Anyone taking advantage of this?

http://www.charlotterestaurantweek.com/

It's $30 per person for a 3-course meal at any of the restaurants listed. If you're like me and don't usually eat really really nice then it's a chance to eat for really cheap at some awesome places.

Dilworth
131 Main - Dilworth
300 East
Bonterra
Copper
Dolce Ristorante
Fiamma
Las Ramblas
Sole Spanish Grille

Downtown
Aquavina
Basil Thai
BlackFinn American Saloon
BLT Steak
Blue
Caffe Siena
The Capital Grille
Chima Brazilian Steakhouse
Ember Grille
Enso Asian Bistro
Fleming's Prime Steakhouse
LaVecchia's Seafood Grille
Luce
McCormick & Schmick's - Uptown
Mez
Mimosa Grill
Morton's The Steakhouse
Ruth's Chris Steak House - Uptown
Sonoma
Zink American Kitchen

Eastover
Deejai Thai
Providence Café

Lake Norman / North Mecklenburg
131 Main - Lake Norman
Dressler's
Kabuto Japanese Steakhouse
Maddi's Southern Bistro
Mickey & Mooch - Huntersville
Positano Osteria
Red Rocks Café - Birkdale Village
T1 Tapas

Midtown / Elizabeth / Plaza Midwood
Cajun Queen
Carpe Diem
Customshop
Maharani
The Melting Pot - Midtown
Vivace
Zada Jane's Corner Café

South Charlotte (Ballantyne / Arboretum / Pineville / Fort Mill, SC)
131 Main - Blakeney
D'Vine Wine Café
Gallery Restaurant
Global
Maestro's Bar & Bistro
Mickey & Mooch - Arboretum
Miro Spanish Grille
New South Kitchen & Bar
Passion8 Bistro
Rudy's Italian Restaurant & Bar
Tria Terra

South End
The Liberty Gastropub
Sullivan's Steakhouse

SouthPark / Park Road / Foxcroft
Andrew Blair's
Arooji's Ristorante - SouthPark
BrickTop's Grill
BRIO Tuscan Grille
Café Monte
Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House
Firebirds Wood Fired Grill - SouthPark
Good Food on Montford
M5 Modern Mediterranean
McCormick & Schmick's - SouthPark
Noble's Restaurant
The Palm
Red Rocks Café - Strawberry Hill
Ruth's Chris Steak House - SouthPark
Toscana
Upstream
Village Tavern

Southwest Charlotte / Yorkmont
Omaha Steakhouse

University / Concord
Lava Bistro
The Melting Pot - University
Rocky River Grille & Lounge

1/23/2010 6:44:44 PM

ibt wearestudents30dollarbucksistoomuch

1/23/2010 6:48:14 PM

well McDonald's is expensive compared to Ramen noodles. It's all relative. $30 is cheap compared to the $50-75 you'd usually spend at nice restaurants.

1/23/2010 6:50:42 PM

dolce is a very good place to eat...authentic italian. yummy gelato

1/23/2010 6:52:01 PM

I called like 5 places around 4pm and they were all booked. Finally found a 10pm at Bonterra.

1/23/2010 6:53:10 PM

me and my girl heading to 131 main tomorrow night. Perhaps chima later on next week.

1/23/2010 7:27:55 PM

I wonder if they ripped this idea off from NYC.

I wish Raleigh did it

1/24/2010 3:27:51 AM

For anyone who takes advantage of this, please remember to tip well. You're getting a great deal on the food and Restaurant Week is absolute hell on everyone who's not the customer.

1/24/2010 4:24:49 AM

They have it in DC - did it two weeks ago. My cousin and I went to Morton's steakhouse (where some of their regularly priced steaks are about $110)

The food was so good and the waiter was awesome. We did $30 a piece for the food and another $30 a piece for drinks. And ended up each tipping him $20 bucks

1/24/2010 9:32:31 AM

Going to Chima Tuesday and Red Rocks Saturday.

For those of you "thinking of going," I recommend reserving a table soon as most of the places are full already. It is such an awesome thing though. I like it especially for really expensive places I would only have the money to visit once in a great while - like Chima and Capital Grille.

1/24/2010 10:48:22 AM

Quote :

"I wish Raleigh did it"

http://www.trirestaurantweek.com/
http://www.godowntownraleigh.com/restaurantweek/index.html

1/24/2010 1:02:26 PM

highly recommend hitting up Blue if you can get a reservation

1/24/2010 2:04:09 PM

I've been wanting to try out Blue. Didn't feel like parking downtown last night though. Ended up going to Bonterra. It was delicious. They have a great Scotch list too.

