Lunch is your best bet for Restaurant Week. Dinner isn't great at 95% of places.

David Burke Kitchen is decent value. Telepan is great value. ABC Kitchen/Cocina is decent value. Haven't been to any others I've found to be good but I imagine some steakhouses are.

*1000

You have the link for the comprehensive list ?

Lunch can often be a better option all around. For example, the lunch tasting menu at Bouley is probably one of the best fine-dining values in the city ($55 for five courses plus amuse bouche, bread cart, petits fours and take home gift).

http://www.nycgo.com/restaurant-week

There are filters, so it's not too terrible to use.


Woah, thanks! That looks awesome. Just booked a reservation for a belated Valentine's Day lunch.


Yeah, it's tough to align schedules for lunch, but a good portion of the restaurants offer the lunch menu on Sunday. So I'll probably do the lunches on the 2 sundays and then a Friday night dinner at DB.

I used to live in Stamford, where the Restaurant weeks had $13 prix fixe lunch and $25 dinners. Those were the days. $38 per person gets pretty pricey, since tip, tax and a glass of wine each brings the total to +$120 for two. Not to mention the supplementals many menus have.

When you move to higher prices with tip included, one should not be shocked at all at a 3* restaurant to find the service starts to drop.

I don't know why people think the reviewer is trying to 'make a splash' virtually every great restaurant goes downhill eventually. There's a reason Joel Robuchon retired for years before coming back.

It's not like he did a hilarious Fieri hatchet-job.

Did a pre-theater dinner at Bar Boulud. Was excellent. Mushroom soup, french onion soup, mushroom ravioli, and mussels w/ fries were all excellent.

Saw The King & I across the street at Lincoln Center. Much better than expected.

I did the restaurant week lunch at Esca last year and was pretty happy. I'm a big esca fan in general, though.

Went to Bar Boulud for restaurant week. Service was awful, food was just alright.

Also did restaurant week at Tom Colicchio's Riverpark, and it was fantastic. The food was really creative and tasty, and the service was top notch.

Did restaurant week last Tuesday at Smith and wollenski lunch , sick value. Crab cakes ok , steak very good , don't get the home fries hoopla , coconut cake off the hook.

Any recommendation on a cool place to get drinks and a little food with some visiting friends? Anywhere in midtown is fine, so long as the place isn't expensive (20-30pp without drinks).

Outside of your neighborhood, but I've been using the Park in Chelsea for all my late dinner/nightlife needs. Massive place, 6 different areas including an atrium with fireplaces, indoor garden area with 30 ft high ceiling, trees, etc, a traditional nightclub area, and rooftop lounge with views of the Highline. Reasonably priced, never a line and no cover.

Gingerman is pretty good for beer. Food is solid.

A little bit different for this thread, but does anyone know good community service organizations? Primarily focused on education?

I'm trying iMentor but find it to be pretty bad. It's a mandatory class for students so most arent thrilled about it and are being normal teenagers not caring about school and just wanting to hang out with friends. Nothing wrong with that but just makes me want to try something different. Preferably where the students are "opt in" rather mandatory.

Feel free to recommend anything (even outside of education) if you had good experiences.

Depends on what part of midtown but Cask, Pony Bar, Brickyard

Doing lunch at Bouley in a couple hours per econophile's suggestion. Any last minute suggestions? I'm especially pumped for the porcini flan, duck, chocolate souffle, and of course the bread cart.

Only the 2nd Michellin restaurant I've been too. The 1st being Gramercy Tavern for burgers, so I feel like that doesn't really count.

Let me know how it is. I have a reservation for next Saturday for lunch.

Went to Bouley for dinner this past August. Was outstanding.

Tried to go to Black Tap on Broome this Saturday night. Wife really wanted to try it out. 5 hour wait for a table. Line wrapped around the corner. No thank you. Walked down the street and had an amazing meal at Aquagrill. Line was just as long on the 14th street location as well.

Lol @ 5 hour wait for Black Tap. The guy who came up with those Instagram shakes is brilliant.

Yep. I'm thinking a cold midweek midafternoon trip will my best bet for getting in on a reasonable timeframe.

I’ll give a Bouley lunch tasting trip report, but keep in mind this is from someone with extremely limited fine dining experience.

http://www.davidbouley.com/bouley-ma...-tasting-menu/

Had taxi issues, and they had no problem bumping our 2:15 reservation back to 2:30. Got seated in the Red Room downstairs, which was fine and spacious, as there were only 4 tables occupied, but it would probably be nicer to be upstairs with the sunlight.

They bring bread: an apple roll that was awesome, and a baguette that tasted burnt. But who cares. The bread cart is obviously where it’s at.

Amuse bouche: chilled tomato soup with jellied red pepper, a small goat cheese puff, and a cracker with truffle potato and black caviar. Not bad. Don’t have too much to say about it.

1st Course: Both got the Hiramasa and Nantucket Blue Fin. Super fresh and light, with an acidic sauce. Nice start to the meal, as it did start to get heavy by the end.

Bread cart: God. Heaven. Saffron Walnut was by far my favorite. Garlic, olive, and sourdough were all hits too. I assumed the bread cart would come back around again, as I saw it went for a 2nd time to other tables, but it did not come to ours. Disappointing, but obviously I’m sure a request would have been fulfilled if we asked.

2nd Course: Porcini Flan- lived up to the hype. So deep and rich, with an absurd amount of crab. Definitely don’t pass this up. Forager’s Treasure of Wild Mushrooms- Pretty good, but not as powerful as the flan. Grilled toro was a bit underwhelming.

3rd Course: Duck- Excellent. Would get again. Beef Cheeks- the gnocchi was great, but the cheeks themselves were a little bland. Would skip next time.

4th Course: Split the Coconut Soup and the Raspberry Gelato. Can’t go wrong here. Coconut soup was creamy and light, while the Raspberry Gelato was fresh and tart. Both very refreshing.

5th Course: Both got the Souffle. Excellent. Would 100% get again.

Assorted chocolates and cookies came out with 5th course. Like 10 pieces. Was stuffed, and they let us wrap them up for home, no problem.
Wines: http://www.davidbouley.com/bouley-re...ry-19-2016.pdf
We each got a glass of red, for $11 and $13 each, and were extremely happy with them for the price. I can’t remember which was which, but either the 1st or 2nd wine on the By the Glass list was phenomenal. Super bummed I can’t find it to purchase in stores. Believes it was a Cab Franc.

Although Yelp indicates that it is the norm, there was no gift.

Came out to $175 after tax and tip. Was an awesome belated Valentine’s Day lunch, and I can certainly foresee myself doing an annual outing like this. Guy a couple tables over did the wine pairings, and it looked like a pretty decent deal. Pretty large pours of 6 or 7 wines.

Nice TR. although they won't have the exact wine, Flatiron Wines on Broadway and around 21st has some excellent hand picked French wines at reasonable costs. If you explain what you like I would bet they steer you into a good place.

Any opinions on best pizza in the East Village area?

My favorite hands down is Motorino on 12th between 2nd and 1st. Joe's is a staple great no frills pizza on 14th and 3rd. Great thin crust pizza at Posto on 19th and 2nd, get the Chicpotle or Sopressata.

I like GG's near the corner of 5th and A.