Originally Posted by ohmark
One of New York's most famous restaurants is in the area you are considering. The Four Seasons Restaurant (not to be confused with the Four Seasons Hotel or hotel chain) is a a beautiful Manhattan restaurant and is a premier New York experience. Best of all, the pre-theatre dinner is $55 for a complete dinner, including appetizer, main course, coffee, dessert. Six main courses are offered at this price, including filet mignon. I'll try posting here a link to the the menus, which includes pre-theatre menu.
We had dinner at the Four Seasons about a few years ago. I ordered the set price dinner, and was not impressed with the food at all. However, the a la carte items were much better, and of course, much more expensive. I don't know if they have improved the quality of the prix fixe menu (obviously I was in no rush to go back and dine at the place again), but to me, it is pointless for a restaurant to advertise an inexpensive menu and then deliver sub-par food. Le Cirque 2000 was the same--unimpressive prix fixe, great (and expensive) a la carte. I've eaten at other restaurants where the set price menu was a bargain and still excellent--they might use slightly cheaper ingredients, but the preparation was still top-notch. (Daniel used to have the $35 3 course lunch menu which was amazing).