Foodie: Restaurant Week & Fixed Price Deals in NYC

I don't know about you, but I absolutely LOVE Restaurant Week in New York.  This year it's from January 16th-February 10th (Mon-Fri ONLY).  Although I would not ALWAYS spring for a $25 lunch or $35 dinner, it certainly does make a difference if you otherwise couldn't eat at that restaurant at all.  Many of the restaurants typically charge twice as much or more for any combination of items on their regular menu.  This time around I have already tried RW at: Cipriani Wall Street, Nobu Next Door, Morimoto, 21 Club, Park Avenue Winter, and Strip House.  So far I would have to say that 21 Club had the best value for the money and Cipriani Wall Street probably had the worst.  Check out the menus at www.nycgo.com/restaurantweek and decide for yourself!

Also be sure to follow this link and sign up for the American Express Restaurant Week deal.  When you link your card, you can get $20 back for dining at 3 places during Restaurant Week.  Alternatively, you can also get $5 off a purchase of $25 or more at most of the participating Restaurant Week venues by syncing your American Express card with your Foursquare account, checking in, redeeming the deal, and loading it to your card (all a very quick process).  If you don't have an American Express and don't want to pay an annual fee, you can avoid the annual fee by signing up for a Bloomingdale's Insider American Express credit card.  Besides Restaurant Week, there are many other opportunities on Foursquare and through other sites to save some $$ by using an AmEx card and it is the only card accepted at Neiman Marcus, if that so happens to be one of your favorite shopping haunts.

That being said, many of these restaurants actually offer extended Restaurant Week menus, and some even offer similar fixed price menus all year round.  Another take on the fixed price menu was this list created by Serious Eats, which lists many year-round fixed price menus for $35 and under that you can check out: http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2012/01/skip-restaurant-week-35-and-under-3-course-me.html.