Results tagged “restaurant week”

Another D.C. Restaurant Week is upon us. Three course lunches and dinners are on offer for $20.09 and $35.09, respectively. It’s an event that’s either loved or loathed by dining out enthusiasts. Restaurants cling to the promotion as way to get butts in seats during the peak of the slow season. Some diners are grateful for the bargains and excuse to try somewhere new, while RW haters out there feel rather strongly about their amateur hour complaints.

Dish of the Week: Strip club dining

    

Last winter, four co-workers canceled on me for Restaurant Week lunch in the course of one morning. Instead of moping and microwaving some soup, I headed to TenPenh’s bar, just steps from my office, for lunch on my own. This Restaurant Week, I’ve reveled in the art of solo midday meals. Reservations, coordination, and flaky friends are not needed. Free seats at the bar are almost always plentiful, though last week, I could have also had my pick of tables. I found several empty seats at most every dining room I visited—perhaps a function of the stumbling economy—regardless of what OpenTable had to say. Show up after 1 or 1:30, especially at a larger dining room, and you’ll likely never have a problem getting seated anywhere you'd like.

     

The Washington dining scene is known more for its glut of tapas than its pan Asian cuisine. But tapas and pan Asian restaurants are similar in some ways: The best examples are inventive and exciting, and the worst are watered down and overpriced. If you tend to be a purist, pan Asian cuisine can seem rather unnecessary. Why pay more to have all your favorite Japanese, Thai, and Chinese flavors muddled together on a plate? In the wrong hands, it can be a disaster. But, in the spirit of Restaurant Week adventure, I decided to give pan Asian a chance and booked dinner at TenPenh.

Love it or hate it, it's officially Restaurant Week. Participating restaurants are offering dinner for $35.09 and lunch for a recession-friendly $20.09. If you haven't booked your reservations, there's still time to do your civic duty and stimulate the economy. A number of choice spots will be extending their menus into next week or for the rest of the month. Check out DC Foodies for a complete list.

Too cheap to go all out for Valentine's Day? The first DC Restaurant Week of 2009 will be February 16-22, potentially giving you a shot at a cost-effective, if slightly late, Valentine's. The list of participating restaurants is available on OpenTable. You can check out some of our previous Restaurant Week experiences. Be sure to book early, as reservations at the best places go quickly.

Washington area restaurants will offer what amounts to a November restaurant week from November 17-21. The promotion, restaurant reservation website OpenTable.com’s Appetite Stimulus Plan, includes 3-course fixed price menus—$24 for lunch and $35 for dinner—from over 75 Washington area restaurants.

Not ever having had the luxury of taking anyone to an expense account meal at Taberna Del Alabardero—and having failed on more than one occasion to convince my boss that he should take our staff there for a holiday party or birthday celebration—I chose the Old-World Spanish cuisine restaurant for last week's Restaurant Week pilgrimage. Taking almuerzo there Sunday was a decision that proved delightful at nearly every turn, from the grinning, attentive service to three inspired, perfectly executed courses.

      

Three or five? This is the question you'll be asking yourself if you have reservations at Vidalia this week. In addition to the standard three course dinner for $35.08, Vidalia is also offering five courses for $50.08--and no upcharges. That is a mere $10 a course for a restaurant that normally charges $15 for starters and $30 for entrees. However, a Restaurant Week deal is only as good as the menu the restaurant elects to serve. Sometimes, you get what you pay for. In Vidalia's case, you get much more.

    

Restaurant Week at Oyamel is a loud, crowded, and chaotic affair. On Tuesday night, the tables were full and the waitstaff already looked haggard at 7 p.m. Our waitress's explanation of the Restaurant Week menu was barely audible over the din; luckily, the instructions are also printed at the top of the menu. For $35.08, diners can choose three "antojito" (Mexican-style tapas) courses, one taco, and dessert. The selection is decent - each antojito course has four options, plus four types of tacos and two desserts.

      

Restaurant Week is risky business. In order to secure a spot at the best restaurants during the prime 7 p.m. dinner hour, you'll have to book two to three weeks in advance. But even the most careful planning and meticulous research will not guarantee a perfect meal. Like the best things in life, Restaurant Week is high risk, high reward. Which is to say, when it's good, it's really good; and when it's bad, it's really bad.

Where: Columbia Heights

As of yet, we haven’t heard of any last minute reprieves for Dr. Dremo’s, which plans to close its doors in the early hours Sunday morning. So come 2 a.m, you’re done downing your last ale in your favorite chair or stool next to that weird kitschy decoration you’ve always liked. But you can come back one last time, on Monday night at 7 p.m., for a chance to take your own piece of Dr. Dremo’s home with you. On the auction block are 12 pool tables, kitchen equipment, general restaurant supplies, 200-gallon stainless steel beer tanks and even the totem pole. “Most of this stuff is going in the dumpster if no one buys it," manager Bill Stewart told Washingtonian. The bar’s beer tap handles, copper-topped tables, and original brewing tanks are among the few things that are not for sale.

It happens twice a year. Whether you love it or hate it, it's the Restaurant Week breakdown. Who brought it out like a champ, and who deserves the title of chump?

Another D.C. Restaurant Week has come and gone. As much as we like to complain about over-crowded restaurants with “dumbed down” menus, there is still a part of us that finds it alluring, so we still take the opportunity to see what restaurants have to offer. Among the places we ventured out to, there were some hits and a few misses. One place that really hit the right notes with us was Viridian in Logan...

