A miss, a hit and a cancellation

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Sardi's offers a two-course lunch with coffee for $24.

I was really looking forward to Restaurant Week in Manhattan -- actually two weeks when some of the best restaurants offer a three-course lunch for $24.07. 


The semi-annual restaurant promotion ends Friday, but some restaurants continue to offer special, fixed-price lunches and dinners through Labor Day.


And as I saw last week, restaurants that don't take part in Restaurant Week sometimes offer lunches of similar value -- such as the $24 business lunch at Sardi's, 234 W. 44th St.


Actually, the Sardi's lunch is only two courses, plus coffee, but for someone like me who doesn't eat dessert it's perfect: appetizer, entree and coffee.


For today, my wife and I had made a reservation for a $24.07 lunch at Blue Fin, a seafood restaurant in the W Hotel, Broadway and 46th Street, but I cancelled it because of the excessive heat and humidity.


We had been planning to take the bus into the city, as we did for two lunches last week.


That means I won't get a $20 statement credit for using a registered American Express credit card to purchase three lunches during Restaurant Week.


Our first lunch at Esca was disappointing, mainly because the whole John Dory fish I chose was bony and had little flesh. How a seafood restaurant could list that on the menu is puzzling.


Our second lunch was at Ca Va Brasserie, a Todd English restaurant, and we were much happier. My entree was an enormous prawn served on a tasty bed of small, white beans.