Eat more, pay less at restaurant week events

By Polly Fitz

Warning: If your New Year’s resolution has anything to do with eating less or depriving yourself of gourmet goodies, this article is not for you. For the rest of you — reason to rejoice. Restaurant weeks, those all-about-eating events where restaurants offer special reduced price menus, are here to offer a ray of sunshine in your otherwise gray winter. Here’s a roundup of some of the biggies. (If you plan your travel right, you could hit them all.)

San Diego

Sunny San Diego is a no-brainer when it comes to January vacation destinations. So it hardly seems fair that it adds its Restaurant Week to the list of already enticing attractions. Regardless, book your San Diego hotel soon if you plan to partake. The 5th annual San Diego Restaurant Week runs January 11-16, with more than 150 restaurants offering three-course meals priced at $20, $30, or $40 per person depending on the menu and location.

New York

Perhaps no city in the U.S. has more valid foodie bragging rights than the Big Apple. To see what all the fuss is about, plan your vacation January 18-23 or 25-30 during New York Restaurant Week. Choosing a New York hotel will be easy compared to deciding which of the more than 250 participating restaurants you want to try. The good news is, with three-course lunches for $24.07 and dinners for $35, you can afford to be indecisive.

Los Angeles

The 2nd annual dineLA Restaurant Week lasts for two weeks — January 25-30 and February 1-6 — and includes more than 130 restaurants. L.A.’s event has a tiered pricing system: $16 lunches and $26 dinners at "Deluxe" restaurants; $22 lunches and $34 dinners at "Premier" restaurants; and $26 lunches and $44 dinners at "Fine Dining" restaurants. The list of restaurants and their pricing is on the Restaurant Week Web site.

Chicago

The Windy City is known as a food town — both for its quantity and quality — where you can dine on everything big steaks and deep-dish pizzas to the unique tastes of Grant Achatz’ molecular gastronomy. So whether you like a lot of food or like food a lot, put February 20-27 on your calendar for Chicago Restaurant Week. Diners can choose from $22 three-course lunches or $32 three-course dinners at more than 130 restaurants.

Denver

Add a gourmet twist to your ski vacation by planning around Denver Restaurant Week February 21-27. You can work up an appetite on the slopes at Loveland (less than 60 miles from Denver) during the day and refuel with gourmet dinners at night. A record 198 participating restaurants are offering multi-course dinners for $26.40.

Related Orbitz resources:

• San Diego hotels
• New York hotels
• Los Angeles hotels
• Chicago hotels
• Denver hotels
• Food and wine vacations

Polly Fitz is an editor for Orbitz who likes writing about travel and food but prefers to actually go places and eat.

Tagged: California, Midwest, New York