3-course lunches during NYC Restaurant Weeks will cost a little more

During the Restaurant Week promotion in January, I really enjoyed an entree of Cape Cod Sea Scallops, Venetian Red Rice and Caramelized Endive as part of a fixed-price lunch at Esca, a high-end Italian seafood restaurant in Manhattan.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

New York City Restaurant Weeks are returning soon, but the bargain, three-course lunches will be slightly more expensive.

Lunches at some of the best restaurants in Manhattan will cost $29, plus tax and tip, compared to $25 in January.

Three-course dinners also are up $4 to $42, but they are not as good a value as lunch, because the limited menus often are similar.

American Express will give you a $5 statement credit, if you enroll an eligible credit card and spend $35 in a single transaction during the semi-annual Restaurant Week promotion, which runs from July 25 to Aug. 19.

You can get $5 back up to four times.

(201) Restaurant Week: Oceanaire Seafood lunch isn't for dieters

Once you ask The Oceanaire Seafood Room's kitchen to hold the brioche bun and matchstick fries, this is what your lunch of fish and undressed garnish looks like, above, during a Restaurant Week promotion sponsored by (201) magazine.

The complete Blackened Barramundi Sandwich with Creole Remoulade, Bibb Lettuce, Tomato, Red Onion, Brioche Bun and Matchstick Fries is one of three main courses available for lunch during the promotion. A three-course lunch at the Hackensack restaurant is $16.95 and a three-course dinner is $39.95.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you're watching your weight or cholesterol, a three-course lunch during (201) Restaurant Week may leave you hungry.

On Tuesday, I invited my wife and brother-in-law to join me for a fix-priced, three-course lunch at The Oceanaire Seafood Room, an expensive fine-dining restaurant in The Shops at Riverside, an upscale mall in Hackensack.

During the magazine-sponsored Restaurant Week, from Oct. 5-9 and 12-16, lunches at participating restaurants are $9.95, $12.95 and $16.95, and dinners are $19.95, $29.95 and $39.95.

Compare that to the semi-annual Restaurant Week promotion in Manhattan, where hundreds of the city's best places offer three-course lunches for $25 and three-course dinners for $38, and the discounts are offered for a month or longer.

The (201) Restaurant Week menu at The Oceanaire Seafood Room doesn't allow any substitutions and no sorbet or fruit is offered for dessert.

Judging from my experience, the promotional price for lunch is too low, especially at a place like The Oceanaire Seafood Room, where grilled fish of the day, with mashed potatoes and asparagus, is $25 at lunch.

The lunch menu also lists yellowfin ahi tuna -- grilled, broiled or seared, and brushed with white wine-lemon butter, but with no side dishes -- for $38.

A new fish

I wanted the Blackened Barramundi Sandwich, mainly because I have never eaten the flaky white fish from Australia, but didn't want the bun or matchstick fries.

Our waiter, Josh, described the fillet as being three-quarters of an inch to an inch thick, but my naked piece of fish wasn't that thick, nor was the piece of barramundi in my brother-in-law's sandwich.

I asked the waiter to hold the bun and fries, and wondered if I could get an undressed baked or sweet potato instead. 

He said the restaurant didn't have a baked potato, and a sweet potato would cost extra.

The plate held a small fillet of fish, but I had to ask for a wedge of lemon, as well as dressing for the side of tomato and onion slices, and lettuce that are used in the sandwich.

Lots of crab

My wife chose the Crab Cake Sliders, and loved the generous amount of crab meat in them. 

We started with a small plate of excellent Caesar Salad or a cup of Mushroom Bisque, the soup of the day.

Dessert was Cheese Cake or Key Lime Pie. My request for fruit turned out to be fruitless.

I probably should have ordered a main course of Prince Edward Island Mussels with Dijon Cream, Spanish Chorizo and Truffled Matchstick Fries, but I don't eat meat and didn't want "cream."

Delicious, crab-filled Crab Cake Sliders are available for lunch during the (201) Restaurant Week promotion.

A small Caesar Salad. My wife poached my croutons.

Thick carpet, dark wood, comfortable chairs, tablecloths and cloth napkins at lunch. The staff is large, but lunch service was casual on Tuesday, even though the dining room was far from full. We asked for our desserts to go.

A table setting.

An oyster bar and, beyond, an open kitchen.

Despite all of the employees I saw at the restaurant on Tuesday, none of them seemed to be monitoring the men's room, which was disgusting. The spout on the soap dispenser, left, was broken, and at least one paper napkin was on the floor, next to a basket.

You'll find some of Bergen County's narrowest mall parking spaces in the lot of the upscale Hackensack shopping center, even though many shoppers drive big luxury sedans and even bigger SUVs. The Oceanaire Seafood Room, above, replaced MCormick & Schmick's. Both chain restaurants are owned by Landry's Inc.

See: 6th Annual (201) Restaurant Week


The Oceanaire Seafood Room, 175 Riverside Square (The Shops at Riverside), Hackensack Avenue and Route 4, Hackensack; 1-201-343-8862. 

Open 7 days, but doesn't serve lunch on Mondays.

Top seafood on both sides of the Hudson: Esca and Hiura

Two of the first-course lunch selections at Esca in Manhattan on Friday were crudo or raw white tuna, with black pepper and extra-virgin olive oil, above, and crispy calamari with parsley and radish sticks, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A short and problem-plagued New York City Restaurant Week is over, but I'm already looking forward to summer discounts on lunches and dinners at some of the city's best spots.

I finally managed to get to Esca Restaurant on Friday -- the last day of the annual winter promotion -- for a three-course seafood lunch that cost only $25, plus tax and tip, the price of an entree at other times.

