Restaurant Week: Summer 2013

I had such an amazing meal during the last Restaurant "Week" here in the city that I was grateful when my friend Trent invited me again this time around. He made reservations at Delmonico's in the financial district, and it was my first time there.

I will now refer to Restaurant Week as "the best meal I eat every six months," because that's exactly what it is to me. For $38 (plus tax, tip and any add-ons) you get an amazing three-course meal that would ordinarily cost much, much more. For example, just the filet mignon entree at Delmonico's is $47 normally, but is included in the Restaurant Week line-up. We were discussing whether the portions are smaller for the special price, but none of us are fancy enough to have gone to any of these places outside of Restaurant Week, so we may never know.

You can see the full menu here, but I chose the Acquerello Risotto (my first-ever risotto —delicious), filet mignon (mmm hmm) and the baked Alaska for dessert. There were 7 of us total, 5 of which had been to Delmonico's before and they all raved about the baked Alaska. So much so, that I was prepared to be disappointed but they assured me that it was more than worth the additional $5 supplement.

I had never had baked Alaska and I only had a vague idea of what it actually was. I did know, however, that theirs was made with banana gelato which pretty much sounded like the most amazing thing in the world, and it was.

When all seven of them arrived we were so excited and awed by their beauty that we actually cheers'd with our entire plates. Most of us just stared at them a while or took photos of them from every possible angle before digging in because they were almost too beautiful to eat (almost).

It was truly a work of art, and far exceeded my expectations. I felt bad destroying the perfectly charred meringue, a feeling that quickly disappeared when I discovered that it tasted as good as it looked.

While the other portions were on the small side, the baked Alaska was a monumental undertaking and by the end of it we were all completely stuffed. Restaurant Week is another fun event to add to my list of New York traditions-in-the-making and I'm already looking forward to my next fancy meal — I'm only sad that I have to wait all the way until January for it.