It's Howard County Restaurant Weeks! You can check out all kinds of specials through August 4.
I have to admit that I have never taken enough advantage. Who has suggestions for places to try the specials?
I received emails from Petit Louis, Iron Bridge Wine Co. and Aida Bistro. You can see all the participating restaurants on the county's Web site. It's a nice line-up of restaurants, and you can click right through to their Restaurant Weeks menus.
If you have tried any of these special menus, please let folks know what you think.
Most of the Restaurant Week menus don't look that interesting. Other then Iron Bridge, most of the menus are to limiting with not that big of a discount. Most of the special menus only have a couple options where I can't find something that both me and my wife would enjoy. Almost seems like the restaurants are just putting things up to get the free advertising.
ReplyDeleteWhat Jim said. Most of these menus seem like ways to get diners to spend more money while limiting your choices.
ReplyDeleteRestaurant week used to be an opportunity for restaurants to showcase their best dishes or they would create special dishes inspired by restaurant week. I looked forward to that. Now, all of the menus are very underwhelming.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the other posts. Most of the participating restaurants' menus (other than Iron Bridge) seem very very limited and not worth the price.
ReplyDeleteMy boyfriend and I went to Iron Bridge last night (one of our favorite restaurants) and he had their steak special - the most delicious ribeye that either of us had ever tasted (and he gets a ribeye whenever we go to a steakhouse). The meat was incredibly tender, flavorful, perfectly cooked, and just fantastic. Even though the steak special is an upcharge to the restaurant week price (extra $12), the whole 3 courses was probably cheaper than most restaurants would charge for just the steak (and it would be nowhere near as good). I can't remember the name of the farm where it comes from, but apparently you can trace the cows' heritage back to Scotland or something! Ok.. done raving about this steak now!
We've always found Bistro Blanc to be a safe bet. Went last night and enjoyed everything we had.
ReplyDeleteLast night we went to check out Highland Inn and had a pretty good experience with it. My filet tartare appetizer was especially delicious if you like that kind of thing. Their regular menu is pricey enough that I probably wouldn't go back often (maybe for lunch or the lounge menu), but the restaurant week menu was a great deal. My food alone would have cost an extra $16 if I had ordered it all from the regular menu, and the portions seemed to be the same. It did take a while for our first course to come out, but service in general was attentive and friendly. The outside seating also looked beautiful if you can manage to get a table out there.
ReplyDeleteI tried Victoria's last night. Wasn't to impressed with their Restaurant Week selection, but ended up getting it after two of the things I did want off their normal menu were out "due to the Restaurant Week menu." Got the Johnnycake, Pork Chop, and Pecan Bread Pudding. Everything was OK, nothing special, bread pudding was extremely dense consistency.
ReplyDeleteNot sure about other restaurants but we had a great Restaurant Week lunch at Aida's. We'll definitely be back after Rest.Week is over. The charred romaine salad was delicious, the watermelon gazpacho like liquid fruit with a bit of a bite (from jalapeno we learned later), the salmon perfectly-cooked and wow, the accompanying tarragon cream was awesome. The sausage burger was also tasty, with hot crunchy fries. The blueberry trifle, with real whipped cream, a lovely ending. As we've seen mentioned on HowChow before, the terrace looks out over a parking lot but there are some nice flowering trees which soften the view.
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