I tried New York City's restaurant week for the first time — and our $100 meal wasn't a great deal

It's restaurant week in New York City, which means over 300 restaurants are offering three-course dining deals — $25 for lunch and $38 for dinner — through August 14. 

While an exciting prospect on the surface, I wondered how great of a deal it actually was, or if it was even a deal at all, once you crunched the numbers. 

I decided to try it out myself. 

My first stop was Barraca, a Zagat-rated Spanish restaurant in the West Village known for having on-point sangria, a good variety of tapas, and an enjoyable lineup up of paella.

Of course, my experience is limited to a single restaurant so far, and therefore isn't representative of every restaurant week offer.

I took a friend along, meaning we had $76, between the two of us, to enjoy. Here's how it went:

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We booked our restaurant only a day in advance.

I booked a table for Wednesday night at 7 p.m. through nycgo.com, which makes it very easy to make reservations at participating restaurant week spots. 

The ambiance was just as charming as its location on Greenwich Avenue — it has a lovely outdoor patio and a spacious, open interior with a rustic feel to it.

The menu was simplified, but still offered a solid variety.

We had the option of ordering off the more extensive, regular menu, but settled on the three-course, $38 restaurant week package, which included one tapa, one paella, and one postre (dessert). You also have the option of pairing wine for an additional $16 — three small glasses, one for each course — which we opted out of.

By choosing the restaurant week menu, we were missing out on meat and cheese platters, a few seasonal tapas, a couple paellas, and a few desserts (most notably, the churros).

The simplified menu did include mostly items off the regular menu. Some restaurant week menus have dishes that are not normally on the regular menu, making it difficult to compare costs.

The only item that I couldn't find on the regular menu was the "flan de café," and I confirmed with the restaurant afterwards that it was special for restaurant week.

 

Tapa 1: 'Tortilla de Patatas'

We started with an order of the "tortilla de patatas" — a Spanish omelette with potatoes and onions — which is normally priced at $12.

 

 

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