1/24/2010 2:05:19 PM

I end up paying more for restaurant week than I would normally. They make you get apps, salad/soup, and desert. Then after you start drinking, it gets to be expensive.

1/24/2010 2:15:45 PM

I wish I had read this before heading out last night

1/24/2010 2:24:27 PM

^^true but it's still cheaper than getting all those things by themselves. I did spend waaaay too much last night.

1/24/2010 2:28:41 PM

The food at Blue is pretty good, although I thought it was a bit overpriced for what you got. For $30 it's well worth it.

Chima is an exercise in overindulgence. That many types of meat in an all you can eat fashion is just gluttony on an epic scale. It was really good, but I felt like total dog shit for 2 days after eating there last year. I'm not planning on going back.

1/24/2010 2:48:35 PM

Went to BlackFinn and McCormick & Shmicks. BlackFinn was decent and they gave use a metric ton of food (plus a beer!) for the $30.

1/25/2010 11:23:22 AM

Blackfinn is awesome but I wouldn't go there for a deal like this...its much better as a sports bar than a sit down formal type dinner

1/25/2010 11:29:04 AM

Red Rock's isn't all that great, definitely not for restaurant week. Are you going to the one at Fairview (Sardis)/Providence?

edit - damn Bonterra looks good as hell:

Starter (choice of one)

Cantaloupe & Avocado Salad - with Chili Dressing
Azalea Salad - Chopped Iceberg Lettuce, Sliced Apples, Smoked Bacon Buttermilk Bleu Cheese
Brie & Pear Salad - with Raspberry Vermouth Vinaigrette
Soup - Soup du Jour
Entrée (choice of one)

Wood Fired Bistro Filet - Potato Croquettes, Sautéed Spinach, Veal Jus
Coriander Crusted Pork Tenderloin - Cheddar Polenta, Rapini, Ravigote Sauce
Cedar Plank Salmon - Warm Fingerling Potato Salad, Olive Tapenade
Roasted Airline Chicken Breast - Herb Gnocchi, Haricot Verts, Thyme Velouté
Spinach & Ricotta Lasagna
Dessert (choice of one)

Chocolate Molten Cake - with Fresh Berries
Crème Brûlée - Tahitian Vanilla Bean Custard
Pecan & Sweet Potato Pie - Vanilla Ice Cream, Bourbon & Caramel Infused Whipped Cream
Nightly Cheesecake Selection
House Made Sorbet & Ice Cream

[Edited on January 25, 2010 at 11:40 AM. Reason : v]

1/25/2010 11:38:50 AM

I usually splurge on the nicer restaurants around twice a month here in Charleston. But there are about 3 or 4 restaurants that I don't touch unless it's a ridiculously special occasion...to which I haven't met yet (ones where you won't get out of without dropping around $250...including tip).

Restaurant week allowed me to have a great meal at one of those places for about $165. It was awesome.

1/25/2010 12:14:30 PM

My brother works at McCormick & Shmick's. Their food is DELISH!

I think that if you're going to take advantage of this $30 deal then you should tip based on original price.
Realistically per person:
$10 Appetizer
$7 desert
$50 entree
$15 drinks (at least)
$82/person
Tips (~15-20%)
Tip should be between $12-$16

Based on this deal:
$30 base price (three courses)
$15 drinks (at least)
$45/person
Tips (~15-20%)
Tip should be between $7-$9

This is a big difference for any wait staff, especially since they'll probably still have to divvy it up with the bartenders. PLEASE tip the realistic amount!

[Edited on January 25, 2010 at 12:16 PM. Reason : ]

1/25/2010 12:16:00 PM

Quote :

"PLEASE tip the realistic amount!"

At the restaurant I went to, they included the tip to the meal because they knew it was going to bring in some cheapos who would screw the servers over. But our guy knew me and my girlfriend were food and beverage people, so he treated us great and took the tip percentage out and we tipped him accordingly.

1/25/2010 12:24:06 PM

Quote :

"I wonder if they ripped this idea off from NYC."

they do this in many, many large metropolitan areas. welcome to the big kids club.

that said, a lot of restaurants go the route of cooking hotel style (meaning lots of warming pans, etc), so you're not REALLY getting their best effort during restaurant week. not all are bad though. I went to a seafood place with the gf during DC's and we had a table right near the kitchen so we could see them cooking. rare during a restaurant week though.

[Edited on January 25, 2010 at 12:49 PM. Reason : .]

1/25/2010 12:43:35 PM

^that and

Quote :

" I wish Raleigh did it "

:carlface:

1/25/2010 12:50:14 PM

I went to The Melting Pot, again.
A group of us go every time it is restaurant week.
$30 for a 4 course meal that takes 3 hours is a hell of a deal.

