Restaurant Week Winter 2013

[culprit]

Just looked at the list--didn't see any of the usual "top" restaurants even offering a RW special. Only ONE option in Brooklyn. Wondering if it's even worth bothering with?

[bruce3404]

Thanks for the report on Riverpark, City Kid. Going there on Friday. What dishes were you able to taste?

[City Kid]

Hi Bruce, re. Riverpark: excellent mini baguettes; for a starter I had the fluke crudo and tartare; entree, the steamed branzino romanesco; dessert, panna cotta. Everything was delicious, regular, sizable portions, and service was first-rate. Very relaxed dining and lovely ambiance. I hope you enjoy it! BTW: none of the items I ordered had a surcharge.

[tastehub]

Well, with all the good recs for RW, I just decided to feast at the bar tomorrow due to no tables being available. See ya there.

[City Kid]

To repeat my post on a similar thread:
A great RW dinner at Riverpark last Friday and another at Park Avenue Winter last night. Both had great options (Riverpark was the regular menu with surcharges for some items), generous portions, and excellent, unrushed service. Smart marketing geared to both developing new business AND encouraging people to return by offering a lovely dining experience. I will return to both.

[trav]

2013 RW lunches at Maialino and Boulud Sud were very good and dinner at SD26 was an enjoyable surprise.

[bombadilio]

I can't decide earlier, it seems all the good options deal with Lunch. Then when you go to dinner to spend $38 a person the menu choices seem sub par. For Example, why would I go to Sushi Samba for dinner when the savings are minimal. Tao seems great, but their usual lunch deal is better than what they offer on restaurant week. Then there is Strip House and 21 club. Strip house is only lunch and 21club has the same thing for lunch or dinner, why go for dinner and spend $15 more if it's the same?

Choices, and I can't decide.

[smilingal]

I'm excited to try Lincoln for lunch - and Duo for an evening.
Any comments on Duo?

[bruce3404]

Now that I've had a chance to peruse the list and make some reservations, I'm quite pleased with what's available. I visit NYC annually in January and have been enjoying RW for five years. Since I only live in the city a month per year, my general approach is to use previous experience with restaurants, followed by Zagat food ratings (I don't care as much about atmosphere and average service is OK), followed by reviewing the menus. Too often, excellent restaurants have very uninspiring RW menus. In general, if I haven't been there and the food doesn't rate 25 or better on Zagat, I take a pass, with a few exceptions. Unfair perhaps, but one only has so much time. I also tend to take a pass on certain ethnic foods that I know I can do better on by simply hopping on the #7. I was able to make 11 reservations and hadn't even reach the "O's" yet. Maybe I'll have to work backwards next year. Anyways, I'll be happy to eat at Riverpark (twice), Nougatine, Cafe Boulud, Ouest, Carlyle, Circo, L'Ecole, Ai Fiori, Il Mulino and Ruth's Chris (they don't have one where I live, and we had a great lunch there last year).

[kosmose7]

With limited number of decent restaurants (and even most of them offer repeated menu every year), I don't pay attention to that event any longer.

[H Manning]

Even if the most formal restaurants aren't participating there are still a lot of very good ones on the list, such as:

Maialino
Cafe Boulud
Boulud Sud
Lincoln
Ai Fiori
A Voce
Junoon
Leopard

[bruce3404]

Certainly not as easy as it once was when more restaurants were involved. There are still some excellent choices, though in some cases the price differential between RW and any other time is minimal. Good examples would be Riverpark with a $3 savings on the prix fixe and Nougatine with a $7 savings. I'm sure there are many others.

[City Kid]

I've had 2 RW dinners at Riverpark and they have been among the best I've experienced, RW or non. Are the pre-fixe examples you give for lunch only or are there pre-fixe dinner menus that I'm not aware of? Also like Park Avenue Winter.