NYC Restaurant Week - Winter 2011

(Image courtesy of NYCGo.com)

Is anyone else as excited as I am about the start of NYC Restaurant Week next Monday?




In years past, I'd see advertisements about NYC Restaurant Week start to pop up online and I'd try to ignore them. I'd see email reminders land in my Inbox and I'd delete them almost immediately, wistfully imagining what it would be like to eat a meal at every single participating restaurant. I'd dream about NYC Restaurant Week but would rarely jump at the the chance to make reservations, as I'd always be thinking of the potential damage that all of those meals would inflict on my budget, prix-fixe or not.*

But for 2011? I say -- the hell with it!

I'm reallocating the rest of my monthly funds for clothing and shoes for January to my dining-out budget. (Thank you, Mint.com, for making that so easy for me to do without suffering from heart palpitations!) I've been packing my schedule as full as possible with outings to participating restaurants, all the while drooling over the special Restaurant Week menus.

So far, I'm set to have a lunch at Maze - By Gordon Ramsey, a dinner at ilili, and a dinner at SUSHISAMBA park with potential for even more meals around the city over the two-week period. All I have to worry about now is making sure my camera battery is charged so I can capture each and every morsel.

I hope my stomach is ready for this because I. can't. wait.

Are you planning on taking advantage of the NYC Restaurant Week deals? Or, if you're not based in New York, is your town or city holding a Restaurant Week? If so, let me know!

ETA on January 21 at 12:25pm: Just added lunch at South Gate to my schedule.

* Diners can expect to pay $24.07 for lunch or $35 for dinner.