table back before dessert. Sesamo is the opposite of that, and it is closer.
From Sesamo’s front door to the MCC lobby is a two-minute walk on the same block of 10th Avenue. That means you can linger over a last glass of wine and still make curtain without sprinting. Tell your server your showtime when you sit down and the kitchen paces the meal around it.
The $60 Theater Prix Fixe, Built for Curtain Time
Sesamo runs a three-course Theater Prix Fixe at $60 that is not a stripped-down value menu. It is the real kitchen, organized around your seat time. Chef Nikita pulls from the same hand-rolled pasta and slow-braised proteins as the full dinner service, so you are getting the restaurant at its best, just on a schedule that respects the clock on the wall.
Dinner runs every evening from 4:30pm, and the Sunday-through-Thursday Aperitif Hour from 4 to 7pm means an early booking can start with a proper cocktail or a glass from Sabrina Gao’s wine list before the food arrives. Prefer to keep it loose? Walk-ins are welcome at the bar.
What to Order Before the Show
A pre-show meal should be memorable enough to talk about at intermission. These are the dishes that do it:
- Lardo-stuffed dumplings: paper-thin skin around rendered pork fat with a soy-and-balsamic dipping sauce. The dish first-timers go quiet over.
- Tamarind bolognese: slow-braised beef with tamarind and miso depth on hand-rolled pasta. Bolognese that went somewhere interesting and came back better.
- Szechuan pasta: hand-rolled noodles, Szechuan chili crisp, aged parmesan. Italian technique, Asian heat, and it works completely.
Finish with the matcha tiramisu if you have room, then settle up and walk over. Whether your ticket is for Birthright or whatever MCC stages next, dinner will not be the part of the night you apologize for.
Book your table at sesamorestaurant.com/reservations, or see the full menu at sesamorestaurant.com. Sesamo is at 764 10th Avenue, corner of 52nd Street, two minutes from MCC Theater.