1/25/2010 1:04:50 PM

3 hours seems way too long to spend at a restaurant unless you're getting steadily more inebriated throughout

1/25/2010 1:10:59 PM

not when you are having fun with friends, and enjoying good food.

1/25/2010 1:18:54 PM

Quote :

"edit - damn Bonterra looks good as hell:"

I got the
Cantaloupe & Avocado Salad - with Chili Dressing
Wood Fired Bistro Filet - Potato Croquettes, Sautéed Spinach, Veal Jus
and Crème Brûlée - Tahitian Vanilla Bean Custard

Salad was really really good. Sounds like a weird combination but they fit together well. Filet was amazing. The potato things were awesome, and the Crème Brûlée was a really generous portion.

GF got the Brie & Pear Salad with Raspberry Vermouth Vinaigrette
Cedar Plank Salmon - Warm Fingerling Potato Salad, Olive Tapenade
and Chocolate Molten Cake - with Fresh Berries.

Salmon was great, as were the salad and cake (not a big chocolate fan though, so I ate most of the Crème Brûlée.) I came in expecting more of a rushed restaurant week feeling but the service was great and nothing felt generic. Ended up spending about 2 hours there. After the bottle of Champagne (the $32 bottle they had was out so he gave us a $55 bottle for the same price ) and the Balvenie Doublewood 12 year (which he accidentally brought me on the rocks, so when he brought it back neat had like half the cup full.) everything ended up being around $150 including tip. Not bad at all for what we got.

-oh on a unrelated note. Anyone ever go to Hawthorne pizza at Hawthorne and 7th? They have a great menu and Monday nights is $1.50 draft night. All their drafts are $1.50 including imports. Hard to beat.

[Edited on January 25, 2010 at 2:29 PM. Reason : ,]

1/25/2010 2:17:10 PM

Quote :

"oh on a unrelated note. Anyone ever go to Hawthorne pizza at Hawthorne and 7th? They have a great menu and Monday nights is $1.50 draft night. All their drafts are $1.50 including imports. Hard to beat"

I go to the one near Highland Creek (used to be Mellow Mushroom). They have the same deal, and it's awesome. The pizza's ok too.

1/25/2010 2:36:43 PM

Definitely took advantage of this when DC did it. Took the girl to a really awesome Italian place near my office.

Even with a regular tip it was still a fraction of what I would have spent normally.

Also, a lot of places will extend their restaurant week deals throughout the month or for another few weeks, so that's worth checking on as well. The place I went here was honoring the dinner special ($35/person) throughout the whole month.

[Edited on January 25, 2010 at 2:53 PM. Reason : ]

1/25/2010 2:53:07 PM

^^didn't know there were other ones. I assume because it was on Hawthorne St. it was only there. Good to know.

1/25/2010 3:49:09 PM

^Been there once for lunch.
Decent pizza, but a little more $ than I was expecting for a pizza place.

1/25/2010 3:56:04 PM

Hawthorne's pizza is awesome - Chicken bacon ranch especially.

I was disappointed though, I've got a Citipass book and tried to use a coupon for $10 off, however they said that pizza doesn't qualify as an entree. Even though everyone orders it as an entree and it's typically 1.5x - 2x more expensive than an entre.

But I digress...

1/25/2010 4:41:11 PM

Gastro Soul (Pecan and Central) is another awesome new restaurant in Charlotte. It's tapas and very reasonably priced. All the items are anywhere between $1 and $9, plus sushi. It's just really hard to get a table because it's packed like from 9 till close, and now they're open for lunch. The cheese/meat plates, lamp lollipops, Spanish chorizo with red wine, mini blue-cheese burgers, and just about anything are delicious. Drinks aren't expensive either. DJ on the weekends.

-and it's in my neighborhood and close to most places I hang out.

v totally forgot to mention the fries, hummus, baba ganoush, and taziki pita plate, and sandwiches. Thanks.

[Edited on January 25, 2010 at 4:51 PM. Reason : .]

1/25/2010 4:45:57 PM

Soul is the bomb.com

They have a good cuban sandwich, truffle oil fries, sushi, pita w/dipping sauce sampler, etc. etc.

I need to go back there sometime soon.

1/25/2010 4:48:54 PM

Holy crap. Check out this deal at Maharani:

http://www.charlotterestaurantweek.com/Restaurants/Maharani.html

If there's 2 people you get a bottle of wine included in the $30.

1/25/2010 5:30:17 PM

I'm hitting up the Red Rocks at Strawberry Hill on Sat - we tried to get reservations for 6 at Bonterra and a couple other places and they were all booked up until about 930. We waited too long to try and book a Saturday night restaurant.

1/27/2010 9:49:58 PM