Sascha Wolhander of Sascha's 527 sums it up simply: "We loved it."

I suppose the real evidence of this is the ever-expanding number of participating restaurants.

I've always been curious about one thing, though - I've never been clear how kitchen and service staff feel about Restaurant Week.

It seems pretty clear that management loves the increase in volume, but I can't help but sense that staff might find Restaurant Week their equivalent of Black Friday for several reasons:

1) Does tipping stick with a hard 15% rule, or do people get more generous for Restaurant Week? Do people treat the tip as for discounted items, and adjust accordingly? Or does the increased volume make up for it all?

2) Do restaurants increase shifts to adequately cope with the increased volume, or do some places

I'm thinking back a few years when some friends made a reservation for a large number of people at a new, promising restaurant that's no longer with us. The service was slow, although it's hard to say whether that's because of us being a large group, or they were slammed all around.

Moreover, the food, while generally good - didn't entirely live up to expectations. Again, it's hard to say whether this was really indicative of problems with the place, or entirely situational.

I have to admit, it's put a damper on my ability to enjoy restaurant week - thinking that some places just can't or won't bring their A-game.

Well, I am no business major, but if the restaurants want more patrons to come out regularly, perhaps they adjust their prices accordingly. And I am definately not a political science major, because I have no idea how or why a county government involvement is even desirable or relevant. Don't need any civil servants spending time or money on it. Sounds like they did just fine without it.

El G,

I can't speak for everyone but I tip based on the price of the meal and always at least 15%. I don't think the wait staff at either restaurant I went to were worried about it -- in fact, one said she was thrilled because literally every table in the place was occupied. We may not have tipped as much as a normal party would have, but it seems the volume more than made up for it.

As for restaurants bringing their "A game", I don't really care. I'm there for the food. Don't eff up my food and I'm happy.

If possible, I tip on the full price of the check. If I'm using a Restaurant.com gift certificate, or getting a discount for some other reason (restaurant week), I feel the wait staff deserves the same tip, assuming the same service is provided.

@ Trouble Jr.

While I generally agree with this practice, I don't know how you can do that with Restaurant Week pricing. I've only taken advantage of the restuarant week menu at a couple of places, but at those restaurants, the RW menu offered options that really weren't available off the regular menu. For instance, while the RW menu at Prime Rib includes their prime rib, what you receive is nothing like the regular menu cut (I doubt it's even half the size). From what I've read, this is fairly common for RW meals. Even if you see the same thing on the regular menu, typically the RW portion is not comparable to the regular menu dish. Consequently, I genereally base my tip on the cost of my RW meal, rather than trying to hazzard a guess as to what the actual value was of what I purchased.

As Generalissimo allued to... it would be one thing if we were receiving the restaurant's normal courses, albeit at a discount. Under those circumstances, I would try to base my tip on the actual value of the meal (as opposed to what I was charged). However, as in most cases that's not what you're getting during RW, it's pretty hard to justify a more lavish tip.

Exactly part of what I'm talking about.

I'd been taught that with other sorts of discount dining - tipping should be based on pre-discount prices. Otherwise, service staff gets unfairly pinched by management and marketing decisions.

But I readily grant that I'm no longer clear if Restaurant Week counts.

It's been mentioned here, but looking at this past summer's RW menus - it seemed clear to me that many participating restaurants had downgraded their menus. If not for the obvious economic reasons, it almost seems as if offering a red meat, a chicken, a vegetarian, and maaaybe a salmon were the hottest dining trends -- if not in hotel banquet catering.

I'm not gonna lie - it's dimmed my enthusiasm for Restaurant Week.

But it's also why I posed my question. It's seemed that some of my RW experiences in recent years have been lacking, if only because it's seemed that some places haven't been prepared for the crush. But then, one wonders if maybe that's the unfortunate necessary evil to RW.