Oh I love food, don’t get me wrong! I love to cook, I love to eat out, and I love going to nice dinners. But I generally only go to the really nice/expensive places for special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries. I actually just went out to a nice place with my fiance(congrats btw brotha! haha) and we got an appetizer, two main dishes and dessert for $55. I was stuffed and we had leftovers. We were also able to choose from the whole menu and weren’t limited to certain dishes. I think RW may be a better deal though at the really top end restaurants but for the others, not so much.

It’s interesting you bring this up because the one thing I really splurge on. I love eating out, it’s always a great time with my fiance and I feel like it’s a good reward for all the hard work I put in to work and side projects.

In terms of restaurant week, it really depends on the place. Sure they kinda rope you into getting a multi-course meal that you wouldn’t normally get but overall the food is much cheaper and if you pick a particularly expensive place to go to you can get a great deal.

Yes, I felt bad going to Ruth’s Chris since we have good local places. But only until they brought out the steak and I bit into it

That’s a very good point. Since most of these nice places you really only go to once a year you might as well do it during RW and save yourself some coin.

No matter how much money I have though, I don’t know how often I’d be able to go out to a fancy dinner and pay $150 when I could cook a great dinner myself for two people for $20.

Nice that’s a good use of RW, although Ruth Chris isn’t local and independent But it is damn good! Sounds like you’ve done your HW and had good experiences. I think that was my problem the first couple times around. The last place I went to I researched carefully and the food was awesome and it was also a great deal.

Thanks for the b-day wishes! I went to Donovan a few years back so my memory is a little hazy but I do remember they had good food and excellent service. Really good warm bread too haha, oh the little things. But I think we haven’t gone back since it is more expensive than other steak houses.

Nowadays, we usually go to Ruth Chris if we want a really good steak and they usually have some type of 3 course meal for around $45 each, I get the ribeye. Yum ok I’m hungry now, time to get some lunch.

Restaurant week is a pretty good deal where I live, probably because it’s a small city with culinary schools, so the restaurant scene is fairly competitive. I use it to try out highly recommended places I normally can’t afford; it tends to be halfway between what I would usually choose to spend on dinner out and what those places actually cost, so I would NEVER go to one of those places full price! (A couple places also tend to offer the same restaurant week menu 2 for $30 for lunch, so that’s actually quite a good deal, and a couple have year-round fix price menus, which is a nice option.) I always research the limited menus of the places I’m thinking of going and don’t go if it looks boring or like they’re trying hard to same money.

I guess it’s the usual – comparison shop, don’t buy what you don’t want, and it works out.

I live in the Raleigh/Durham area of NC, and I use RW as an opportunity to treat myself to restaurants I can’t usually afford. We have TONS of local and independent places that are normally out of price range!

Ruth’s Chris is always a good deal here – the petite filet by itself is more than $30 on their regular menu. Other options around this are include several great seafood restaurants and a Brazilian steakhouse. You have to carefully select the restaurants or it isn’t a good deal, but overall, I’ve been pretty happy with RW.

I went to Donovan’s last week for RW – I had a great experience because the food was delicious and not overly fancy (we looked at Burlap’s menu and couldn’t even decipher what the main entrees were), and the staff were so nice. I never understood why they were so expensive, but after trying out the steak I can understand why (though it’s still pricey). To avoid crowds it helps to go during the week and early – we made reservations around 6 on Wednesday and the main crowd didn’t come in until 8ish. Happy Belated Birthday!

Nice, that sounds like a good deal. I wouldn’t mind spending the money if it was a quality restaurant and they opened up the entire menu. And anytime you can get 50% off, I’d say it’s probably worth it!

Btw, my favorite SD restaurant week deal is at Wine Vault in Mission Hills. It’s $20 for a 3 course meal and you can do a wine pairing for $20 too. So 3 courses and 3 wines And the best part is that they do an extended restaurant week so you may be able to still try them out this week when the crowds have died down a bit.

Long time reader, first time caller. I have gone to a couple RW restaurants in downtown SD this time around, and some are doing pretty well in getting me to come back again. One option ($30 option)opened up their entire menu for an appetizer, entree, and dessert/speciality cocktail, a dinner that would normally cost ~$50-60 a person. Hoping to see more like this in the future. I do agree that RW should be about what you should expect to find on the menu the next time you come back rather than special dishes (that aren’t so special, as with your mac and cheese example) catered to special events.

Wow that’s very nice of you and a great idea too. I’ve only been to KC once but they have some great food and I like that open downtown area with all those great restaurants and bars.