Written by DCist contributor Claire Compton Like the classic summer fling, Restaurant Week has officially left us, leaving us with a bittersweet mix of emotions. The lucky ones are gushing about that new restaurant they discovered and how they were wooed with an impossibly fantastic meal that didn't drain their wallet. Others weren't so lucky. They began the week with a wide-eyed idealism, believing this meal was going to be the one, only to be...

We DCists and our readers have tested a pretty wide selection of this summer's Restaurant Week participants, and we've come to a conclusion: Restaurant Week is at once awesome and disappointing. In sum, Washington's Restaurant Week is a two-faced Janus bastard. In order to have a good restaurant week experience, one must put in a little work. There are restaurants who do RW that are worth a visit, those that completely phone it in, and...

As far as I know, I am the only DCist Food and Drink staffer who does not have Restaurant Week reservations. It wasn't because I forgot or because I signed up too late to score a reservation to my preferred destinations. Unlike Adam, I am not a big fan of Restaurant Week, and it was a conscious decision to skip out on what might be considered prime time dining for a cheapskate like me. First...

As we've told you already, it's Restaurant Week here in Washington, which means those of us left in town can eat three course meals at some of the best restaurants around for $20.07 at lunch and $30.07 at dinner. As a Restaurant Week proponent, I view this unofficial dining holiday as a chance to try out places I've never been, and think restaurateurs should use the time as an opportunity to reach out to people...

Last Chance for A.V. Sad, we know. Get it before it becomes a half-empty office building. Restaurant Week Starts August 6 There are a few good things about Washington in August. First, it's so damned hot and soupy that there are about 100 times fewer tourists. Second, Congress leaves town and tons of governmental types take vacation, so town slows down considerably, leaving rush hour slightly less enraging. Third, it's when the summer version of...

By Amanda and Ben Page

Restaurant Week is becoming the must have fashion accessory for the D.C. area this winter. Everyone’s got to have one.

We here at DCist wonder why they schedule Restaurant Week immediately after the Thanksgiving-Hanukah- Christmas-Kwanzaa season of fat-assedness. It's like D.C.'s restaurant community is our collective grandma: "Washington! My God, you look so gaunt! What in the world are they feeding you? It's high time you started having three course dinners after three course lunches. I mean you're rail thin! Look, your pants are hanging off of you." No Grandma, the pants are saggy because we had to "upgrade" to the relaxed version from the husky section.

With Restaurant Week over, we need another excuse to celebrate. And why not Clinton’s big 6-0? Since he's not too keen on turning the "new 40," we have a duty to live it up for him. DCist proposes a Bill Clinton restaurant crawl on which we'll visit his regular D.C. haunts. Lucky for us, his taste for greasy, down-home grub means we won't need to book many reservations through Open Table.

Unless you've been living under the ground next to an aromatic truffle, you know that Restaurant Week is in full swing across the Washington area. If you have been living next to that truffle, Restaurant Week comes twice a year during traditionally quiet dining seasons and lures potential diners into restaurants with $20.06 three-course meals for lunch and $30.06 three-course meals for dinner. According to the word on the street, this Restaurant Week is a cap on a surprisingly busy summer season for many restaurateurs in D.C.

Inside the House is a DCist feature offering an insider's view of fine dining issues by the hostess at a D.C. restaurant. Her views are strictly her own and do not in any way represent her employer. Monday kicks off Restaurant Week, the biannual promotion when participating restaurants offer three-course lunch and dinner menus for $20 and $30, respectively. Is it a good deal, considering that most participating eateries normally charge around $30 for an...

If Washington seems a little more chatty today, it might be that the results of yesterday's primaries are finally starting to sink in. In the day's biggest race, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), lost to novice Ned Lamont, while Rep. Cynthia McKinney again lost her seat in a runoff election in Georgia. We're of varying opinions on the Lieberman loss, but we can say this much -- please Cynthia, don't go. Pull a Tom DeLay and move to Virginia. We could use the entertainment.

I want to love Charlie Palmer Steak. The restaurant's absolutely genial namesake chef is responsible for several outstanding restaurants around the country -- among them the Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg, Calif. and Aureole in New York City and Las Vegas. Young executive chef Bryan Voltaggio is a tremendous talent whose kitchen turns out consistently tasty, season-conscious, non-traditional steakhouse fare. The main dining room offers a stunning view of the Capitol. Not only is its all-American wine list among the very best in town, the spot doesn't charge a corkage fee if you bring in an American wine. And Charlie Palmer Steak is one of the few high-end D.C. restaurants that features a Restaurant Week-style promotion year-round with its three-course lunch menu for $20.06.

Just when we need encouragement to brave the oppressive evening air and go out among the living this summer, instead of ordering bad Chinese takeout again from the comfort of our air-conditioned sofas, along comes the Restaurant Week parade. There is not one, not two, but three chances to get out there in the next month or so and test drive that swanky new place you’ve always wanted to try or the neighborhood favorite you haven’t checked out yet.

We of DCist Food are taking it easy (or at least easier) on the extra-rich, cream-laden, beautifully presented food over the next several days. It seems our epicurean slutiness has come to an end. Let's face it: a week of three-coursing it at D.C.'s best restaurants is a high-speed merge onto the fat-ass freeway. But reminiscing about the best and worst is calorie-free, so here's our chance (and yours) to give a rundown.