Chicago Restaurant Weeks in 2012 (multiple events)

Mod Note: We've merged all the threads on 2012 Restaurant Weeks into this thread and moved it to the Eating Out in Chicagoland forum.

Thanks,

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for the moderators
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The $33 restaurant week menu at Naha is a great value. There are usually at least 3 options per course and the food is outstanding.

What other restaurants do you feel offer both great value and variety on their restaurant week menus?

This is the big one, with over 200 restaurants participating, offering prix fixe menus for $22, $33, and $44. The list of restaurants is available on the event website at eatitupchicago.com. Some RW menus are already available, and others are being added as the event gets closer.

As in past years, there are two groups holding restaurant week events again this winter. The earlier one Jan 23-Feb 4 is held by Chicago Originals, a group of independent restaurants in Chicago. Special dinner menus of 2-4 courses will be available for $29.12. For more information and menus, click here. (There is a separate topic - click here - for the one Feb 17-26 held by the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau.)

Quickly grabbed dinner reservations for Naha and for Perennial ... We're now planning the workteam lunches but no decisions yet. Also reserved for Zed since they have a very open offering and we had very good apps there one night when we went for drinks so it's a great chance to try them out.

Some spots are just so stingy in their offer, I cross them off right away.

Shouldn't it be 2012?

Fixed.

Somebody needs to update the RW listing for Perennial Virant. It's shown with the restaurant's former name and former chef.

EDIT: They're aware of the problem and are trying to get it corrected.

You can register to receive a $20 AmEx gift card if you use your AmEx to spend at least $100 at two participating restaurants during Restaurant Week. Sign up here.

Anyone planning any Restaurant Week reservations this year?

Any recommendations to share on what is a good value/bad value? (eg. some of these restaurants do a prix fixe dinner for $35 every week if you go the right day...)

http://www.choosechicago.com/things-to- ... ek-dining/

I booked reservations at Perennial, Chicago Q, Boka and Sepia for the first Friday-Monday. Looking forward to it, the menus look pretty delightful. Tried for Table 52 as I've never been there but they were all booked up.

K.D. wrote:Any recommendations to share on what is a good value/bad value?

Your best bet is to compare their restaurant week menu with the sample everyday menu on their website. (Just to give you a measure of comparison, some of the participating restaurants normally have entrees in the teens, while others have entrees in the thirties.) If the special RW menu sounds good to you and seems like it represents significant savings over the regular menu, it's a better value than if it doesn't score on either count.

I swear I saw Lockwood on the list - even with a menu published - now they have disappeared. Anyone know if Lockwood is indeed participating in Restaurant Week 2012?

Tobermory wrote:I swear I saw Lockwood on the list - even with a menu published - now they have disappeared. Anyone know if Lockwood is indeed participating in Restaurant Week 2012?

Lockwood is indeed participating for both lunch and dinner, for the later of the two Restaurant Week events. However, it looks like the official event website doesn't always work properly; for example, if you try to list restaurants with names starting with G-L, it only goes through K.

Lockwood's RW menus are here.

Thanks nsxtasy - I was going to be hugely disappointed since I had already made plans/reservations!

I heard a report the other day that said you should tip based on the full price during restaurant week, not on the $22 or $33 price. But how do you know how much to tip if you've never been to a place before, and the menu is different than what is on their regular menu? Tip based on an average entree/app/dessert total? Or just go with double the standard tip, 30-40%?

Please help. I don't want to look like a cheap bastard.

Pie Lady wrote:I heard a report the other day that said you should tip based on the full price during restaurant week, not on the $22 or $33 price. But how do you know how much to tip if you've never been to a place before, and the menu is different than what is on their regular menu? Tip based on an average entree/app/dessert total? Or just go with double the standard tip, 30-40%?

Please help. I don't want to look like a cheap bastard.

