Best NYC Winter Restaurant Week venue?

December 29, 2006 6:09 AM

I've got a night in NYC on 24 January and want to take advantage of the Winter Restaurant Week USD 35.00 prix-fixe menus somewhere in town but where?

I'm probably going to have 3 other people with me, one of us doesn't eat meat but is OK with fish, and we're all staying in Hell's Kitchen. Great food and not-too-expensive wine list could be other considerations...recommendations?

This is the list of participating places. A 'D' means available for dinner.

posted by i_cola to food & drink (13 comments total)

My favorite restaurant in New York is on the list, but only for lunch. That's Tamarind.

For dinner, if it were me, I'd choose one of the following:

Bolo or Mesa Grill--these are two of Bobby Flay's restuarants, so if you're food network fans...you'll notice some things you've seen on Iron Chef America. Bolo is Spanish-ish and Mesa Grill is more Southwest. Amazing corn muffins at Mesa Grill. Both have very reasonable, varied wine lists.

Devi--best Indian restaurant on the list other than Tamarind, which isn't doing dinner.

Spice Market--wicked trendy, but I'm a big fan of one of their former chefs, so I can't help myself. Chicken samosas...seriously, I could live on those things. And if you like ladies, you'll like the waitress uniforms. In fact, all the staff are good-looking.

One if By Land, Two if By Sea--this place is so fancy, it doesn't have a sign out front. Best service I've ever had in a restaurant, hands down. My man was what I thought was the best waiter in New York at the time. He got bumped to second best that day. Great place to impress people, great food too.

If you're looking for more casual, Blue Smoke, Sushi Samba, and Dos Caminos are all fun.
posted by lampoil at 7:27 AM on December 29, 2006

I went to Bolo last year during restaurant week, and it was really great. I also went to Chanterelle, and it was a mediocre experience. I mean the food was good, but definitely not interesting or inspired. It was like they cooked up the cheapest thing they could get away with.

Another vote for Spice Market, although I've never done RW there.
posted by kimdog at 7:48 AM on December 29, 2006

Honestly? Skip it altogether. The high-end restaurants who participate offer fairly unexemplary items, and the "deal" at the rest really isn't much better than you could do à la carte. My friends in the restaurant biz roll their eyes at what a sham it is.
posted by mkultra at 8:34 AM on December 29, 2006

Blue Water Grill gave us an excellent selection of delicious seafood last year.

I mostly agree with mkultra, but I think it might actually be worth it if you don't drink wine/booze. Lunch is the better deal IMHO. You should also be able to call ahead to most of these places and check out what's on the prix fixe menu.

You might also want to keep an eye out for Brooklyn Restaurant week (usually around April I think) which is $19.95 L or D (or was last year anyhow).
posted by zackola at 9:04 AM on December 29, 2006

Seconding mkultra, skip it. I've never had a great meal at Restaurant Week. Take your $35 and spend it on something on the menu, not the prix-fixe option.
posted by hooray at 9:22 AM on December 29, 2006

I kind of agree. The prix-fixe stuff tends to be pre-made and then heated up.

You're better off spending an extra $10/person and getting something you know is cooked fresh. My favorite restaurant is not on the list: Raga, on 6th Street between 1st Ave and Ave A. Get the filet mignon with the potatoes. Absolutely fantastic if the chef does not skimp on the meat quality, which only happened one time I was there.

Rain on 82nd street is on the list. Their Thai Beef Jerky appetizer is to die for, but otherwise the menu is pretty standard pan-Asian fare.
posted by camworld at 9:44 AM on December 29, 2006

Yah, true. You'll see that most of the stuff on the list are very mediocre tourist-trap/pre-theater restaurants, so on top of their normally bad food, you are getting even worse stuff for prix-fixe. At some places, it's just not worth it.

I worked in the same zip code as most of these restaurants for five years, so I can give you some advice towards a selection (although my personal favorite in NYC is NOT on the list: $$ Le Bernadine $$ for their fish).

Just remember: Although it is restaurant week, and you're spending what you would in a low-end place, please remember the dress code. Regardless of where you book, call and ask about the dress code before you get there. Some of these place are pretty high-end, and you will probably just feel like an ass if you stroll-in wearing your ROOTS sweatshirt and jeans.

Recommend:

Arabelle at the Hotel Plaza Athenee: wonderful modern american cusine in a very opulent, quiet environment. Did a great RW there.
Aquavit: great fish, but i've done RW there, and the fish they give to the prix-fixe is pretty disgusting compared to normal.
Artisanal: full of cheese, informal atmosphere, and heavy french-inspired food, but never did RW.
Barbetta Restaurant: decent southern italian, but you really go to be among the super rich, old-money clientele.
Le Cirque: yummy northern italian ingredients-americanized food, but never did RW.
Nobu: yummy japanese, but never did RW.
Payard: good french, cozy atmosphere, never did RW there.
Petrossian: russian: never went, but heard good things.
San Domenico: good northern italian, but never did RW there.
Smith & Wollensky: the famous. go for it. Never ate there, but it's a steakouse (for your non-meaty friend).
Thalia: grody location, but good food, very busy atmosphere, less formal. Did RW there, still good.
ViceVersa: located in "little paris", but very good northern italian. this was one of my local, lowkey mainstays in NYC. Have done RW there, also good.

The rest of the list is filled with a lot of crappy, dirty, overpriced, crowded restaurants: Bice, Brasserie & Brasserie 81/2, Cafe Fiorello, Pigalle, Ruby Foo, Redeye; and whatever you may think, Tavern on the Green is teh suck.
posted by naxosaxur at 11:01 AM on December 29, 2006

Places I've been for RW:

One if by Land: Great food in a beautiful setting (lots of people propose there). I liked the prix fixe items but caught myself wanting some regular menu items more.

