Food News
Formerly known as Restaurant Week Boston, Dine Out Boston is back from March 10-23, bringing special prix fixe menus to more than 175 restaurants across Greater Boston.
Dine Out Boston, formerly known as Restaurant Week Boston, is back this month, serving up deals on prix fixe menus at some of the city’s best restaurants.
Held from March 10-23, this is the first of two Dine Out programs that Meet Boston, the tourism organization, puts on each year. And though those in the restaurant industry will agree that dining out at local eateries is important year-round, it’s especially important to a business during the slower winter months.
“From the bartenders to dishwashers, every guest that comes in to dine with us allows us to support our team who makes the day-to-day functions possible,” said Shore Gregory, co-owner of Row 34. “Dine Out Boston provides a great excuse to do that during the winter months.”
Whether it’s a restaurant you frequent often, or one you’ve always considered trying, there are lunch and dinner deals to explore for the next two weeks. Lunch deals can cost $22, $27, $32, and $36, while dinner menus run at $36, $41, $46, and $55.
Meet Boston said over 175 restaurants are taking part in Dine Out, more are still signing up, and around a dozen restaurants — Josephine’s, Waypoint, DW French, STK, and Umbria, for example — are participating for the first time.
You can find out all the featured restaurant menus and reservations at Meet Boston’s website. Boston.com put together a list of a few deals to consider below:
Smoke Shop BBQ
Of the deals available the next two weeks, the lunch and dinner menus at Smoke Shop’s Seaport location have the most options to choose from, pairing several starters, sandwiches, plates, baskets, or bowls. A $22 lunch — one of the cheapest options featured in Dine Out — gets you a starter and a sandwich, or you can swap the starter with butter cake. A three-course dinner is $36 and includes additional choices from the plates, baskets, and bowls menu. Owner and pitmaster Andy Husbands, pitmaster and owner, also recommends their whiskey deal, which will feature six whiskeys for $10 a pour. Available: Daily for both lunch and dinner.
Row 34
Jeremy Sewall’s seafood restaurant is offering a $55 three-course menu at their Burlington location, featuring seafood, of course, with shrimp ceviche and herb-crusted haddock making the menu. But there are also options for those looking for something other than fish, like the 8-ounce flat iron steak, roasted half chicken, and two dessert options for the third course. Co-owner Shore Gregory recommends ordering their newest specialty cocktail “Cloud 9” — with vodka, creme de violette, lavender, and lemon — to go with any combination of the prix fixe menu. Available: Dinner Sunday-Friday.
Q Restaurant
This Chinatown hot pot eatery will also have lunch and dinner deals that owner Billy Gu said are a selection of their most popular dishes. “It’s what we’re most proud of.” For lunch, grab a golden bun or crab rangoon starter with either a hot pot sampler or assorted sashimi at $32. For a little bit more at $46, dinner comes with a different selection of starters — Gu recommends cold rice noodles as the most authentic option — along with hot pot sampler and sashimi entrees. Go there from 4 to 6 p.m. or 9 p.m. to close for an appetizer happy hour: one alcoholic beverage gets you two apps half off. Available: Lunch on Monday-Friday; Dinner on Sunday-Friday.
MIDA
Most of the restaurants participating in Dine Out do not offer their prix fixe menus on Saturday. But if Saturday is the only day you can go out for a bite, you’re in luck with Chef Douglass Williams’s award-winning MIDA restaurants. And you’re getting a good value at $46 for a three-course meal of starters like the comforting white bean and kale soup, Williams’s personal favorite pork loin marsala as an entree option, and for dessert, something refreshing like the pear sorbetto. “No shortcuts are taken” with this menu, Williams said. Every MIDA location is participating, with the Newton location also serving lunch. And for those interested in Williams’s newest restaurant, DW French, the french brasserie also has a Dine Out menu. Available: Dinner daily; lunch daily in Newton.
Tuscan Kitchen
Go all out with a side of oysters Rockefeller to start, a pasta dish, and a dessert for $55 at Tuscan Kitchen in Burlington or $46 in the Seaport. Culinary director Nimesh Maharjan recommends diners take advantage of the $10 filet add-on as well. “Also, I encourage guests to try our Short rib Ragu with Linguine pasta — a great hearty dish to warm your belly.” Available: Dinner Sunday-Friday in Burlington; dinner daily in the Seaport.
Trade
This $55 three-course menu at Mediterranean restaurant Trade is centered around the wine pairing, which of course, is additional, but comes highly recommended from its general manager Voula Koutsoubarisi to bring out the “true Greek flavors” in diners’s meals. Each course — starter, entree, and dessert — offers at least one wine pairing option at an additional price of $21 for 3-ounce standard wine pours or $35 for 3-ounce premium wine pours. Available: Dinner on Tuesday-Friday.
Abe & Louie’s
Planning a power lunch in the next couple of weeks? For $32, you can do it at Abe & Louie’s with their two-course lunch menu, featuring a starter choice between a cauliflower leek soup or spinach salad. Next, pick between the marinated steak tips or a miso baked cod as your entree. Other Tavistock Restaurant Collection restaurants — Atlantic Fish Co., Coach Grill, Joe’s on Newbury, and Joe’s Waterfront — are also participating in Dine Out, though menus and days available differ. Available: Lunch on Monday-Friday.
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