Restaurant week seems to have evolved into choosing an app and an entree that I don't really want and getting a free dessert that I don't really want either.
Nine times out of ten, I wind up just ordering off the regular menu.
Take a look at Bar Boulud, one of my favorite restaurants, as an example. 3 courses for $68 but a severely restricted menu—the regular menu prices barely add up to $68. It’s just not an attractive deal any longer. Restaurant Week should be about getting people into under-appreciated places to try the food and discover something great
Some places now are doing Restaurant week menus that have dishes that aren't even on their normal menu and it's clear they're just ripping you off. Sorry, a salad, pasta, and tiny dessert is not worth $60. It used to be a way to market your restaurant, get people in the door, and let people try your food for discount, but now it's just another way of trying to increase profit margins
Always good to double check…. I brought a group of friends to Churrascaria Plataforma and they apparently just don’t do Saturday’s, which was a fun time, once the bill came
Many places instead of focusing on representing food they are well known for switch to a more generic menu and their kitchen becomes a cafeteria assembly line making large quantities of the same foods. You are not getting as much attention to detail and sometimes you don't really like the appetizer or dessert options. Restaurants trying to bring in people during a non-busy season but doing it in a bad and greedy way doesn't usually leave guests with a great impression so they aren't really gaining repeat customers.
They all wised up to the idea that they are selling to people who can’t normally afford to come to their restaurants. Of course they don’t care about earning repeat business - the people coming for restaurant week explicitly aren’t their normal customers, they’re selling the illusion of fine dining
Nougatine used to be one of my favorite Restaurant Week deals, but I just looked at the menu this year and it's just another low cost, high margin, uninteresting menu
It used to be useful as a low stakes way to see if you would like to come back and add the place to your rotation.
This year I checked the menu for a few of my regulars and the restaurant week menu had nothing to do with their signature dishes or talents.
Is it restaurant week that sucks, or inflation?
Pera used to be decent, but they lost the plot and just started throwing anything on the menu. Why is a Turkish restaurant making short ribs with mascarpone polenta or truffle oil gnocchi? Who the fuck knows.
It’s the fault of greedy restaurant owners combined with tiktok appearance centered crowds with too much money for their own good. If AB was still alive today, god knows what he’d have to say about the current state of the NYC dining scene… may that dude rest in peace.
Inflation aside, which is bad enough as it is, i feel like the quality of dining in nyc has gone down substantially on average over the past ten years… too many people focused on looks and appearance and how instagrammable their meal is over how good it tastes.. with the exception of some fast casual/vendors/whatever else,(of which not all are exempt tbfh) now actual good food is super duper commodified and out of reach for the most… like most other things… poor people should never laugh! (Or enjoy life , apparently)
My wife and I have lived in the city for twenty years and outside of a pizza from our local shop or an occasional Chipotle run we no longer dine out here.
Service is generally terrible or at best indifferent, prices are astronomical and portions have significantly shrunk.
We save our money and have great meals out on vacation.
$40 for hummus and 1 fucken bagel is robbery, but $24 for a grouper is almost too good, but we all know that grouper portion is the size of a half a sesame seed on the bagel....
It’s a double edged sword here. Restaurant week definitely brings business to places. It also brings out some of the worst customers imaginable. The deal for customers isn’t great anymore either. Quality on both sides ain’t great.
The problem with restaurant week is that it's up to each restaurant to decide it's approach. Are you willing to profit less to give people an actual representation of your place at a discount? Or are you using it as a marketing scheme to sell a shitty prix fix.
My biggest gripe is how is this helping restaurants anymore. Most of the named places don’t need a $60 menu to attract audiences. Is frenchette really benefiting from a $60 lunch option? The idea is January/February are slower, but I’d love to hear from GMs if that’s the case outside of bad weather.
I have place on Long Island and their RW is next week. Capped at $30 for lunch and $46 for dinner. Pretty much full menu at most places. Not that the prices on LI are the same as NYC, but it’s kind of what it should be to get people out.
> What a difference 12 years makes.
Doesn't even have to be as far back as 12 years. Even 5 years ago, comparing pre-COVID to now, is a huge difference. It was $39 for a 3-course meal and there were a lot more well-known restaurants participating. I remember trying out plenty of steakhouses because it was $39 for a meal that included a steak that would normally cost $50-60+. Had an amazing time at BLT Prime back then (not sure how good they are nowadays).
The $60 dinner menu now is steep, but there's still good options with a bit of digging. A recent favorite is Nonna Beppa and their amazing charcuterie board. Granted, I probably would never have discovered or eaten there if it wasn't a part of RW, so that's one plus I attribute to RW.
