Foodies and budget-conscious diners alike can appreciate the concept behind restaurant week, when local eateries offer full-flavored prix fixe menus at palatable price points. Often featuring a mix of a city’s most popular restaurants and higher-end experiences, there’s no better way to dig into a destination’s culinary scene and sample its tastiest plates.
With summer just around the corner, here are five upcoming restaurant weeks that are worth a trip.
Palm Springs Desert Resorts Restaurant Week, May 31-June 16
Palm Springs’ best restaurants and favorite local eateries will offer prix fixe dinner menus at $26 or $38 during Restaurant Week. Must-try spots include Wally’s Desert Turtle, a fine dining restaurant and first-time participant, and Tinto, a Basque pintxos restaurant by Iron Chef Jose Garces. Best of all? Palm Springs Restaurant Week includes discounts to local hotels and attractions, making it easy to plan an entire getaway without breaking the bank.
Ann Arbor Restaurant Week, June 9-14
Michigan’s largest restaurant week is bringing $15 lunch menus and $28 dinner menus to more than 50 restaurants around the city. Cool off this summer with watermelon gazpacho and rainbow trout with an almond brown butter sauce at swanky seafood and martini bar The Black Pearl, or wash down a kung pao chicken pizza with one of Grizzly Peak’s handcrafted microbrews.
Savannah Restaurant Week, July 26-Aug. 4
Enjoy Southern hospitality and the best of the city’s rather diverse dining scene during Savannah Restaurant Week, a 10-day event filled with $30 three-course prix fixe menus at restaurants all around town. If you’re looking for a fine dining experience, 45 Bistro in the Historic District is offering entrees like filet mignon and pork osso bucco in an elegant, white-tablecloth dining room. Or, head to Corleone’s for hearty Italian fare in a casual atmosphere.
Boston Summer Restaurant Week, Aug. 18-23 & 25-30
More than 200 Boston restaurants will offer two-course lunches for $15.13, three-course lunches for $20.13 and three-course dinners for $38.13 this August. The full restaurant list has yet to be released but based on previous Restaurant Weeks, plan on sampling innovative spins on New American fare at Lineage or enjoy a romantic Italian-French dinner at No. 9 Park.
San Diego Restaurant Week, Sept. 15-20
Just in time to catch the last warm days of summer, San Diego Restaurant Week will offer prix fixe menus at more than 180 local restaurants. Lunches are set at $10, $15 or $20, while dinners can run $20, $30 or $40 per person. Menus are still being finalized for this end-of-summer event, but plan on sampling Mediterranean-inspired American dishes at Amaya or seafood at Chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s namesake restaurant.
(Main image: US Army Africa)