The safest way to handle it is to just be generous. Sometimes the bill will indicate the regular price and the RW price. In these cases, it's obvious what the usual base price would have been and you can tip accordingly. If I weren't sure of the undiscounted price, I wouldn't feel obligated but I'd probably leave a few extra bucks for my server. Bottom line: if the restaurant expects you to tip based on the regular price, they'll make it easy for you to do so. If not, you're on your own, which doesn't mean you can't leave a little extra for your server.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Restaurant Week(s) and this is one of the reasons why.

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Most of the participating restaurants offer their regular menus as well as the special Restaurant Week menu, and most of the items on the Restaurant Week menu are also on the regular menu. So it's usually not too hard to figure out how much more you would be paying if you weren't ordering from the Restaurant Week menu. You can then tip based on that higher amount, instead of doing it based on the RW special price.

Pie Lady wrote:I heard a report the other day that said you should tip based on the full price during restaurant week, not on the $22 or $33 price. But how do you know how much to tip if you've never been to a place before, and the menu is different than what is on their regular menu? Tip based on an average entree/app/dessert total? Or just go with double the standard tip, 30-40%?

Please help. I don't want to look like a cheap bastard.

I think I want to contest the premise that one should tip assuming that there is a significant discount on a restaurant week (RW) menu, and that service staff lose income during RW.

Having spoken to several industry folks, I've been led to believe that often participants in RW use different "formulations" of dishes from the menu, often substituting a less expensive protein for the one on the regular menu, or cutting the portion size while retaining the regular recipe. So the restaurants and their staff are not losing income or profit by participating in RW.

As long as there are entrees on the regular menu that would have ended up costing me about the same as the RW menu, I simply tip on the RW tab at the generous end of my normal 17.5 - 22 % tipping range. I am still welcome and treated well at the places I frequent during RW, so I assume the waitstaff are not annoyed by this choice.

As an example, my dining circle chose to forego a visit to Piccolo Sogno this RW cycle because we realized that the RW menu was not really a bargain compared to the regular menu as posted on their website. So we think that a normal tip at Piccolo Sogno would be appropriate on the RW menu. However, when we go to visit Vie, I agree that I need to be at the high side of my tipping range, because normally, one cannot dine there for $44 at dinner. (On the other hand, when I would visit Vie, I would not expect chicken or whitefish to be my primary choice of protein, either.)

rfleisch1 wrote:Having spoken to several industry folks, I've been led to believe that often participants in RW use different "formulations" of dishes from the menu, often substituting a less expensive protein for the one on the regular menu, or cutting the portion size while retaining the regular recipe. So the restaurants and their staff are not losing income or profit by participating in RW.

Very, VERY few places cut portion sizes or use inferior ingredients for Restaurant Week. And they would be foolish to do so, since Restaurant Week is an opportunity to show off their food to folks who are trying it for the first time, and likely to come back only if they really like the food (and atmosphere, etc).

Of course, if you're saying that they typically put their less expensive dishes on their regular menu for RW, that's often the case. So they might have, say, chicken piccata on the menu instead of the lobster tail. But substituting inferior ingredients in their recipes, or serving smaller portions? No way. Not commonly, anyway.

rfleisch1 wrote:As long as there are entrees on the regular menu that would have ended up costing me about the same as the RW menu, I simply tip on the RW tab at the generous end of my normal 17.5 - 22 % tipping range.

If there are entrees on the regular menu that cost about the same as the RW menu (comparing comparable courses), then of course, tip what you would with the regular menu. Some restaurant week menus don't represent huge savings. But some others do. If there aren't huge savings, then the amounts are similar and you can tip on either one.

rfleisch1 wrote:I am still welcome and treated well at the places I frequent during RW, so I assume the waitstaff are not annoyed by this choice.

With few exceptions, a good restaurant should treat all customers well, regardless of whether they have been there before, and regardless of whether they have tipped generously or not. So you can't tell how generous your tip was by how they treat you. (I suspect that the ire - or the enduring gratitude - of restaurant servers is not dependent on differences of a few percent, but rather, when tips are WAY out of line.)

