Saturday, July 28, 2007

Restaurant Week NYC

I am not a fan of Restaurant Week at all. If you can afford to eat at these restaurants in a normal dinner service, you shouldn't go during Restaurant Week. First, the menu is contrived. It is specially designed for the prix-fixe price and because of that is much less likely to reflect on what the chef is actually good at. Second, the higher volume and turnover than normal will usually lead to rougher service. Kitchens and servers in restaurants do well when they get in a groove with the tempo. To completely change how the restaurant tempo runs takes away a lot from the service. Lastly, Restaurant Week is definitely a social experience rather than a dining experience. Rarely does one go alone to a restaurant during Restaurant Week. Rather, people use the occasion to go out as groups and have an extra topic to talk about.

All that being said, I did go to two restaurants during Restaurant Week as I am not completely anti-social. Tabla for lunch and Smith and Wollensky's for dinner. I'll write reviews in my next posts.

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