Restaurant Week -- the biannual celebration of New York City’s food scene (and an easy way to fill empty seats during summer) -- is back!
From July 24 - August 18 (so, it’s really more like Summer Restaurant Month), participating restaurants will offer two-course lunches for $29 and three-course dinners for $42. While tax, gratuity, and beverages aren’t included in the price (and often tempting fancy supplements like steak or truffles result in an upcharge), Restaurant Week still offers decent deals for restaurants you typically can’t afford.
But where to start? Book a table at one of these spots offering superior bargain menus, special dishes, and a good, air-conditioned summertime meal.
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Fung Tu
Lower East Side
A special dinner menu at this modern Chinese spot will offer a selection of snacks, apps, mains, and dessert, including pork belly egg rolls, stir-fried kasha with summer vegetables, and fried chicken with lap cheong gravy and a garlic chive biscuit. In addition to the special menu, Fung Tu has also teamed up with Russ & Daughters to create fusion dishes like a smoked sable bao, and scallion pancakes with kippered salmon.
Root & Bone
East Village
Southern favorite Root & Bone will offer a special lunch and brunch during Restaurant Week, featuring biscuits, macaroni & cheese, and watermelon for the table and course options including biscuits & gravy and waffle Benedict, to be followed by Key lime pie or banana pudding for dessert. A dinner menu will offer heartier options like country fried cauliflower and braised short rib meatloaf.
The Wayfarer
Midtown East
This stylish Midtown restaurant just steps from the entrance of Central Park is showcasing its summertime menu on weekdays for lunch and dinner. Choose from summery options like pickled watermelon and feta salad with black olives and elegant carbs including a homemade mushroom pappardelle topped with black summer truffle, mascarpone, sage and parmesan and a vegetable risotto cooked with oven dried tomatoes, sweet roasted corn, charred kale, and asparagus.
American Cut
Midtown
This expense-account-worthy steakhouse is offering a special lunch menu that lets budget-conscious guests choose from an appetizer like shrimp cocktail or corn soup with king crab and an entree. While a 6-ounce filet mignon has a $6 upcharge, brick chicken, broiled salmon, and a range of fancy salads with your choice of protein topper (go prime hanger steak) keeps your decadent lunch bill at a palatable $29.
Chefs Club
SoHo
If your Restaurant Week goal is to try as many chefs’ cooking as possible, look no further than this hybrid restaurant and event space, which features dishes from a conglomeration of visiting chefs. For restaurant week, course options will include chilled melon and coconut curry soup by Chef Jeremy Fox of LA’s Rustic Canyon, braised short ribs with serrano chile creamed corn by Eric Werner of Mexico’s Hartwood Tulum, and spaghetti rustichella by Ori Menashe of LA’s Bestia.
Leuca
Williamsburg
Pasta legend Andrew Carmellini’s newest wood-fired project in the William Vale Hotel will serve up your daily dose of comfort carbs for Restaurant Week. The special menu (which changes for both lunch and dinner, so you can visit multiple times) includes tuna crudo, sea bass tartare, hanger steak vesuvius, and the already Insta-famous malfadini in neon green rapini pesto.
Neta
West Village
This cozy Downtown omakase lounge is usually reserved for the expense account crowd, so take advantage of the affordable $29 Restaurant Week lunch which includes the option of five pieces of nigiri or three hand rolls (salmon, spicy tuna, hamachi) followed by your choice of poke bowls or warm donburi bowls and dessert.
Casa Mono
Union Square
It seems like just about everyone on your Instagram feed is in Spain this summer, but if you can’t stomach the airfare yourself, head to this tapas staple spot for a special lunch including options like pork croquetas, dorada with heirloom tomato gazpacho, and more exotic Catalan and Spanish dishes.
French Louie
Boerum Hill
A neighborhood favorite, this French-ish restaurant with a laid-back vibe will be hosting weekday lunches and dinners for Restaurant Week. On the menu: avocado Tartine with a pickled green tomato, grilled trout with corn pudding, steak frites, and desserts worth saving room for -- like the chocolate gateau.
MP Taverna
Astoria
If you always talk about getting out to Astoria to binge on Greek food but never quite make it -- here’s your chance! Chef Michael Psilakis' modern taverna will be serving both lunch and dinner, where you can pick from mezzes, mains, and generous portions of seafood and meat to share. Arrive early or stay late: Weekdays bring half-off all drinks from 3pm - 6pm.
Jams
Midtown West
Jams is one of the OG California-style restaurants that made eating colorful veggies cool, and now is the best time to take advantage of chef Jonathan Waxman’s summer lunch menu featuring kale salad with anchovy dressing, linguine with squash blossoms and pesto, scallops on avocado puree, and more rainbow-hued, healthy-ish dishes.
Hearth
East Village
Another influential mainstay that should be on any New Yorker's eaten-at list, Hearth serves farm-to-table, Italian-style small plates by Chef Marco Canora (you may know him as the bone broth guy). The Restaurant Week dinner menu includes a market salad or calamari to start, homemade fusilli with pesto and ricotta, meatballs with cacio e pepe-style polenta, and more shareable dishes.
Aureole
Midtown West
This glitzy restaurant actually worth braving Times Square for will be serving weekday lunch and dinner, with highlights including a romaine and sugar snap pea salad with ricotta salata, grilled veal chop with sweet corn, and peach melba with ice cream for dessert.
BKW by Brooklyn Winery
Crown Heights
This Brooklyn-based winery’s food-focused venture will be serving a special dinner (except on Saturday nights) for Restaurant Week. While the menu is pretty standard (salad, fish), the extra lure of this tasting is that it comes with a glass of red or white wine, so you’re getting three courses, plus a drink, for just $42.
Scarpetta
Meatpacking
Get a three-course meal (including the signature spaghetti) at this famed Italian eatery, with appetizers like red snapper crudo and crème fraîche cheesecake for dessert.
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