I began to feel over the past couple years that the value was no longer there, but this year has really sealed the deal for me. Plenty of places that are $55 or $65 per person that in my view don’t warrant such pricing…I’ve been to many of them recently and spent less than that per person. I generally don’t order dessert when I go out, so any “savings” on the savory items gets negated by paying for dessert. Savings aside, I know restaurant week is also about restaurant discovery, but I could go to any of these places whenever I want and curate my own order that would generally be the same price if not less than these constrained pre-fixe menus that are usually offering lower-cost/higher-margin items (understandably).
The value definitely used to be there, or at least my perception of the value used to be there. I don’t know how to separate the two in my mind.
Restaurant Weeks aren’t really for people who go to restaurants regularly. It’s for bringing in people who rarely go to restaurants. Restaurant Week is always one of the weeks to avoid restaurants
I agree with you, though when the value was there ~3+ years ago, it also incidentally swept up some people who go to restaurants regularly - like me and a couple of my friends. We saw it as a good opportunity to try a couple new places at a fair price.
Now I would be overpaying almost everywhere compared to what I would order à la carte, so there’s no point.
The loss to restaurant week is probably minimal, as the universe of people like me who go to restaurants regularly is much smaller than the universe of people who don’t go to restaurants regularly.
I disagree that it is exclusive to new customers because there is also value if you search. For example, I have gone to Charcoal in the past as they offer a nice menu that includes some top dishes. Sure, a lot of the deals aren’t worth your time, but I will still try a place or two. We have a resv at Rasarumah coincidently during this promo. @JLee is offering what looks to be an excellent menu. Even better that it’s all savory.
If I were to book anything, here are the handful of places that look somewhat interesting to me. Much smaller in number than previous years. @Grog agree on Rasarumah, it appeals to me the most of any restaurant participating. I also agree re Charcoal - I used to go every year during Restaurant Week, just not sure it’s worth it to me anymore at $68 per person given that it’s nearly the same menu they’ve been doing for years - though it’s consistently great IMO.
We’re going to Jacaranda and their shorter DineLA menu seems like a good value at $195. Definitely tempted us to return sooner even though we went last month.
Zaytinya is good value, it’s not going to be s-tier Mediterranean, but you get reasonably good execution and a lot of variety. The fresh pita they bring around is great, as is their cocktail list.
Agree that value has been harder to find in recent years, and often I’d rather just pay a little more and order from the regular menu.
Chinois is my tried and true during Dine LA. I was actually there a couple weeks ago, and it was as great as ever, if not better - the whole table was giddy, saying they’d forgotten how excellent it was.
I get it though, you need to really be familiar with these places and understand the PQR but for the most part every-time we’ve participated we’ve come away at least satisfied, if not wanting to go back. The only duds are places we yolo-d into.
Darn! They were last year. I think their contract has a set term and most restaurants do not re-up. Rossoblu is also a good option for the InKind + DineLA stack. I think they still let one person order it too so you can try alot of stuff
InKind provides restaurants with $x of unsecured financing in exchange for $2x of food and beverage credit. Restaurants stay on the InKind platform until InKind is able to sell all of the f&b credit for that restaurant, at which point the restaurant is removed from InKind’s platform. Rinse and repeat if a restaurant receives a subsequent tranche of money from InKind.
Hi! We’re actually $175 per person! We later decided on a lower price point and added a supplemental caviar course. We might make a supplemental duck course (which would come instead of the beef course) since that’s the dish that blows everyone’s mind.
LMK when you’re coming in bc I don’t know who this account belongs to!
We’re also doing pairings for a lower price. Less wine/NA per meal, but there’s top-ups and still the option to do the regular pairings.
I personally like Dine LA a lot for our restaurant since we’re new and also we want to reach an audience that’s intimidated by the cost of fine dining or who want a tasting menu that’s less than 2 hours long.
I think we’re offering quite a good deal AND we’re doing dietary modifications, if anyone is curious. I’ve put together 27 different protocols for different dietary needs (within reason), which was arduous and I have to update it constantly, but worth it if it means more people get to try Daniel’s food!
Rasarumah was great last Saturday. The menu is filling and perfect for two since you can order most of the dishes. Probably my favorite soundtrack in LA right now. And the serves are lovely. Wish this menu or a variant could continue.
