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Restaurants, TriBeCa
Restaurant Week at Megu – NYC
03.22.09 | Permalink | 4 Comments

I’ll be making this post short, because I don’t want to waste more time with Megu than I already have. Basically, I went to Megu New York last week because it was Restaurant Week (i.e. participating restaurants offer a 3 course prix fixe meal for $35) and had a very mediocre meal. And for those who’ll say, it’s because I had the food from the Restaurant Week menu and not the regular menu, that wasn’t the case. David, of course, stubborn as he is, refused to order off the Restaurant menu and ordered from the regular menu. In fact, had he not done so, I would have thought Megu wasn’t all that bad. Surprisingly, the non-Restaurant Week dishes were actually worse than the Restaurant Week dishes. It was quite bizarre.

In addition, interpret it as you will, but when we were given menus, the Restaurant Week menu was not given to us. It was after the waiter came to take our order that I had to ask if there was a Restaurant Week menu. When I did, he stuttered a bit, and then returned with two heavily creased menus. No apologies. Was it an honest mistake? I doubt it. MORE »
Announcements, Restaurants
OpenTable Appetite Stimulus Plan – NYC
11.10.08 | Permalink | Comment?

My friend Catalin just emailed me about this. The OpenTable Appetite Stimulus Plan seems to be a variation on Restaurant Week with fewer restaurants participating. Here is the info from OpenTable:

“$35 Dinners, $24 Lunches (prices are per person and do not include beverage, tax or gratuity)
November 17-21, 2008
200 OpenTable Dining Rewards Points”

Restaurant Week is usually a gamble. I’ve had some really great experiences [David Burke & Donatella (now called David Burke Townhouse), Cafe Boulud], and some very mediocre ones (Brasserie 8 1/2, Steak Frites, Butter). Usually if a restaurant is good during Restaurant Week, I know they care about the quality of their food and their reputation to serve more than just decent fare regardless of price. If a restaurant serves crap during restaurant week, I won’t go back. I find it demeaning when restaurants make you feel like you should be privileged just to be in their restaurant all the whilst serving you substandard food. That’s my opinion at least. So take a look at the list. No matter what you do though, don’t pick Hawaiian Tropic Zone. I doubt they care about their food or their reputation.

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