Restaurant Week Recap

Restaurant week recap

Before we get started, HERE is everything you ever wanted to know about Mangoes

Today marks the end of summer restaurant week, a two week period during which some of the cities best restaurants have created special prix fixe menus for lunch and dinner offering diners a chance to sample some of their cuisine at discounted prices.

Every year New York City restaurants host both a winter and a summer restaurant week but this is the first time that I have ever really had the chance to sample a number of restaurants. Usually things like money and work get in the way and frankly, a lot of the places that offer dinner aren’t that interesting to me. Having my summer free this year allowed me to mix in a number of lunches into my restaurant week itinerary as well as a couple of dinners at select restaurants (In order to get these reservations however, I had to plan a month ahead.)

Over the course of two weeks I was able to have Restaurant Week meals at DB Bistro Moderne, L’Impero, The Bar Room at The Modern, Gotham Bar & Grill, Tribeca Grill, Perry Street, and Lupa. Although I didn’t have bad meal at any of these places, I still finished restaurant week a little confused. On the surface, it seems like restaurant week serves as a promotional event to draw potential new customers to restaurants and give them a sampling of the restaurant’s traditional or specialty offerings. However, it seems like many of the restaurants that offer prix fixe menus, decide to pick these two weeks to lose any sense of imagination. Maybe I’m missing the point and these place aren’t catering to people like me who eat 7 restaurant meals over the course of 10 days, but I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed by what appeared to be subtle variations of the same foods on nearly every menu.

With the exception of Lupa, L’impero, and The Modern, every restaurant I went to served some variation of a salad with goat cheese, a soup (usually involving corn), short ribs, pan roasted fish and the obligatory chocolate tart or cake (I’m not complaining about that one.) I understand the need for restaurants to not lose money on covers, but if they are not going to provide something interesting to eat they shouldn’t be having Restaurant Week, or at least have their prix fixe menus up on the website before potential customers make reservations. I guess I’m partially upset because the short ribs offered at these places weren’t as good as the short ribs I make (too stringy at Perry Street and less flavorful at Tribeca Grill) and as well all know, I am the master of short ribs.

After my personal experience, some reading, and some conversations with friends, I have come to some conclusions about Restaurant Week…


Lunch is a much, much better value than dinner. Not only because it’s cheaper on paper, but because it’s also a lot less likely that you will be drinking a bottle of wine at lunch time. Drinking plus restaurant week equals not that much of a deal anymore.

Danny Meyer restaurants are always a safe bet and a good value. I’ve read that Eleven Madison Park and Union Square Café have had nice restaurant week offerings, and I probably enjoyed the food and selections at The Modern (three appetizers, three desserts, no salads) more than at any other restaurant. They had sweetbreads!

If you are going to a restaurant because they are well known for a certain dish, make sure it’s on the restaurant week menu. DB Bistro did not offer its burger with foie gras and truffles and was a relative disappointment in comparison to the other places I went, while L’Impero did offer its close to perfect spaghetti and tomato sauce.

Try to find restaurants that don’t regularly offer lunch or dinner prix fixes. I have made the mistake of doing this and felt somewhat unsatisfied spending $24.07 at Gotham Grill when I could have gone for a regular lunch and spent $27 dollars. I felt the same way about my $35 dollar dinner at Aquavit Café when the regular prix fixe dinner is $37 dollars.

Plan in advance. If you don’t want to be left eating at the Sushi Samba’s of the world (I hope no serious food person would spend money on a dinner there) you need to pick some places in advance. The leftover restaurants are usually places that are either not as good as the ones that get reserved (obviously) or ones that you might just as easily be able to afford during the other 48 weeks of the year and be able to order off a less limited menu.

Actually those are all the things I’ve learned from this restaurant week. Here is how I would rank the seven places I went to.

The Bar Room at The Modern—A very chic setting with the museum providing a fun pre dinner activity (if you plan right), they also had excellent and interesting food. The almond gazpacho with rouget, and octopus appetizers were both delicious and the garlic gnocchi with crispy sweetbreads was some of the most pillowy gnocchi I’ve ever had. It’s also a plus that they offer dinner.

Lupa—They only offer lunch, but I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that they offer a very simple yet flavorful four course tasting with three choices for each course. I felt the dishes represented the restaurant well and I left happy and perfectly full*.

*this means full but not feeling gross

L’Impero—Always a nice meal and restaurant week didn’t disappoint. They also had a really nice octopus appetizer and for the main course I even rejected the steak in lieu of the spaghetti I talk so much about.