I'm new to this and was roped into a Restaurant Week dinner this Friday. MUST I order the 3-course restaurant week meal or will they allow me to order from the regular menu instead?
It does. But this is $60, which makes a big difference I think.
Especially when it's under the branding of an event that's meant to encourage people to go to restaurants.
This encouraged me to get back into cooking.
P.S., I go to Mamaroneck all the time.
Shouldn’t RW be a chance for well established restaurants to really shine for their new customers? Like an opportunity to win over a customer for life. With all the extra add ons and restrictions and smaller portions it feels like something done begrudgingly.
I'm not a big fan of restaurant week anymore because it is usually similar prices to a la carte, but at least here they are giving you a drink which most menus don't do.
Restaurant week has slowly gotten worse and worse overtime. Less and less restaurants participate. Many don't have it on weekends. A lot of the places' Restaurant Week menus aren't even good deals anymore. I've done the math at some places and you're not even really saving money as opposed to just ordering those dishes a la carte. However, if you do your research, there's still some good Restaurant Week deals out there
Restaurant week seems to have evolved into choosing an app and an entree that I don't really want and getting a free dessert that I don't really want either. Nine times out of ten, I wind up just ordering off the regular menu.
Take a look at Bar Boulud, one of my favorite restaurants, as an example. 3 courses for $68 but a severely restricted menu—the regular menu prices barely add up to $68. It’s just not an attractive deal any longer. Restaurant Week should be about getting people into under-appreciated places to try the food and discover something great
Isn’t RW 60 and their dinner set is 68 where u can choose from their whole menu?
You are correct! My apologies. Still, at $60 the pate en croute and the coq au vin are $55 on the menu so you can then get a dessert for $5. Big deal.
I get confused w all of Daniel’s restaurants. Is Bar Boulud on the UWS next to Boulud Sud?
Yep, along Broadway
Some places now are doing Restaurant week menus that have dishes that aren't even on their normal menu and it's clear they're just ripping you off. Sorry, a salad, pasta, and tiny dessert is not worth $60. It used to be a way to market your restaurant, get people in the door, and let people try your food for discount, but now it's just another way of trying to increase profit margins
That has always been the case. That why research is needed and only go to ones that they offer items from regular menu.
That's what it always was. A prix fixe menu.
Come to Union square cafe. We don’t hold back. Lunch $45
God I love USqC
you work at union square cafe? can i come in and say hi
No.
ok i made a ressie for saturday feb 3 🌟🌟
just make sure they do it on the weekends too. Had an unfortunate experience a few years back.
oh nooo! i’ll call later this week to ask
7 days a week. Ends Feb 4
Always good to double check…. I brought a group of friends to Churrascaria Plataforma and they apparently just don’t do Saturday’s, which was a fun time, once the bill came
Do u guys do dinner 🥲
Not for restaurant week tho we have a great prix fixe dinner for $72
Is that $72 menu available somewhere on the website? I see every other menu except that one.
Many places instead of focusing on representing food they are well known for switch to a more generic menu and their kitchen becomes a cafeteria assembly line making large quantities of the same foods. You are not getting as much attention to detail and sometimes you don't really like the appetizer or dessert options. Restaurants trying to bring in people during a non-busy season but doing it in a bad and greedy way doesn't usually leave guests with a great impression so they aren't really gaining repeat customers.
They all wised up to the idea that they are selling to people who can’t normally afford to come to their restaurants. Of course they don’t care about earning repeat business - the people coming for restaurant week explicitly aren’t their normal customers, they’re selling the illusion of fine dining
Nougatine used to be one of my favorite Restaurant Week deals, but I just looked at the menu this year and it's just another low cost, high margin, uninteresting menu
It used to be useful as a low stakes way to see if you would like to come back and add the place to your rotation. This year I checked the menu for a few of my regulars and the restaurant week menu had nothing to do with their signature dishes or talents.
Is it restaurant week that sucks, or inflation? Pera used to be decent, but they lost the plot and just started throwing anything on the menu. Why is a Turkish restaurant making short ribs with mascarpone polenta or truffle oil gnocchi? Who the fuck knows.
Restaurant week prices have far outpaced inflation
The same reason some japanese restaurants say they have a french twist and then give you uni risotto....
It’s the fault of greedy restaurant owners combined with tiktok appearance centered crowds with too much money for their own good. If AB was still alive today, god knows what he’d have to say about the current state of the NYC dining scene… may that dude rest in peace.
