Dining Plans
DineLA Restaurant Week - Which is the Best Bargain?
I’m not completely wowed by the menus offered during DineLA Restaurant Week. Browsing the list of participating restaurants, I’m not totally convinced that you’re getting much of a deal at a lot of places.
There are a few joints that seem to be offering deep discounts. This is assuming that the dishes served during restaurant week are IDENTICAL to the ones they serve during normal weeks. From a quick look through the three courses (listed at the DineLA Site), so far the best deal I can find is at Abode, where if you order right, you could save $37. Here’s how it stacks up:
Appetizer - Roasted Baby Beet Salad, Horseradish Goat Cheese Mousse ($14)
Entree - Duo of Lamb, Pea and Saffron Puree, Tapenade ($39 based on Duo of Duck)
Dessert - Chef’s Selection of Cheeses ($18)
Total if you ordered off the normal menu: $71
Total During Restaurant Week: $34
Savings: $37!
That’s pretty good. I haven’t called, but looking on Open Table there aren’t any are tables available during Restaurant Week (which is actually two weeks, starting next Monday, Jan 28th, but excluding Saturday).
Are there any other great deal out there? You can save about $12 at Beacon, $15 at 3 on Fourth, I would be interested which restaurant is offering the steepest discounts. Which are offering their top dishes and which are just serving up their pastas and castoffs? Please let me know in the comments if you go somewhere and they are not serving the same dishes they normally offer. Let me know where you go and get a great deal.
Are you planning on trying out any spots just because they are on the DineLA list?
Update:
I called for a Table8 reservation, I got a rather curt host who responded to my reservation request with “is this for DineLA?”. Stupidly, I said yes, and he said “I think that all we have left is 10:00 PM”. I asked him if he could make sure and he instantly said “Yeah, 10:00 PM is all we have”.
Maybe I’m cynical, but I strongly suspect that these DineLA meals are like frequent flyer flights — limited seats for the times you would want to use them.
By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.
Discussion
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I am going to Grace. Looking at the menu, it’s hard to tell with the appetizer, because what is normally lobster cavatelli ($22) has been switched to shrimp cavatelli, so I can’t compare the price there. So if you take the soup option there, and the more expensive entree, you save $27 on the three-course meal.
Not bad. I haven’t been, so I figure now is a good time to try it.
I have reservations at Violet (though their menu isn’t posted, so really hard to know) and One Sunset. The menu just looked yummy. I didn’t compare it to the usual prices.
I’m going to Ford’s Filling Station next week and Table 8 in two weeks.
Table 8 seems like a really good deal given their standard a la carte prices (~$15-20 savings), but not so much at Ford’s Filling Station. We looked at Abode, too, but not-so-positive blogger reviews made us reconsider.
KT, when you go, can you check to see if there’s still the Close to Home menu available? In my last communication with Richard Drapkin he said they were looking to re-integrate it back in their regular offerings. I liked it the last time, but haven’t written it up yet because I want to go there again to make sure.
I’m going to Patina since lunch is about the only way I’m going to afford to get in there
Abode sounds like a steal, but not sure I’d partake given S. Irene’s scathing review (even though chef Crenn has left since).
For me, Noe at the Omni & Grace are pretty good deals so I’m gonna check those out.
I called for a Table8 reservation, I got a rather curt host who responded to my reservation request with “is this for DineLA?”. Stupidly, I said yes, and he said “I think that all we have left is 10:00″. I asked him if he could make sure and he instantly said “Yeah, 10:00 is all we have”.
Maybe I’m cynical, but I strongly suspect that these DineLA meals are like frequent flyer flights — limited seats for the times you would want to use them.
sneakypeteiii, yes, I’ll try to to check for you. They still have it listed on their website, but restaurants aren’t exactly noted for keeping their websites up to date.
Well I had the most bitter disappointing Dine LA Restaurant Week experience last night. I’m going to Washington DC on Wednesday so have only a few days and limited funds to enjoy Restaurant Week, and after looking at lots of menus and options, I chose the $25 Sunday dinner at Fred Eric’s Tiara, which I’ve never been to and I always loved his Vida and Fred 62. Out into the inky black wet night to what I hoped would be a fun new time. Get seated and ask for the Dine LA tasting menu, no, they only have the set tasting menu, which is originally $38 but they are offering for $34. I say “It said $25 on the website.” No, it’s just this menu, no choices, $34. I ask if they have internet access and can check, and I mention that I thought we could chose the appetizer and main. No sorry, that’s all we could get. So I really felt jerked around by the whole stupid mess. Don’t people fact-check or proofread? Is it the fault of the Dine LA web master, the restaurant, the staff? Anyway, we ended up eating the $34 menu (it was good) but for $34 I would have rather gone to a nicer restaurant closer to my home, like Vermont. Very upsetting and what a great way to kick off Dine LA Restaurant Week!
That is really crappy Stephen. There are too many hiccups by the restaurant to blame the DineLA site.
From their restaurant guidelines:
Also, the price clearly says $25 for dinner on the website.
Sorry to hear you were jerked around. I find that completely dishonest of the restaurant to treat you like that.
I sent an email to the DineLA folks to see if they have any comment on your experience Stephen. I’m assuming that they would talk to the Tiara management to find out their side of the story.
Went to Takami sushi. Their lunch menu was great!! I am trying the 3 on fourth tonight. So far it’s ben a lovely experience…..
Thanks for the report Florence, glad you had a good lunch! What did they serve? 3 on Fourth did look like they have some good options.
We are going to try Abode and Ruth’s Chris (never been to one).
With regard to Stephen’s comment, I wrote a note to the DineLA organizers and received this back (reprinted with permission):
Takami serves sushi or miso salmon. The location is beautiful. 3 on fourth was really good too. Choice of Seabass or Steak. They also offer a wine tasting for $15 to go along the diner.
Samba had a great menu listed on DineLA but when I tried to make a reservation they said they were closed indefinitely for renovation. Why is it listed as a participating restaurant if it’s not even open?
Lisa-
I don’t see Samba listed on this list:
DineLA Participating Restaurants
But now that I look again, I do remember seeing them there before. It is odd that they would be listed since restaurants pay $1000 to be included.
Jonah, dineLA wishes you would contact them to share more details of the issue you had. dineLA does not want your bad experience to happen again.