One problem is that the published menus on the Restaurant Week website may not match what the restaurant is offering.

Brasserie Tatin had more stuff on their Restaurant Week menu last night than on the website, and a few changes.

That is a problem. Not if the changes are comparable but if it's a lesser menu. We'll have to count on people letting us know if that happens. EL

Brasserie Tatin has delivered an intriguing and varied Restaurant Week menu the past few years -- and has invariably lived up to expectations.
On the other hand, as of this morning, there were still several restaurants that suggested coming back later to check their menus. The Brass Elephant, Bicycle and Jack's, for instance. If a restaurant can't come up with a dining incentive by the first day of Restaurant Week, its enthusiasm for the promotion would seem suspect.

Love us some Ken Petty, from Meli! Nice work on keeping in touch, Ken and pulling it all in to home plate. I love Meli and frequent there, when I 'm not working. He wants to go over this, because he probably DOES have the BEST menu for restaurant week! Have to check it out! :)

My wife and I had a bad restaurant week experience at Louisiana last night. They somehow lost our "ticket" so that our entree was very late. The manager came to apologize and his solution was to collect our email address. We were also supposed to email him before we came in again, but there was no offer of anything special. Then our dessert came very late. Followed by another request that we email the manager. With our check came a generic form addressed to restaurant week customers to write down their email addresses. So it turns out communicating by email was only part of the routine for all the diners. As we were leaving, the manager, sitting at a table by the door with some friends said "I'll be in touch." The funny thing is that we didn't even realize that it was restaurant week, but we sure did figure it out before we left.

What's the best menu? For whom? For the vegetarian who wouldn't even consider a steakhouse? For the seafood phobic, like myself, for whom the best crabcake in the world, masterfully served, and at McDonald's prices, would have no appeal? I hope to see many discussions and opinions. My DW and I will try to visit some of the Howard County Restaurant Weeks participants and throw our opinions into the fray.

These are good questions, and I would say "best" in the sense of not for whom, but as compared to the regular menu. A vegetarian could tell if a steakhouse's RW menu would be enticing to a carnivore because it seemed to be a deal -- or not. EL

We had a delightful Restaurant Week meal at the Wine Market last night. First courses included salmon tartar, caesar salad, an interesting spin on vichysoisse, and something else I forget. The entrees were rockfish, shrimp, chicken, and beef, with varying degrees of adventuresome preparation. Service was terrific, and they don't gouge on wine prices. And no, I don't know a soul who is affiliated with the place.

Retired in Elkridge brings up a good point regarding vegetarians, non-seafood eaters, and to carry the point further, those with allergies to common ingredients like wheat - does anyone know of any restaurants which are flexible in their choice of items? Some of my frequent dining companions fall into one or more of these categories, and it'd be nice to hear of any places which are amenable to substitutions. This might be a stretch for Restaurant Week, but hey, the answer's no unless you ask.

It looks like the menus are all listed on the Restaurant Week Web site, so they can be checked out in advance. Most seem to have vegetarian options. Wheat might be trickier. EL

Oh, dear, I didn't mean to imply that Brasserie Tatin's RW menu in the flesh was worse than on the website. It wasn't, it had more choices than on the website, a few of which were different.

I had an excellent and extremely enjoyable dinner at Brasserie Tatin Sunday night. I wrote a lengthy post on it under the old RW topic, where no one probably saw it (and it ended up as anonymous somehow). In summary, the service was superb and the food was very tasty. I'll go back in a heartbeat.

We're going to Gertrude's for dinner tonight. It's been well over a year since we've gone ther and I'm really looking forward to it.

I have to somehow fit Brasserie Tatin in and will have a long lunch tomorrow there.

And Saturday night we'll be going to Corks. This will be our new restaurant for the week.

Food, glorious food...

I went to Grille 700 (located in the Marriott near Harbor East) on Monday. We went at 5:30 p.m., so the restaurant had not yet experience the main dinner crowd. It was probably one of the best meals I have this year. My fiancée had the Grille 700 salad, crab cakes with lemon sauce, and the blueberry cheesecake. I had fried Portobello mushrooms, filet with mushrooms, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and angel food cake with berries.

The best course was the crab cakes. From going to restaurant week before, I know that certain restaurants lower the portion size. But to our surprise, Two! 6oz cakes came out with little filler.

The service was good (could have been that they were not busy at the time), but I would definitely go back.

I went to the Brass Elephant on Sat. night for Restaurant Week. The Brass Elephant received good reviews during previous Restaurant Weeks - so I had to try it! Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed. The first course was a choice of 4 different pedestrian salads, or else the soup du jour. The bread from the bread basket tasted like it had just been pulled out of the freezer and defrosted. The wine list was really exorbitantly priced. The food aside, the service was great and the place had some great Continental ambiance. I've got three more Restaurant Week reservations coming up - hopefully they won't disappoint.

Brian,
No big surprise that you had a bad experience at Louisana. Every time I hear someone's review of their experience there, it amazes me that they are still in business.

Did Sammy's Trattoria for lunch yesterday. Service was quick, portions were large, food was delicious.

Two Restaurant Week Reviews-

On Wednesday night, my wife and I went to Yellow Dog. It is a very friendly and cheerful restaurant but finding a place to park took almost 15 minutes. Our waiter, Kevin, could not have been more genial. We started with the fried calamari and the tomato toasts. The calamari was average and the toasts were good. Our salads came next. The house salad was quite unspectacular. My entree was the roasted chicken. It was moist, tasty, and generous. My wife had the shrimp and grits which she thought was very good. All-in-all, the entrees were good but the appetizers and salads brought down the grade. B- for the food and A for atmosphere and staff.

On Thursday night we went to Luca's Cafe. Let me start off by saying I never want to see any business fail and I hope Luca's takes this criticism constructively, but the meal was a dining disaster from start to finish. Unlike the previous night, we found a parking spot in front of the restaurant. Does that tell you anything? It must have been our server's first night waiting tables. The poor guy tried hard but was like a deer in the headlights. I started with the Sliced Barbeque Rubbed Tri Tip which should have been called the Sliced Barbeque Rubber Tri Tip. My wife ordered the Shrimp on the Fire. Somehow the chef was able to fuse the shell to the shrimp rendering them unpeelable and therefore inedible. The caesar salad came next. It was passable. My entree was the Goulash. It was light on meat, ample on gnocchi, and underwhelming with flavor. My wife ordered the Garlic Steak medium rare. It came medium well. Her dessert, the chocolate bread pudding, was warm on the outside and cold inside. As we finished the meal the owner came by and asked how everything was. "Do you really want to know?" my wife asked. The owner took the criticism well and offered us two free dinners the next time we come in. Luca's has a very inviting menu and we genuinely hope it succeeds. But they have a lot of work to do.