Restaurant Week guidance from Vettel and Arnett:
5 things to know about Chicago Restaurant Week
Prime plates: Where to go for Restaurant Week
5 tips for Chicago Restaurant Week newbies
Chicago Restaurant Week guide: What to try and what to skip during Chicago Restaurant Week, Feb. 17-26

Apparently this post will be the first report on a meal from this year's big Restaurant Week event. This evening I went to The Florentine, Todd Stein's Italian place in the JW Marriott in the Loop. I chose it, in part, because their RW menu was appealing to me, with items I would have selected if I had chosen from the entire a la carte menu. Unlike some RW menus, they offered several choices for each course, and the dessert course was anything on the ALC dessert menu. The food was excellent; I had the octopus, the squid ink spaghetti with crab, the braised short ribs, and the sticky toffee pudding, and I enjoyed every dish. Portions were extremely generous - so much so that I just wish they had a three-course option, since four courses were really a bit too much food. And thanks to Restaurant Week, it was a smokin' hot deal at $44; the same dishes ordered a la carte run $67. The only disconcerting thing was that the restaurant was really, really loud, thanks to hard surfaces and a dining configuration in which the seating areas encircle a huge bar, which was doing a booming business. Anyway, it was a fine start to Restaurant Week, and I recommend it!

I'd love to see a list of restaurants (with bars) not participating in restaurant week. I would gladly patronize them this week. Any suggestions?

I had a very nice RW lunch today at LM in Lincoln Square. LM isn't normally open for lunch, but they are open Saturday and Sunday this weekend and next weekend in conjunction with Restaurant Week. (They're not the only place changing their hours for RW; Leopold, the Belgian place in West Town, is normally closed Mondays, but will be open tomorrow.)

LM is serving the same three-course RW menu for lunch ($22) and dinner ($33). I don't know whether lunch portions are smaller than dinner, as is often the case. I started with the foie gras mousse, which was exceptional. The portion size was very small, almost amuse-bouche-like, but I'm really not complaining; it was very rich and delicious, and besides, it's foie gras as part of a three-course meal for $22! I had the short rib over pureed potatos, which was very nice. The portion size was appropriate for lunch, i.e. not huge but decent. The dessert was also outstanding; I had the lemon verbana creme brulee. I was a bit leery about ordering it because of the risk of lemon overpowering the taste, but it was only a subtle hint of lemon, just the perfect accent on the classic dish. The portion size on the creme brulee was generous, an appropriate size for a dinner dessert.

This was my first time at LM, and I look forward to returning some time for dinner. Even better, they gave out a card for $10 off on a return visit as a token of Restaurant Week! If you're thinking of going out for brunch next weekend, LM's lunch menu for Restaurant Week would make a fine choice.

milz50 wrote:I'd love to see a list of restaurants (with bars) not participating in restaurant week. I would gladly patronize them this week. Any suggestions?

I'm with you. The idea of going to restaurants during RW is unappealing to me. I'd much rather go on my own schedule, order what I want to order and know that the experience I'm having is fairly representative of the experience the restaurant typically offers. And don't even get me started on the crowds. As someone who usually dines out during the week, RW crowds are not pleasant. I can definitely see the benefits to RW, they just don't appeal to me.

I know El Ideas and Bonsoiree were offering some sort of collaborative "anti" RW event(s) but I don't remember the details.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:

milz50 wrote:I'd love to see a list of restaurants (with bars) not participating in restaurant week. I would gladly patronize them this week. Any suggestions?

I'm with you. The idea of going to restaurants during RW is unappealing to me. I'd much rather go on my own schedule, order what I want to order and know that the experience I'm having is fairly representative of the experience the restaurant typically offers. And don't even get me started on the crowds. As someone who usually dines out during the week, RW crowds are not pleasant. I can definitely see the benefits to RW, they just don't appeal to me.

