It’s time for the annual  DC Restaurant Week.

With over 170 participating restaurants, offering two and three course prix-fixe menus for seven days, what’s not to like?

An with prices at just $20.08 for lunch and $30.08 for dinner, you can try several new places as well as hit a couple old favorites, without breaking the bank. 

How about checking out Acadiana, Butterfield 9, D’Acqua, or a couple of personal favorites, Zaytinya and Mie N Yu.

Ned a place for a low cost “power-lunch”?  Try The Palm.

While some restaurants like Hook, Capital Grill and The Palm offer only a lunch special and some, like the Oceanaire Seafood Room, offer only dinner; with so many choices, the only problem will be deciding which places to visit. 

Here’s the list of participating restaurants.

DC Restaurant Week

Dates and Times – Monday – Sunday, Jan. 14-20, 2008. Lunch and Dinner at most participating restaurants.

Cost - $20.08 for lunch, $30.08 for dinner (per person) and do not include beverage, tax or tip.

Reservations – Reservations are recommended, and most can be made online through OpenTable. 

Images – Restaurant Week image courtesy of DC Restaurant Week, other Flickr

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Post from: The DC Traveler

But one possible solution, courtesy of The DC Traveler, is to go out for a meal of tapas.  If you order just a plate or two at a time, not only will you have a very relaxing meal, but you’ll probably eat less, and perhaps keep at least one of your resolutions this year.

The history of tapas is clouded with many stories as to how it originated, but one of the most entertaining relates to the King of Spain, Alfonso the 10^th.

After he recovered from being ill, during which he was required by his doctor to take small bites of food washed down with wine, he decreed that no wine could be served at any of the inns of the Castile region in Spain, without being accompanied with something to eat.

Other stories include the creation of a small snack for farm workers during their long days in the fields or the need to keep flies out of a glass of wine by topping it (Tapa means “lid” or “cover” in Spanish) with a piece of bread with meat, fish or cheese on top.

Yet another story tell the tale of a tavern owner that discovered that if cheap wine was paired with the powerful smelling cheese, it could disguise the taste of the poor quality wine. I guess “Two-Buck Chuck” is not a new thing. 

In Spain, tapas is traditionally an early evening “snack” or after work “bar food”, designed to hold you over until you sit for a more formal dinner, usually served between 9:00 and 11:00 p.m.  However more recently,  sampling many different plates of tapas has become a dinner substitute for the traditional two or three-course meal; allowing diners to sample a wide variety of dishes.

Here’s a list of some of the tapas restaurants in DC:

• Jaleo - Downtown, Crystal City and Bethesda. One of DC’s favorites.
• Bambule - 5225 Wisconsin Ave. NW.  Check out my recent review of Bambule and don’t miss the gypsy guitar shows on Friday and Saturdays nights.  It’s some of the best live music in DC. 
• Bardeo Wine Bar – 3309 Connecticut Ave. NW.
• Las Tapas - 710 King St., Alexandria, VA. One of DC’s more affordable tapas places. 
• Meze - 2437 18th St. NW. Check out the tango lessons on Mondays, Salsa lessons on Tuesdays, and belly dancing lessons on Sundays.
• Mezza Luna - 1140 19th St. NW. Not really Spanish tapas, more of a mezze (small plate) restaurant.  Check out the 10 happy-hour tapas specials at just $4.00 each (weekdays 4-7 p.m.).
• Taberna del Alabardero - 1776 I St. NW. Classic Spanish food and tapas.  Also has a happy hour special with 50% off all tapas weekdays, 3-7 p.m.
• Zaytinya - 701 Ninth St. NW. One of my favorites places to dine in DC. They serve great Mediterranean tapas/mezze.  I’ll be writing a full review of Zaytinya in the next few weeks.

All restaurants listed are located in Washington, DC, unless noted.

images – Flickr, except the Meze bar, courtesy of Meze
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Post from: The DC Traveler

At the Taste of Bethesda, you can sample food from the menus of 50 Bethesda restaurants and enjoy five stages of live music from 11:00 until 3:00 p.m.  Sadly, none of the more notable places are participating this year, but there should be some good offerings from Café Europa, McCormick & Schmick’s,  Ruth’s Chris and Jaleo. 

Taste of Bethesda
In the Woodmont Triangle – bordering Norfolk, Cordell, St. Elmo, Del Ray and Auburn Avenues
Bethesda, MD (map it)

Dates and Times – Saturday, Oct. 6th –  11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Tickets – Admission is free, food and drink tickets are packaged four tickets for $5.00 with a single food serving costing 1-3 tickets.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Bethesda – Red line, then a 3-block walk.

Parking – Parking is available in Bethesda’s public parking garages. Watch and read the meters carefully as Bethesda police aggressively write expensive parking tickets ($50+ for expired meters if I recall), some meters are free on weekends and others may be in effect until 10:00 p.m.
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Post from: The DC Traveler

DC’s Restaurant Week is a great opportunity to try that new place you’ve never been to or visit an old favorite.  

The list of participating restaurants includes high-end ($$$$) dining at places such as Oceanaire, The Caucus Room and Kinkead’s can be affordable. And don’t miss hitting some of DC’s hip and trendy places like Acadiana, Butterfield 9, Zaytinya, TenPenh, Firefly in Dupont Circle, Mie N Yu on M Street and IndeBleu.

There’s also a group of a few of DC’s great stand bys like Sequoia, La Tasca, Georgia Brown’s, Harry’s Tap Room in Clarendon and for tapas, Jaleo.

Some of the restaurants only offer a dinner or lunch option, but most offer both. Usually there’s a limited menu, but many include their signature dishes on their Restaurant Week menus.  Reservations are strongly recommended and available online at opentable.com. for all but about 30 of the participating restaurants.

Dates - Aug. 6th - 12th, at participating restaurants throughout DC.

Prices – Dinner – $30.07, lunch – $20.07, and prices do not include beverage, tax or gratuity.

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Post from: The DC Traveler