How’s Restaurant Week Treating You
Posted by Foobooz on January 29th, 2009
Earlier in the week we had some gripes in the comments about Restaurant Week but the feedback we’ve culled this week from emails, blog posts and Twitter has been largely positive.
So what do you think? Have any recommendations for week two?
Related Tags: Restaurant-Week
January 29th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
In my many Rest. Week adventures over the years, I come to find the same situation – Mostly great food is featured, but service is severely lacking. Xochitl kicked ass in every way last night (food, ambience, service).
However, at Smith & Woll we had horrible service. Host was thoroughly confused when I asked for parking validation, we sat 10 min before anyone came to check on us, ordered a bottle of white that was delivered WARM to our table. Server offered to ice it since he had already opened it, which prompted us to have to order OTHER drinks to keep us occupied in the meantime. Sat with empty dinner plates in front of us for 15 min. Never imagined a simple prix fixe meal on a Monday night would take us 2+ hours to get through.
January 29th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I, too, was at Xochitl last night and I agree with Erin: amazing. AND they are giving diners gift cards to use on another visit. I will definitely be redeeming mine for more skirt steak.
January 29th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
I had my all-too-typical Restaurant Week experience at Lacroix. Great food, lame service. We had to flag them down to order a bottle of wine. We had to flag them down to get napkins. Our bread was served after the first course about 30 seconds before they delivered the main course. Mostly we felt invisble.
January 29th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Restaurant week is for amateurs.
January 29th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Lacroix service was so upsetting. How can it be so great usually and so BAD during restaurant week. I agree restaurant week is for amateurs, but I went with friends that NEVER eat in real restaurants. This is why they never return!
January 29th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Service suffers during restautant week because the servers hate everything about it and that feeling carries over to performance- not justifying it, but thats the reason.
January 29th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
You’d think servers would be glad people are eating out and, presumably, leaving tips.
January 29th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Tinto is a must!! So good, everything was prepared perfectly.
January 29th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Service at Alma de Cuba was great- but I did have an earlier dinner reservation, so maybe that’s explains the good service.
January 29th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
i think it depends on the place and average bill size. if $35 is a low per-person bill, then the server might be getting less tips than normal (like a Lacroix). Plus, I’d bet their regular dinners spend more on drinks and other things that lead to bigger bills and therefore bigger tips (I could be wrong).
Add to the possibility of less cash the possibility of more communication issues (restaurant weekers might be less food knowledgeable on average) + smaller bills (which means the restaurant has to try to rush to get more plates out to get more money back in) = a not enthused server.
like greg said, this is not meant to justify the bad service…just an explanation of their possible thinking.
January 29th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Had an amazing dinner at Zahav. Food was outstanding and service was very knowledgable and attentive.
January 29th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
table 31: i was impressed by my courses and my friends’ courses. and the chocolate cake was fantastic
zahav: i tried a bunch of stuff i normally wouldnt eat, and i loved everything. i ruined it for myself because we had such late reservations that i had trouble eating everything. i left a few pieces of each course behind. but i’ll definitely be back, and at an earlier time
January 29th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Zahav was great.
January 29th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
10arts:Food was delicious, however when we were seated we were given only the restaurant week menu, which listed 3 wines by the glass, or a 3-glass flight. Part of the fun of restaurant week is spending extra money on cocktails and wine! I asked for a wine list and cocktail menu, and they brought a cocktail menu and list of wines by the glass, and said just ask if I would like to see the wine list. I thought I did! So my dining partner asked again and finally we were given the full wine list. We also had to ask for salt and pepper, which was apparently an oversight, because after we asked, they brought it to every vacant table. Food however, was delicious, and every selection on th RW menu was desirable.
January 30th, 2009 at 1:54 am
I don’t understand the attitude of servers who think that it’s ok to give bad service during restaurant week. It shouldn’t matter that the check totals are less or that the clientele is largely suburban. The whole point is to build repeat business, whether you’re a tiny BYOB or a 4 star industry giant.
As a server myself, I find the service at a lot of places disheartening, even during non-restaurant weeks. Seems like hospitality no longer exists in the hospitality industry.
January 30th, 2009 at 9:36 am
We had a wonderful meal at Panorama. Service was top notch and we were able to pick out our 3 courses from the regular menu.
January 30th, 2009 at 10:11 am
We had a great meal and great service at Roy’s.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:15 am
We do Salento at 22nd and Walnut every RW. It is a bargain at 4 courses for $35 and includes choices from their full menu. The service and food are both amazing. So amazing that we are repeat customers during non-RW. That is how restaurants (chef and staff) should view RW: as a chance to bring their restaurant concept to the masses and not as a ‘throw away’ week.
January 30th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Restaurant week is tough. As a server, it is used to hype us up into a frenzy—200, 300, 400, 500 reservations! The possibilities of no shows and/ or cancellations are never mentioned, so the restaurant is overstaffed to the point that some people just stand around doing nothing. Some servers do get pissed off. Even though all servers do know that any night in a restaurant is a crap shoot, Restaurant Week is more of a crap shoot than most. At all times, my goal is to provide friendly, efficient service. I will get you what you need before you even know that you need it and will do it with a smile on my face. I will also remain incredibly polite (even if you tip me 87 cents on a $90 check AND steal
my pen) but I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t trying to turn your table in 75 minutes. I am still trying to make money. To be honest, I don’t really see that much repeat business from RW. I am used to a $75-100 a head PPA at my restaurant and my RW guests don’t even come anywhere near that. No drinks. No wine. No sides. Whatever. It’ll be over in a week.
January 31st, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Our first official restaurant week and the food was great (although portions small–the norm i guess) at XIX. We love it there and i jumped at the chance to eat at an amazing restaurant at sucha great price. Being our first experience, we were annoyed by the service too, but now i dont’ feel so bad, its obviously an issue overall. I’ll go back in a minute for spring restaurant week, great chance to try new places!
February 1st, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Jimmy, that’s a snobbish, pretentious, and petty comment. My partner (who is a fine cook in his own right) and I dine out ourselves or with friends at least 8 times a month, easily, and I have found Restaurant Week to be a great opportunity to try new places or revisit old favorites without impacting my normal dining-out routine and budget. It is also an opportunity to get friends who’ve moved out of CC in for a night that hopefully will entice them to return on their own, and not have it be for a special occasion meal. If you don’t like restaurant week, then please stay home, but no need to slam it as “for amateurs”.