01 Feb Dine LA Restaurant Week: A Great Way to Try Restaurants

Every year dineLA’s Restaurant Week offers a specially priced prix fix menu for lunch and dinner, allowing diners to try a variety of local restaurants. The 12-day dining event, which just took place from January 21 – February 1, showcased some of LA’s best restaurants. With so many restaurants to try, both old and new, Restaurant Week provides an opportunity to explore as many restaurants as you can manage to eat at over 2 weeks.  And, with lunch menus priced at $15, $20, and $25, and dinner menus at $25, $35, and $45, you won’t necessarily break the bank by eating out. In addition to the price, this is a great way to get a taste of a restaurant’s menu as the prix fix menu is typically made up of smaller portions of regular menu items. During this last restaurant week, we made it out to 3 restaurants. And, as we were dining as two (or three), we were able to order almost every item offered on the menu. Here are some recent highlights from the more recent Restaurant Week: The Parish 840 S Spring St Los Angeles, CA 90014 (213) 225-2400 Located in a skinny sliver of land bounded by Main and Spring streets in Downtown LA, The Parish is a gastropub split into two levels- a bright, casual cafe on the ground floor  and the darker, more masculine main dining room upstairs.  Our $35 tasting menu included: First Course: Pomegranate & Kale, Crispy Parsnips, Black Rice & Molasses Vinaigrette Brussels Sprouts with Tesa & Breakcrumbs Second Course: Grilled Crab with Sauteed Farro, Hen of the Woods, Spice Gribiche Ricotta Dumplings with Stewed Escarole, Hedge Hog Mushrooms, Rosemary Third Course: Mint Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches Bread Pudding with Salted Caramel [miniflickr photoset_id=72157633032750596&sortby=date-posted-asc&per_page=10]   Ray’s 5905 Wilshire Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90036 (323) 857-6197 Located at LACMA, Ray’s offers a Mediterranean-inspired menu, emphasizing farm-to-table, seasonal fare. For $35, our menu included: First Italian Butternut Squash (Hot Soup, almond crumble, crispy sage, brown butter powder, Shinko pear) Octopus (Burrata cheese, croccoli di cicco, fresno chile sauce) Second Pork Belly (Parsnip puree, farro, forest mushrooms, cippolini onions, black vinegar) Agnolotti Dal Plin (Truffled rice pasta, Hen of the Woods mushrooms, hazelnuts, wild arugula, porcini sauce) (We also added a side of Anson Mills Polenta with Bianco Sardo) Dessert Toffee (Date Pudding, toffee ice cream, apples, crunchy toffee, rum sauce) Chocolate (Passion fruit mousse, brownie crumble, BTO cookie crunch, chocolate tuile, passion fruit coulis) [miniflickr photoset_id=72157633032750602&sortby=date-posted-asc&per_page=10]   Street 742 N. Highland Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90038 323-203-0500 Susan Feniger’s Street offers a menu of tastes from around the world.  For $35, our menu included: Course 1: Potato Samosas with tamarind date chutney, cucumber chile and mint yogurt Course 2: Ahi Tuna Sashimi with sesame ponzu, persimmon and asian pear salad, yuzu sauce Course 3: Baby Beet, Arugula and Frisee Salad with honeycrisp apple, pinenut vinaigrette Course 4: (We ordered 3 of the 4 options) Vegetable Niramish Curry (brown rice, orka, winter squashes and pickled tomato) Fish and Chips (crispy pan fried mahi mahi in Peruvian panca chile, ginger and lime served with yuca friends Tataki Soba Noodles (Tempura fried mushrooms, mixed greens, avocado and miso mustard dressing) [miniflickr photoset_id=72157633032750598&sortby=date-posted-asc&per_page=10]   If you missed the last DineLA Restaurant Week and can’t wait until next January, don’t worry!  Restaurant week is returning in the summer (July 15-26, 2013). Start planning and deciding where you want to make reservations!