December 21, 2007
Restaurant Week is Next Month, Reservations Accepted Today
Get to a phone, frugal foodies – New York’s winter Restaurant Week goes down next month, but reservations are being accepted starting today. And since these places tend to fill up fast, now is not the time to let any fear of commitment hold you back.
Over 200 restaurants will be offering a special three course, prix-fixe dining option for a set price of $24.07 for lunch for and $35 for dinner. (Though not every restaurant is offering both deals; some of the trendier places like Gramercy Tavern, pictured, are just doing the lunch prix-fixe.)
The inaccurately named Restaurant Week actually lasts ten days, in two five-day blocks from January 21st to the 25th and January 28th to February 1st. Peruse the list of participating restaurants here; when you find one you like you can click through to make reservations online via Open Table. At least in theory; the website still has some bugs to work out. When we click the link for reservations at Indochine, we're transferred to the Open Table page for Inagiku. And what does clicking on reservations for Inagiku get us? The Blue Ridge Grill... in Atlanta!
Photo of Gramercy Tavern via Doug Letterman's Flickr.
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Most of the Open Table links are flawed. Insert the name of the restaurant into the appropriate space at the top of the page.
Many restaurants accept reservations only one month in advance, so, for some RW choices, you'll have to call next week.
Previous years, I've found Marcus Samuelsson's restaurants very generous during Restaurant Week: Riingo and Aquavit offer nice RW menus.
Be aware, some RW menus are very close in price to those restaurants normal prices (eg: Fleur de Sel),
so if your goal is to get a good meal at a bargain, research the restaurant's normal menu. BTW, Fleur de Sel's lunch prix-fixe is one of NYC's culinary gems.
Most of these restaurants, and many others, have $25 prix-fixe lunch specials all year anyway. RW menus suck anyway, always a lame salad with a pasta or chicken. And plent of attitude from waitresses pissed that you're only $25 or $35 per head.
Now that I've got my table booked, I'll share my restaurant week fave: Compass. Wonderful food, wonderful ambiance, an impressive wine list, and the dinner prix fixe is worth twice what you pay for it.
Now that I've got my table booked, I'll share my restaurant week fave: Compass. Wonderful food, wonderful ambiance, an impressive wine list, and the dinner prix fixe is worth twice what you pay for it.