Dining Out with "The One Percent"

With over 20,000 restaurants and bars in NYC, it can take a person almost a lifetime to try them all. And if that's not bad enough, eating at the city's best restaurants usually costs a lifetime's worth of savings. Luckily for us it's Restaurant Week! Which means we don't have to be Woody Allen or Sarah Jessica Parker to enjoy a meal at hotspots like Nobu and Mr. Chow.

Twice a year (once in the winter and once in the summer), restaurants across Manhattan participate in Restaurant Week. The event, which is actually four weeks long rather than just one, is a great opportunity for us normal New Yorkers to experience some of the very best dining options this city has to offer. Participating restaurants create special prix fixe menus for lunch ($25) and dinner ($38). These menus are valid all week excluding Saturdays (Sundays are optional).

Restaurant Week is great for two reasons:

1. $25 for a delicious three-course lunch in NYC is a steal, don't let anyone else tell you differently. I spend $15 daily at Whole Foods for a piece of grilled chicken and a side of orzo salad… not very exciting. 
2. Some of the city's priciest and well-known restaurants participate in Restaurant Week. It isn't often that a three-course dinner at Tao or STK will run you $38; it would probably be at least double that amount.

The full list of participating restaurants (and prix fixe menus) can conveniently be found here. Peruse the list and do a little Yelp research. If dining out alone still makes you uncomfortable, find a spot with a dining bar or choose a restaurant for lunch only. Whatever you choose, do it quickly; Restaurant Week will only be running until August 15th.

Go ahead, feel what it's like to dine out like "the one percent." Your table at the Olive Garden in Times Square will always be there next week.