Originally Posted by
kokonutz
The problem is that you are not getting to experience what makes that restaurant special. The food will be different. The service will be different.
Yup.
Originally Posted by rjque
There must be some benefit for the restaurants to participate.
Publicity, plus the opportunity to fill tables at an otherwise dead time of year.
Funny, I never really noticed restaurant week in San Francisco, because it was only the places with empty tables that participated. My usual places didn't participate. Chicago seems to be different insofar as it is not difficult to get a table at even the most popular places (with a few exceptions), so perhaps RW will make a difference in my experience. We'll see.
A lot of good restaurants do participate in RW in Chicago, though in my experience it can be difficult to get reservations at some of the better places. Six of us are doing a birthday dinner on Saturday the 7th and our short list of restaurants was shorter than normal because, I'm sure, of RW. (I now realize that we're going to a participating restaurant, but I suspect we'll end up going a la carte.)