San Domenico: Good, with very old-school atmosphere. It's been there forever. The lunch RW selections were very good, especially the branzino ravioli. Older Italians I've known have been big fans of this places.

Places I've been, but not for RW:

Artisanal: Great if you like meat and cheese, which I do. Very careful preparations.

Nobu: Wonderful, but I had the seven-course omakase menu for a special treat. No idea what they would do for RW.

Alfama: Very good, but may be a problem if you don't like cod. Seriously, you should be in the mood for seafood and especially salt cod.

Barolo: Beautiful space, I don't really remember how the food was.

Cafe des Artistes: Another very old-school spot, with traditional French and American dishes.

Cub Room: Used to be good, but apparently is now awful. Went there for Valentine's (yeah, I know) and the food was just revolting. It's too bad, I used to like the place.

Trattoria dell'Arte: Not a "serious" restaurant, but a fun place with good food in huge portions.

Spice Market: Didn't understand what all the fuss was about. Fine, nothing special. My whole group agreed.

Union Square Cafe: Still truckin' after all these years--nice service, good food, nice space.
posted by lackutrol at 11:36 AM on December 29, 2006

Eleven Madison Park, hands down. I've been to many of the restaurants listed and I've had a truly phenomenal experience at Eleven Madison Park. Only my opinion, but...

Artisnal is fantastic if you enjoy cheeses, I recommend their blue cheese, the one that comes with the warning. (Ask the waiter, he'll point it out. Gives you a mild buzz.) Has a nice bistro feel to it.

I think the best thing about the Restaurant Week is the lunch specials at restaurants like Del Posto that are impossibly hard to get into for dinner, too expensive, etc. It's a nice way to sample the food and atmosphere before you go there for dinner and blow a ton of cash.
posted by np312 at 5:59 PM on December 29, 2006

Devi was a *great* deal the last restaurant week dinner I had there-- you got to choose an appetizer, entree and dessert from their full menu, which meant that the $35 was potentially a huge bargain. The food there is very good, and I love the atmosphere. I might book it myself, actually...
Everywhere else I've been for restaurant week hasn't been worth it-- the food cost about the same that it would going there normally, you just have a much smaller selection.
I can't believe Spice Market is doing restaurant week-- are they no longer hip?
posted by ch1x0r at 9:20 PM on December 29, 2006

It's a little alarming to me how many of the restaurants on this list I've been to.

I second the concerns of the anti-restaurant-week folks. Places known for their celebrity chefs and/or the amount of labor that goes into their food - one-off or flagship joints run by auteurs, where peekytoe crab foam sculptures could be a no-irony entry on the appetizer list - are not going to show you their best work for $35. In that case, why go at all?

I notice that all of the B.R. Guest restaurants are on the list. These restaurants are the opposite - they're run like businesses, and the object is to please the customer. They look at restaurant week as an advertising opportunity and they won't send someone away unhappy. I don't much care for their Italian - you can trip over the curb and fall into better Italian food in NYC - but their seafood restaurants are great; my favorite is the Blue Water Grill, which is in a really beautiful old bank building down in the Village. It's probably where I'd go. (I racked up more total visits to their Ocean Grill on 79th, but that's because I lived only a 10 minute walk from there.)

Other restaurants on the list I've loved include Artisanal, Calle Ocho, City Crab, Mr. K's, the Gramercy Tavern, Petrossian, and Rain. Of those, you can get in and out of Calle Ocho, City Crab and Rain with an appetizer and entree for not much more than what they're charging you anyway, so it's not what you'd call a bargain. And if you're going to Petrossian, you should be thinking about spending $350, not $35.

Of the 23 steakhouses I recognized on the list, I have been to 19. I would not go to a steakhouse during RW; it just doesn't seem like the thing. If you have to, Smith and Wollensky is probably my favorite of those listed; they get it right every time and it's a fabulous old building. Martinis the size of bathtubs.

However, still on the steakhouse tip, if you guys drink wine, the Cite Grill at one time was serving free wine with dinner until 8 PM. Good wine, too, not swill. If that deal is on during RW - well, now we're talking. And they always have a bit of fish and bird on the menu for the non-beefeaters.

Have fun - wish I was coming with you!
posted by ikkyu2 at 1:49 AM on December 31, 2006

A couple of other things that spring to mind - talking about NYC restaurants was second only to eating at them, as a pastime when I lived there -

I used to book a late reservation at Le Cirque just for dessert, which was a lemon souffle, served dangerously hot from the oven, and broken at the table by the waiter who would ladle raspberry syrup onto and into it. Gives the eternal lie to those who claim dessert must involve chocolate, and not particularly expensive either. The place is fairly dressy.

City Crab is misnamed. They are always out of fucking crabs. But they are a decent seafood restaurant, if a bit of a warehouse. If you want to dine at 5:30 pm you have a chance that the guy will scrape the bottom of the tank and find a laggard, tiny, one-clawed crab that was somehow overlooked. 5:45? Forget about it. This has annoyed me so many times that I felt like mentioning it here.
posted by ikkyu2 at 1:59 AM on December 31, 2006

Well hell. I see Le Cirque took the lemon souffle off the menu when they brought that damned celebrity chef in and renovated the place. So much for forward progress. I'm sure the chocolate souffle is edible.
posted by ikkyu2 at 2:09 AM on December 31, 2006