I know El Ideas and Bonsoiree were offering some sort of collaborative "anti" RW event(s) but I don't remember the details.

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I wholeheartedly agree with every word of this.

I disagree 1000 percent, based on actual experience. Based on what I've seen, any concerns about "crowds" or unrepresentative experiences are totally misplaced. At both my RW meals this year as well as previous ones, the restaurants are lively (doing a good business) but not full to capacity (none with waits for seating). And most of the RW meals I've had - 1-3 meals each year - have been very good indeed, with the bargain price only the icing on the cake. I'm not saying you won't encounter an overcrowded place or a bad meal, but there are many, many participants where that's not the case at all. For me, it's an opportunity to try places I've been wanting to try, with an added bonus of a lower price than usual. Based on the meals I've had, I think it's terrific!

Of course, there's always someone who likes to rain on a parade, who doesn't want to hear about other people having a good time and enjoying an event, and feels the need to disparage it... It reminds me of the Capital One commercial about finding the one person in a thousand who likes paying more (which turns out to be an infant).

And there are plenty of other restaurants in the Chicago area, including over 600 on Opentable that are not participating in Restaurant Week. So if you enjoy paying higher prices in mostly-empty restaurants, that option is open to you as well. Different strokes...

Oh, and all of this is from the standpoint of my own personal enjoyment. From the standpoint of the health and wellbeing of the restaurant industry, I can tell you that the participants I've chatted with are really enthusiastic and excited about it. They bring in new customers at a much higher level of business, many of whom will spread word of mouth and return later. That's why more and more places participate each year. It's good for business.

nsxtasy wrote:
Of course, there's always someone who likes to rain on a parade, who doesn't want to hear about other people having a good time and enjoying an event, and feels the need to disparage it... It reminds me of the Capital One commercial about finding the one person in a thousand who likes paying more (which turns out to be an infant).

Yes, clearly when someone disagrees with your point of view it's for no rational reason. Please.

nsxtasy wrote:Of course, there's always someone who likes to rain on a parade, who doesn't want to hear about other people having a good time and enjoying an event, and feels the need to disparage it... It reminds me of the Capital One commercial about finding the one person in a thousand who likes paying more (which turns out to be an infant).

I'm not sure if this was directed at me but if so, I really did try to provide some rational, substantive reasons why RW doesn't compel me. I even mentioned that I could see the benefits in RW but that they didn't appeal to me. I'm not trying to rain on any parade. I was just sharing my personal opinion about RW. Having declined invitations from several friends to RW tables -- and also seeing folks posting here who appeared to feel the same way about it as did -- I figured it was relevant to the discussion to share my opinion. I meant no offense.

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Very difficult to find a list for this week. If the list I found is correct, it's very short and none of the restaurants interest me.-Dick

Second try, apparently the number is 266 but only 10 display at one time and then you must change a page to see others. Whoever put this site together needs some Human Factors Training.-Dick

After attending RW events for the past 3-4 years, I have to agree with Ronnie. I've found that in years past, selection and portion sizes have gotten significantly smaller when ordering off the RW menu.

With the increased buzz around RW, it seemed to me restaurants were starting to use RW as a revenue generator, rather than a vehicle to allow new customers to try items off their regular menu at a discounted price.

nsxtasy wrote:This evening I went to The Florentine. The only disconcerting thing was that the restaurant was really, really loud, thanks to hard surfaces and a dining configuration in which the seating areas encircle a huge bar, which was doing a booming business.

In my experience, the Florentine is not very loud. Mostly because it is so large and it is usually not full. While your RW food was representative of their food, I would argue that your experience was not indicative of what you'd typically experience. People like you and I, that do not like loud restaurants my opt not to return based upon the RW experience. And I'm sure whenever anyone on this board asks about the Florentine, you'll say that the food was really good, but it is too loud (which I don't think is accurate.) Alternatively, one who does like a lively environment may return after their RW experience and be disappointed because the place was quiet.