I’m kind of torn. It’s a food event….that lasts a month! Typically, you would expect any foodie to jump on this opportunity to make anywhere between 3-6 calls for reservations and rally for some serious food adventures. I mean come on…I revere the State Fair as my unofficial holiday to be celebrated with food comas, sticky fingers, and a huge set back in my health/fitness regime. But Restaurant Week? Meh….
I read a Dallas Observer’s blog about why some restaurants would and would not participate in the charity event benefiting the North Texas Food Bank. It makes sense. They are sacrificing quality to meet quantity. With this “turn and burn” mentality to crank out any entrees as possible to make profit, of course everything is going to suffer. I’m not about that. I get really upset if I don’t like my food. It’s heartbreaking.
The past years, my experience has always been lacking. I’ve been to Nick and Sam’s Steakhouse and Stephan Pyles and I was sadly disappointed, although I am sure going during any regular Friday night it would probably blow my mind.
Whether it’s the food, the service or just the incredible let down in my expectations, I never feel satisfied when I leave. Just much poorer with the after taste of a mediocre meal.
With gratuity and drinks, the meal ends up being about $60-$70 anyway and that’s worth a decent meal alone without the prefix menu. I’d rather pay for a great entree and one drink coupled with superb service that wasn’t flustered than pay for bites of a 3-course meal. But I suppose that’s also something else you don’t think about, you’re paying for a charity too. So you go in with expectations for a $45 meal, but really it’s not worth that at all.
Restaurant Week is a pretty cool nationwide event that I am pretty sure calls out to a lot of young professionals (specifically ages 18-35). Some call us, Millennials or Generation Y. After doing much research about this somewhat misunderstood group, the big take away when it comes to behaviors is that Millennials are willing to spend the money but are very particular on where and how they spend it. They value quality and they won’t be getting much of that if they are vying for open tables at the higher end restaurants in Dallas such as Tei-An or Pappa Bros. The much respected French Room opted out this year and FT33 refused from the get go.
This year, the only restaurant that caught my eye would be San Salvaje by Stephan Pyles, but I want my experience to be awesome. Not watered down by lower quality foods and distracted service. I can’t do that to my stomach. Sorry Foodies… you probably won’t catch me at any of those events this year.
