People keep coming up to me and saying "it's Triangle Restaurant Week!" and then getting confused when I don't act excited about it.

Go Vols.

At the time I joined FT, I had moved from TN to AL (via FL, CA & NC). After I moved back to TN, it took me a couple months to stop saying "Go Vols" when I saw someone in the grocery store with an orange shirt or cap.

I'm back in FL now but the handle works as we left 3 kids behind in AL and one married a Bama fan. He's quite a bit less insufferable than the average Bammer, though.

I also dislike it, and people seem to think it's a great way to promote your restaurant, it's a bad idea, you're inviting people into it that would never go there because it's most likely out of their ball park and then serving them something that can be easily plated and served, think buffet style but without you actually taking from the buffet. The times that I have been forced into going the food has been terrible and poorly executed and I wouldn't return, and the same most likely will go for the new people that you brought it will assume this is quality is like this normally. Secondly all those people coming in will cause the people that WOULD go there not to be able to get in and if they managed to get in, they wouldn't have the menu they have been accustomed to, it's bad all the way around.

Lol off topic I know but Im from NY and for years my handle was NYVOL. I loved that email adress but it was aol...

I do hate the crowds that come with Restaurant Week. But the food is what the establishment makes of it, and it doesn't have to be bad. Half the time, it's the worst of what's described here - mass-produced and plated from a bus tub for efficiency.

But the other half of the time, it's treated more as an opportunity for a chef to experiment with unique food that wouldn't ordinarily make the normal menu, and I've had some really creative cuisine at an affordable price.

In what should come as no big surprise, my favorite restaurants ordinarily also tend to also be my favorites during Restaurant Week - places passionate about serving good food ordinarily are more likely to take the opportunity to show off, while mediocre joints treat it more like a Groupon deal week.

This may be colored by my location, Seattle, where reservations are typically not difficult to get except at the very high end during very popular times, even during RW...

Now that I think about it, I recall getting an amazing lunch at Campton Place in SF more than 10 years ago. It was RW in SF, and the chef at the time was a new guy - Daniel Humm, who has made quite a name for himself at Eleven Madison Park.

The meal was amazing and definitely not from a catering tub. The place was also only about half full, which seemed odd for the quality and price. I can see why he moved on to NYC - I don't think SF was ready for that level of dining at the time.

Is this thread some type of inside joke? Surely nobody can get so upset over something so trivial as restaurant week. My God!! An entire week where I have to cook myself or eat take out? That has to violate some type of torture agreement.

I don't usually dine at these type of restaurants on my own dime, so RW is nice to check out some of these places that I would otherwise not go to, although it might not be exactly the same experience. It is so popular in Houston, that it has been expanded to the entire month of August for the last couple of years.

I also like that the Houston RW has a charity component. Every set menu price includes a donation ($3 for lunch/$5 for dinner) to the Houston Food Bank, who raised over $1.25 million from this event in 2013.

Watch cooking shows and put together something !

I love the charity component! That would motivate me to check out some of the restaurants. I generally avoid them due to the potential for crowds and/or poor service, but knowing a portion of the money was going to a charity, I'd probably tolerate it once or twice.

I just avoid it, not to hard to do.

I unintentionally ended up at a Restaurant Week place for lunch on Monday. It's a place that serves a bento with some optional appetizers. The bento is $15 and the RW special was the bento plus an app for $22. Of course, the available apps were all on the menu for less than $7 each, meaning the RW special was just an option to pay a bit more for an app.

Now I really don't get Restaurant Week.

Two friends and I went to a local "nice" Italian place. Two of us had the Restaurant Week menu (3 courses=$40) while the third ordered off the regular menu (he had 2 courses-no dessert=$ 24)

Our servings were tiny! While our friend could not finish his entree it was so large.

Not the first time we have experienced this. A local Chain (Fleming's Steak House) Often has set menu specials, and they are always cheaper than The Restaurant Week Specials.

So, what are your experiences with Restaurant Weeks?

Same as yours and I can never understand why the DC happy hours go bonkers over restaurant week

I always order from the regular menu after having had two experiences just like yours.