For those of you not familiar with Restaurant Week: It's a celebration of New York City's restaurants and dining out. Hundreds of restaurants offer deals for you to dine out without the price tags they normally carry. This is your opportunity to try something new, try something fancy, and save your budget all at once.
It's one of the best parts about living in New York City: An endless list of restaurants at your fingertips, ready for you to explore. The downside though is that so many of them might be out of your price range, leaving you stuck outside looking in – but not this week!
Twice a year we get the option to try out all the best foods from all five boroughs. Focusing on 2-course lunches and 3-course dinners starting at $30, Restaurant Week is all about bringing good food to to everyone who wants it.
So how does Restaurant Week really work?
During restaurant week (which is actually now three or four weeks – just like happy hour which goes most of the day at some places), restaurants book out fast so it's exciting that with the option to take it to go, you don't have to worry about that and try a whole range of wonderful foods.
The best bit is that a lot of these restaurants are a bit fancier than normal and normally charge much more, that's the real benefit of restaurant week!
Restaurants will, in most cases, provide a special “Restaurant Week Menu” which allows you to pick from a range of their favorite dishes for a fraction of the normal cost.
When does NYC Restaurant Week start and finish?
This year the summer restaurant week runs from July 24 to August 20, 2023.
How do you book tables for the special Restaurant Week deals?
It's really very easy:
- Go to the official NYC Restaurant Week 2023 website
- Scroll down the page and find a location, lunch or dinner, service, cuisine or platform that you like the most
- Start saving (the little hearts) the one you like and looking through their menus
- Pick one that you love
- Book through the Find a Table or Visit Website buttons!
There are no catches, this is an official NYC-run organization and in partnership with all these wonderful restaurants. In many cases you'll book through the restaurant directly because it's such a normal part of their year now.
Try something new, try something delicious!
NYC Restaurants I recommend for NYC Restaurant week 2023
So which are my favorite restaurants? Heath is a favorite of my old neighborhood, the East Village, Red Rooster Harlem is definitely worth a visit, Blue Smoke is ALWAYS worth the time, and if you love paella, you can't go past Socarrat.
What are your favorites?