The natural follow-up on Saturday night was a dinner of high quality raw and cooked seafood at Hiura, a family run Japanese restaurant in Fort Lee.

Winter Restaurant Week usually falls in January, but it was postponed this year until after the Super Bowl game in North Jersey on Feb. 2, and shortened to three weeks from four.

I had to cancel two other Esca reservations because of bad weather.

Esca transformed an entree of inexpensive whiting by pan frying and crisping the fillets and serving them with cauliflower, which, unfortunately, was overcooked and mushy. All the hot, flaky fish needed was a spritz of fresh lemon juice.

Esca's $25 Restaurant Week menu allows no substitutes. I broke my diet and indulged in a sinful panna cotta with citrus, including blood orange, and fresh and candied lemon.

White-bean crostini, above, and olives, below, were complimentary. The crust of the sliced Italian bread served at Esca shattered and tasted as if it was baked in a coal oven. Esca, Italian for "bait," describes itself as a southern Italian trattoria "devoted to celebrating the fruits of the sea." 

Tables off of Esca's main room and a small bar.

All set for dinner

At Hiura in Fort Lee, I was delighted to see the father-and-son team of Noboru and Shoji Hiura working side by side behind the sushi bar, where I sat down for dinner. 

I have been fed well by the Hiuras for nearly three decades, and Saturday night was no exception.

I ordered the Dinner Set, a beautifully composed box of raw and cooked seafood, and tempura with soup, rice, pickles, hot green tea and dessert.

Hiura's Dinner Set includes fat slices of raw bluefin and medium-fatty tuna, left front; juicy Chilean sea bass marinated in sake and sweet miso paste, right front, and perfectly fried shrimp and vegetable tempura, right rear ($32).

Raw seafood in the sushi bar's refrigerated compartment at Hiura.

Miso soup, above; radish pickles, below, and a bowl of white rice are part of the Dinner Set.

I chose a slice of sweet melon instead of ice cream for dessert.

Details

Esca, 402 W. 43rd St., New York, N.Y.; 1-212-564-7272. Web site: A trattoria dedicated to seafood

Hiura Restaurant, 400B Main St., Fort Lee; 201-346-0110. BYO, closed Wednesdays. Valet parking at dinner.

Catching a bargain Greek seafood lunch in midtown Manhattan

Each table at Estiatorio Milos, a Greek seafood restaurant in midtown Manhattan, has a bottle of extra-virgin olive oil and a miniature oregano plant. At lunch on Monday, a server poured olive oil into a dish, snipped leaves from the plant into it and whisked both away.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Estiatorio Milos is one of Manhattan's best restaurants, especially if you love fresh seafood.

And until Aug. 16, you can enjoy a three-course weekday lunch for only $25 during the semi-annual Restaurant Week promotion.

On Monday, the limited fixed-price menu offered 2 grilled Canadian scallops as an appetizer, but I had my heart set on fresh fish as an entree.

So, I ordered the Mediterranean Meze Plate with tasty taramosalata, hummus, tzatziki, Greek olives, sliced radish and the world's smallest spinach pie. 
 

Mediterranean Meze Plate.

A fresh whole Loup de Mer from the island of Kephalonia with steamed crown broccoli.

My entree swam a long way from Greece, but landed on my plate butterflied, grilled and dressed in a simple emulsion of extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice and oregano. Delicious.

I ended the meal with fresh fruit, including a slice of perfectly ripe cantaloupe.

The $25 lunch represents a savings of $15 or $20, compared to ordering a la carte.

I got even a better deal by registering the American Express card I used to pay for the meal, and will receive a $5 statement credit each time I eat at a restaurant taking part in the semi-annual promotion.

Fresh Fruit of the Season, with a gloriously sweet slice of cantaloup.

The bread served is nothing special -- I ate just the crust -- but excellent Greek extra-virgin olive oil and fresh oregano make you forget that.

After my meal, I looked over the well-iced fresh fish and other seafood on a display in the dining room, marveling at sea scallops with their roe.

Live sea scallops in their shells were being offered for $14 each.  

Fresh whole fish was available, starting at around $45 a pound.

The New York City Restaurant Week promotion began in 1992 at lunch only (3 courses for $19.92, plus tax and tip).

Each year, the price for lunch went up one cent. In  2010, the price jumped to $24.07.

This year's increase to $25 makes it easier to figure the tip: 15% is $3.75 and 20% is $5.

On the fresh-seafood display, a delicacy I have never seen: Sea scallops with their roe. The restaurant says they are perfect when grilled in the open kitchen.

Tables near the bar. The fresh-seafood display is at the rear.

The restaurant is on West 55th Street, near Sixth Avenue.

Estiatorio Milos, 125 W. 55th St., near Sixth Avenue, Manhattan; 212-245-7400.

Web site:  Simply prepared fresh seafood

New York City Restaurant Week offers 3-course lunches and 3-course dinners at hundreds of restaurants through Aug. 16.

Web site: 3 courses for $25 and $38

Deep discount on the $24.07 lunch

Image via Wikipedia

Takng the bus into the city saves even more money.

New York City Restaurant Week is back and if you have an American Express credit card, you can chop more than 25% off the usual $24.07 three-course lunch.


American Express will give you a $20 statement credit as long as you dine out three times at participating restaurants July 11-24, and charge your meals to the card.


That's $6.66 off of $24.07, before tax and tip.


I'll be using an American Express card that gives me 3% back on all restaurant meals.


I've already made my reservations at two seafood restaurants and a brasserie, all within comfortable walking distance of the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal.


I'm taking the bus into Manhattan. Driving and paying and for parking and a toll would absolutely blow any savings during the semi-annual restaurant promotion.


Here's the link to the Web site:

NYC Restaurant Week