Perry Street—I was disappointed that they offered the boring short ribs/pan roasted salmon combo. What really made the meal work for us (other than the fact that the short ribs were pretty tasty) was that one of the four of us ordered off the regular menu and we got to try the crusted tuna and cashew crusted chicken, both of which were better than what was on the prix fixe

Tribeca Grill—Not terribly creative with the menu options but the food is pretty consistent and the place works as a really solid neighborhood restaurant. Their wine list is also really expansive and not marked up by the standard 100% you find at most restaurants.

Gotham Bar & Grill—Nothing was bad here, but I had just ordered off of the same prix fixe menu a couple of weeks before and didn’t feel too inspired by the food. This would be a great place to go for lunch ($27 regularly) once every three or four weeks as the menu shifts.

DB Bistro Moderne—Solid food with nice colors and nice presentation, but I have expected more from Daniel Boulud. I liked the fact that each course had three choices but I couldn’t order the corn soup or the short ribs because I had cooked them for dinner the night before and I thought the Greek salad offering was a bit of a cop out. I might go back to the restaurant to try the famous $29 dollar burger but I wouldn’t go back for any other reason.

P.S. To everyone who has read this post, I understand that I used the word 'Restaurant' excessively. I apologize.

L'Impero wrap up

My meal at L’Impero yesterday was absolutely delicious. I had been looking forward to their house made spaghetti and tomato sauce and it didn’t disappoint. It’s been several hours and I still smile when I think of the waft of basil scented steam that rose from my plate of pasta. I also had a deliciously firm and tender octopus salad that has inspired me to go out and try cook octopus myself—something that apparently isn’t very easy to do.

Although Scott Conant (The former chef and part owner) has left L’Impero I still feel confident saying that the restaurant still turns out top notch food. I look forward to heading back to Tudor City in the near future to sample more of the menu although it might be hard to forgo the spaghetti.

Tomorrow night dinner is at the Bar Room at the Modern and I’m excited. They have more octopus on the menu, arctic char tartare, pork belly AND sweetbreads. I also appreciate that the vegetarian items, usually a throw in salad or soup and something else most self respecting carnivores wouldn’t order are simply two of the dishes minus the meat or fish. It leaves more delicious options for the rest of us.

Summer Restaurant Week is upon us

Restaurant Week starts today and I’m getting set to eat at one of the seven restaurants that I have reservations for in the next two weeks. Followers of this blog know that I’m not completely sold on dining during Restaurant Week due to the prix fixe that may or may not be a deal (some places offer them anyway) and the fact that some of the more extravagant items (that need to be eaten) tend not to be on the restaurant week prix fixe. However, because restaurant week is an excuse for people to dine in droves, most places should be trying their best to draw in new customers.

Despite the fact that I’m somewhat conflicted (and would much rather just go to restaurants during non-restaurant week if I could afford to do it more frequently) I have a severe lack of things to do during lunch or dinner for the next two weeks and thus will be sampling several restaurant week menus.

Below is a schedule with a bit of my rational in making each choice

Today: DB Bistro Moderne for lunch. I picked this one off of a recommendation from a Dad’s friend. It’s also a place that I hear is pretty good (they have their famous foie gras burger) and would probably not go to if I didn’t have a reason for restaurant week.

Tomorrow: L’Impero for lunch. I’ve had lunch here once before and it was pretty amazing. I wanted to taste the best spaghetti and tomato sauce I’ve ever had again. Hopefully it makes the prix fixe.

Wednesday: The Bar Room at The Modern for dinner. I read their three star NY Times review and have been looking for a reason to try out the place. They also appear to on the higher end the restaurant week dinner spectrum.

Thursday and Friday: The Belly takes a rest.

Monday: Gotham Bar & Grill for lunch. I’m meeting a friend and this seemed like a good place

Tuesday: Tribeca Grill for dinner. My parents and I needed to find a solid neighborhood place for dinner and I figured that Tribeca Grill was a good choice. I had Mai House on the schedule but cancelled after having several people tell me that it was a disappointment.

Wednesday: Perry Street for Dinner. Perry Street, like The Modern was one of a few really good restaurants to offer dinner. We made a reservation for four and are very happy about it.

Thursday: Lupa for lunch. I really like Lupa and wanted to eat lunch there.

That’s the full schedule, wish me luck!