Consolidated "Restaurant Week" thread
 

Restaurant Week has become popular phenomenon in major metropolitan areas throughout the United States.

Top-notch restaurants lower their prices for a week, offering special deals that make their cuisine available to people who might not ordinarily be able to afford to try it. Or so the theory goes.

I have no problem with this. I like the idea of people being able to try things that they normally cannot.

But please don't think that you get the same experience for the lower price.

With the lower prices comes a sharp increase in the number of covers that each restaurant is handling -- often double a usual night. And quality suffers.

I don't even mean that quality is bound to slip as the kitchen gets stretched. I mean that kitchens plan to offer lower quality meals for the lower prices. They aim to just serve each table and move on, rather than offering each dish with the same care that they normally apply. I know one nationally recognized chef in town tells his kitchen staff, "think Applebees."

Don't plan that romantic evening for Restaurant Week. Your dining choice wants you in and out in under an hour, rather than encouraging you to linger on for tow or three. And with restaurants so crowded, service (not just the food) suffers.

Plus, with so many diners, you're just a number even in the places that normally cater to each customer.

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that top-quality restaurants are made accessible to folks who normally don't go. But don't fool yourself into thinking you get the same thing for less.

As for me, when everyone else is crowding the restaurants during Restaurant Week, I stay home... and I give my favorite kitchens a few days to recover after it's over... and then I return and enjoy my favorite meals.

Just my two miles worth.

Gary

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View from the Wing: A blog about Free Miles and Free Markets

I went to the Bay Tower Room in Boston for Restaurant Week last year and it was very good, but not as good as full price. However, the discount was less than half what we'd normally pay, so I was willing to expect less than the best. The food was excellent, but the waitress did seem to be rushing things a bit. When she realized that we planned on lingering, she stopped rushing us and all was well.

I DO make an effort to get out to lunch at as many restaurants as my schedule permits (some years quite a few, others at most 1) during RW, even though I agree with much of what gleff has said. Partly it's curiosity just to see what a particular spot is doing for RW. Here in NYC, there are a number of restaurants that dumb down their menus and a couple where service is downright contemptuous, but then there are several that offer an absolutely wonderful experience at half the price you'd normally pay for very similar food.

I agree with gleff. I went to Signatures in DC to wine tasting dinners on consecutive Tuesdays. The first had about 10 patrons other than the tasting. The second, we could not get in the door, and through the bar area to get to the tasting. The front area was a madhouse, and very noisy. I cannot imagine that service or food was worth the saving.

The tasting dinner was spectacular. None of the staff was pulled to handle the patrons in front.

I agree with gleff but that does not stop me from patronizing Restaurant Week in my town.

What I *will* do, however, is request a regular menu along with the Restaurant Week menu. About half of the time I end up ordering off that instead of the RW menu (when I figure out that the RW special isn't so "special" or when the menu truly draws me in to spend more) and most of the time if I order the RW special, I will still supplement with something else the restaurant is known for (a special appetizer, a great dessert).

Rant: I HATE RESTAURANT WEEK!
 

I freaking HATE it.

I can't get a reservation at my favorite restaurants because they are full of RWers. And when I can, they have these horrible, puny restaurant week menus they make your order from. Then they rush you through the meal.

If the only experience I had of some of my fav restaurants was a RW experience they would NOT be my fav places.

RW just destroys the dining out experience for everyone.

I just hate it.

:confused: What is "restaurant week"? :confused:

Presumably discounted prix fixe lunches and dinners offered in coordination throughout a city.l for a week.

http://dc.about.com/od/restaurants/a/RestaWeek.htm

Ugh. Just reading about it gets me pissed off all over again.

Then don't read about it. :p

Order in for a week.

I've never had a restaurant limit me to the RW menu. You'd think they'd be happy to serve the full priced items?

Since you know when it is and what its like

why haven't you just planned around it

eat in (cook, take out, delivery) etc
eat in other locations

Restaurant week in Madison is quite civilised. Regular menus are available, places are busy but not hopelessly crowded and the prix fixed menus are good. We use it try places we haven't been and eat out on nights when we wouldn't normally bother. Which is presumably the point.

