Published by TheFoodMonkey on 28 Feb 2008 at 06:35 pm
Restaurant Week Addendum–Fool Me Once…
I’d just like to write a brief addendum to my post on the different ways restaurants approach Restaurant Week. After taking a long hard look at the places that have restaurant week menus (with enough skirt and hangar steak to fill a stadium), I’d like to add another category:
4. Places that normally cost less than 20 for lunch and 33 for dinner that do Restaurant Week to BOOST their profit by tricking you into paying more money for the same (or lesser) food:
There many places doing Restaurant Week this year in Boston where you’d be hard pressed to spend 20/30 per person unless you bought a bottle of wine. These sneaky establishments (I won’t mention names) realize that people assume that only the more expensive restaurants do Restaurant Week and that they by going for the prix fixe menu, they are getting a good deal. So in traipse the rubes and plunk down 3o bucks a head for a 20 dollar dinner. What’s more, out comes the cod fillets and skirt steak–surprise surprise–and you end up getting worse food than you normally would get, at double the price. Don’t be fooled! Check the regular menu prices and steer clear of any place that has a turkey club on their menu.
Mark on 28 Feb 2008 at 6:58 pm #
That is a load of garbage and I actually saw some restaurants doing that here in Cleveland during our Downtown restaurant week which is going on now. That is pretty smarmy.
FoodMonkeyMike on 28 Feb 2008 at 7:15 pm #
I wholeheartedly agree. I mean, I give them credit for their business acumen, but I’ll avoid dining at those places
I once went to a restaurant for R.W. and when we arrived we could choose between a turkey club, and a Ruben. Well, at least I got to find out what a 20 dollar Ruben tasted like! It tasted like sorrow.
Bill Gallant on 28 Feb 2008 at 9:24 pm #
Don’t forget that the twenty dollar Reuben came with a free appetizer and a free dessert. I find the R/W lunches work for me because otherwise I would never find myself in L’Espalier, The Oak Room etc…
femmme on 28 Feb 2008 at 9:34 pm #
I agree. I went through the menus yesterday and was not impressed. I have a res at one spot and their menu looked great but they are also $$$$, we also booked it on the very first day so we wouldnt be shut out.
I am looking for one more place and Im prob going to skip it. I really wanted no. 9 Park which has fallen off the participating joints.
suprise suprise.
Love you guys!
FoodMonkeyMike on 28 Feb 2008 at 10:02 pm #
I agree, Bill, lunches are the way to go. The point of restaurant week is to try places you wouldn’t normally try. And I think perhaps an RW lunch is closer to a normal lunch at the restaurant than an RW dinner is to the regular dinner.
BY FAR the best deal for restaurant week, is Ruth’s Chris steakhouse. They give you near-full size (12 oz) portions of steak for lunch and it’s really wonderful.
You can view my review here:
http://thefoodmonkey.com/?p=111
I just booked my reservation.
Femme, I’m sad No. 9 park stopped as well. They really shined during restaurant week when I went there. Wonderful example of how you can serve something with inexpensive ingredients that feels like it should cost a lot, and leave a great impression on your customers.