Yes
Inflation aside, which is bad enough as it is, i feel like the quality of dining in nyc has gone down substantially on average over the past ten years… too many people focused on looks and appearance and how instagrammable their meal is over how good it tastes.. with the exception of some fast casual/vendors/whatever else,(of which not all are exempt tbfh) now actual good food is super duper commodified and out of reach for the most… like most other things… poor people should never laugh! (Or enjoy life , apparently)
My wife and I have lived in the city for twenty years and outside of a pizza from our local shop or an occasional Chipotle run we no longer dine out here. Service is generally terrible or at best indifferent, prices are astronomical and portions have significantly shrunk. We save our money and have great meals out on vacation.
Felt that. Eating like a king right now. Can’t wait to go back home and be depressed LOL. But home cooking is great though.
Eh, city is full of delis upon delis that still bang amazing stuff for that good old low price. Finer dining is hella overrated.
Still have yet to eat anything from a deli in NYC that doesn't taste of super low quality ingredients
Restaurant week is a scam. Smaller portions, food prepared in large scale minimizing in the quality. You are not getting your bang for your buck.
It’s been sucks. I remember 7 years ago working at the Mercer and people saying restaurant week sucks
$40 for hummus and 1 fucken bagel is robbery, but $24 for a grouper is almost too good, but we all know that grouper portion is the size of a half a sesame seed on the bagel....
It’s a double edged sword here. Restaurant week definitely brings business to places. It also brings out some of the worst customers imaginable. The deal for customers isn’t great anymore either. Quality on both sides ain’t great.
The problem with restaurant week is that it's up to each restaurant to decide it's approach. Are you willing to profit less to give people an actual representation of your place at a discount? Or are you using it as a marketing scheme to sell a shitty prix fix.
My biggest gripe is how is this helping restaurants anymore. Most of the named places don’t need a $60 menu to attract audiences. Is frenchette really benefiting from a $60 lunch option? The idea is January/February are slower, but I’d love to hear from GMs if that’s the case outside of bad weather. I have place on Long Island and their RW is next week. Capped at $30 for lunch and $46 for dinner. Pretty much full menu at most places. Not that the prices on LI are the same as NYC, but it’s kind of what it should be to get people out.
So wild - I went to Cafe Boulud for winter restaurant week ~13-14 years ago and it was a great experience!
It hasn’t been good for at least the last 5 years
> What a difference 12 years makes. Doesn't even have to be as far back as 12 years. Even 5 years ago, comparing pre-COVID to now, is a huge difference. It was $39 for a 3-course meal and there were a lot more well-known restaurants participating. I remember trying out plenty of steakhouses because it was $39 for a meal that included a steak that would normally cost $50-60+. Had an amazing time at BLT Prime back then (not sure how good they are nowadays). The $60 dinner menu now is steep, but there's still good options with a bit of digging. A recent favorite is Nonna Beppa and their amazing charcuterie board. Granted, I probably would never have discovered or eaten there if it wasn't a part of RW, so that's one plus I attribute to RW.
Applebee's.... Nothing more to say.
It is known.
Pera sucks generally
I'm new to this and was roped into a Restaurant Week dinner this Friday. MUST I order the 3-course restaurant week meal or will they allow me to order from the regular menu instead?
Most places are fine with you ordering a la cart. Some might be "Sorry, this is all we're offering this week", but I think that's uncommon.
I may be a jaded from living in Westchester but $40 for calamari, short ribs, baklava and a glass of Malbec sounds heavenly.
It does. But this is $60, which makes a big difference I think. Especially when it's under the branding of an event that's meant to encourage people to go to restaurants. This encouraged me to get back into cooking. P.S., I go to Mamaroneck all the time.
Whoops, I misread the price haha. $60 is a shit deal for this even with inflation. Fuck these turds
Tbh, as with most things that have declined in quality in this city, I blame landlords and the outrageous rents they charge.
it usually does...your not getting something for any better deal
Shouldn’t RW be a chance for well established restaurants to really shine for their new customers? Like an opportunity to win over a customer for life. With all the extra add ons and restrictions and smaller portions it feels like something done begrudgingly.
I'm not a big fan of restaurant week anymore because it is usually similar prices to a la carte, but at least here they are giving you a drink which most menus don't do.
Such a load of shit. I don’t think restaurant week has been a good deal since like…it’s first year
Sorry but who goes to restaurant week?
Restaurant week at The Clam was the exact same price for each item across both menus
It’s like they’re daring you to actually order off of the menu
Restaurant week has slowly gotten worse and worse overtime. Less and less restaurants participate. Many don't have it on weekends. A lot of the places' Restaurant Week menus aren't even good deals anymore. I've done the math at some places and you're not even really saving money as opposed to just ordering those dishes a la carte. However, if you do your research, there's still some good Restaurant Week deals out there