I expect the world to plan around me, not vice versa! ^

Honestly we got back from a 5 mile walk at 5:30, sat down with Open Table to pick a dinner spot and nothing was available. And I said: oh ...., it's not restaurant week, is it? It is. :mad:

I suppose we could have done Paisanos or Chinese takeout, but we felt like treating ourselves after our nice long walk! And I. Do. Not. Cook.

Yes, you would think so! But as you may have seen from my facebook rant, we managed to get into Willow tonight which I love for the black truffle flatbread they do. But they were not serving from the a la carte menu tonight, only the RW menu.

The other thing I hate is that dessert is included. So I end up piling a bunch of empty calories onto my meal.

A lot of restaurants extend RW for a week, but offer both the RW prix fixe AND the regular menu. If RW worked like that I could forgive it. But it doesn't (at least in most of the nicer places).

I just take a week off and eat in. Yes RW is hateful for all the reasons the OP lists. Easier to ignore the whole thing.

Around here they tend to offer the full menu as well. In fact at some places you have to ask for the RW menu if you want it.

I love RW.

If you can get a reservation when the places are packed with RWers.

how about an alternate point of view? I always try to go 1 or 2 nites to restaurant week--why? because normally these venues are out of my budget and I always get to go somewhere Ive never been--I have actually found a few restaurants that I returned to and really enjoyed. Also, the RW menu I had the other night actually offered several upgrades and offered the regular menu.
For those of us who cant afford to splurge that often, its very nice, and I think its very smart because it gets us regular folk hooked on their place:)

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.

Need proof: take a nice restaurant and look at the Trip Advisor or Yelp reviews. Inevitably the worst reviews will be from RW diners. Their expectations are high and they are often disappointed by the dumbed down RW offerings and service.

But I did find out who hates RW more than me: waiters at nice restaurants. According to my waiter last night, servers despise RW as they end up working twice as hard and make less in tips than they do on regular nights.


Great minds and all that. ;)

There must be some benefit for the restaurants to participate.

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.

Yup.

Publicity, plus the opportunity to fill tables at an otherwise dead time of year.

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.)

this has not been my experience....but then again, we always go early, like at 5-5:30 and I even remarked to mr nlkm9 the other nite that I was surprised at how we werent rushed.
Im not naive enough to think the RW evening is like it is normally, but again, for those of us who dont spend a lot on entertainment and food, its like getting admission to a place we normally couldnt go. I guess if I was that offended by it, I would patronize other restaurants that didnt offer it that week.
I mean, this is a problem Id like to have

ooops--just saw this. honestly, I am fairly easy going about things, except for one place we went to, all our RW jaunts have been awesome--there is one place we have gone back to several times because the food was so good and it was really nice. Also, I tip very well because I understand the economics. But like I said, I can walk away from something fairly pleased when everyone else Im with is complaining, so perhaps my expectations are not as demanding?? :)

Elway's here in Denver (fantastic, not the typical 'celebrity restaurant'), their Cherry Creek location does RW, the Downtown location does not. So you can get reservations, standard menu and service at one, and RW at the other.

No restaurant week here that I know of. In the summer, restaurants are packed and in the winter, a number of the places at the beach close for 2-3 months. In fact, at the opposite end of the spectrum, in the winter time when business is low, three of my favorite restaurants have brought me a "locals" card that I use all year to get 10% off the bill. I'm not sure if they recognize me from multiple visits or just assume if I'm eating there in January, I must be local. I suppose handing one to a visitor wouldn't cost you much since they're not likely to come back often. But I appreciate it and it might save me a couple hundred $ over the course of a year. One of these places is where we usually bring out of town guests. ^^

I despise Restaurant Week. You don't even get to try the most interesting stuff on the menu! I want something that I can't make at home when I go out to eat, or with interesting ingredients that I haven't tried before. That being said, at a few places its pretty good.

Restaurant Week in Orange County will be March 1 - 7, 2015.

I love it. I'm a big fixed menu fan in general. I eat absolutely anything, so having a talented chef just decide on a great sequence of courses at a good restaurant is entirely up my alley.

I don't know how it is in most places but at least where I went here in SF they also had their normal menus available. I always go for fixed price when it's offered though.

I feel your pain. But you are lucky it' just one week. 15 days here!! But gives me a chance to look for places that don't participate.

I love your screen name! I'm a proud lady vol:)

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.