Chicago Restaurant Week, Jan 27-Feb 9, 2017

Participants and menus are now available on the Restaurant Week website. Click here.

During Restaurant Week, you can get $5 back for each $25+ charge to an American Express card at a restaurant participating in Restaurant Week. You need to enroll your AmEx in advance. Click here for details.

I have come to believe that the first rule of restaurant week needs to be "don't go to restaurants during restaurant week"

We made the mistake of going to a restaurant that was just not prepared for the number of people they got. They ran out of items, kitchen and bar were terribly backed up and slow, and the FOH staff - while not quite as overwhelmed - were still clearly just barely holding it together. They ended up comping us (and every table around us) drinks/ wine/ food to some level. I felt really bad for them. And this was mid-week, it wasn't even the Fri/Sat usual craziness. I'm not sure what happened, but there was definitely some basic planning/ prep work that just didn't occur.

leek wrote:I have come to believe that the first rule of restaurant week needs to be "don't go to restaurants during restaurant week"

We made the mistake of going to a restaurant that was just not prepared for the number of people they got. They ran out of items, kitchen and bar were terribly backed up and slow, and the FOH staff - while not quite as overwhelmed - were still clearly just barely holding it together. They ended up comping us (and every table around us) drinks/ wine/ food to some level. I felt really bad for them. And this was mid-week, it wasn't even the Fri/Sat usual craziness. I'm not sure what happened, but there was definitely some basic planning/ prep work that just didn't occur.

Clearly, there are some places that handle it better than others but this has been my experience, too. I've come to really dislike restaurant week -- which is much closer to 2 weeks. It tends to be one time of year during which I focus a lot more on cooking at home.

There's an older RW thread in which this aspect was already discussed, here.

=R=

We went to Capital Grille in Rosemont last week.

The special was a bargain, the service was impeccable. Our server Shane was a real pro. Everything was just right, steaks were cooked perfectly, sides were great.

Based on our experience we are vastly more inclined to go there again. So for Capital Grill at least it was a win.

leek wrote:I have come to believe that the first rule of restaurant week needs to be "don't go to restaurants during restaurant week"

We generally don't go out as a rule.

I'd be curious as to any stats with restaurant week, specifically does the promo spur diners to try new venues or are they just taking advantage of specials at restaurants where they already are "regulars".

I went to two restaurants for Restaurant Week. I had dinner at Remington's, which I had never previously dined at. I loved it; I thought every dish I tried was delicious, and the service was top notch. We dined at an off hour when the restaurant was mostly empty. I also had lunch at RPM Steak, which I had previously been to for dinner. It was very good indeed, although unlike Remington's, there were a few misses along with other dishes that I enjoyed a lot. They were mostly full last Wednesday, but our server said that is typically the case for lunch even when it's not RW Wednesdays through the weekend, less busy on Mondays or Tuesdays. In both cases, the RW menu was a bargain. I'm happy I went to each of them during Restaurant Week, and I am more likely to return after doing so.

Sweet Willie wrote:I'd be curious as to any stats with restaurant week, specifically does the promo spur diners to try new venues or are they just taking advantage of specials at restaurants where they already are "regulars".

I doubt there are any such stats available, but I'm sure the promotion is used by plenty of first-timers as well as by repeat customers, both frequent and infrequent.

I've used Restaurant Week to get to places I wouldn't normally go (Naha in 2016) or to try something new. This year, we tried Frontier with friends. The RW promotion got us in the door and we supplemented the offered menu with other regular menu items. Overall we've had good experiences during RW.

Not all restaurants manage restaurant week in the same fashion so you need to look at menus and find the ones that offer good values and appeal to you. There are some great deals out there but you need to do a little legwork (or trust others who have already done the work).

I have friends who are often reluctant to dine at nicer places and love going out for restaurant week and I'm happy to join them. Last night, we did so at Nico Osteria and had a fantastic meal. 4 courses for $44 turned out to be a great deal for quantity and quality of the food that was served, although we did supplement with a crudo (and were also comped the incredible brussels sprout bruschetta).

as others have pointed out, just looking at a restaurant week menu doesn't always tell you whether you're getting a good deal. sunday night a friend and i tried 'farmhouse' on chicago avenue for supper. we ordered off the RW menu which was $33 for 3 courses. i received a generous plate of flank steak, turnips and potatoes, but my friend's so-called 'half chicken from slagel farms' was smaller than half a cornish hen. it was very strange to get a large portion of steak and a tiny portion of chicken. and they made it worse by plating the chicken in a large soup bowl where it just looked small and lonely without any substantial starch on the side. she said it was good, but i subsidized her dinner with portions of my turnips and potatoes. and again with dessert- she ordered carmelized cream puffs. there were 2 of them, quite small. it's not really much harder or more expensive to make good sized ones..... i dont know if these portions were made smaller for restaurant week, as both items are on the regular menu but it was my first visit. i loved the generous sized winter salad that came with the meal and wouldn't rule out going back, but found the value of the 2 meals ordered a little off....

chicagoist.com has posted a spreadsheet indicating which RW deals are particularly good and bad; there's an introductory article (click here), or you can go straight to the spreadsheet (click here). They also posted another article, "10 Tips To Avoid Losing Money During Restaurant Week" (click here).

Their entire analysis is based on the pricing of the RW menu as compared with paying for the same menu items on an a la carte basis. That's one way to analyze the value of the RW menu, but not the only way. For example, some of us were considering going to L. Woods in Lincolnwood for lunch during Restaurant Week. The $22 RW lunch menu represents a decent value when compared with the same three courses (soup/salad, entree, dessert) purchased separately, but that represents a HUGE amount of food, and most folks going to lunch there would likely spend less than $22 and only order one or two courses rather than three. So the RW menu might or might not be a good value, depending on how you look at it.

As a general rule, I think Restaurant Week works well when you find a RW menu with dishes that sound appealing to you, and which would otherwise cost more or not be available.