It's time again for NY Restaurant Week!

Hot off the press tip from OpenTable.com!!!

Mark your calendar for NYC Summer Restaurant Week 2008:
July 21 - 25 and July 28 - August 1

Eat and be very merry! Make your reservations early (I'm serious!). As soon as I saw the email, I tried booking a late lunch at Asiate but "no tables are available within 2 hours of my 2pm request." Whatev.

For two weeks, experience NYC's finest restaurants and pay only $24.07 for a three-course lunch (or $35 for dinner). IF you stick to the menu (and drink water instead of wine or some cocktail), even with tax and gratuity, you're still paying a fraction of the usual price. IF you lack self-control like we do ("Yes, I'll have a gewurztraminer and..."), you may see a spike in the bill. Nonetheless, I still love, love Restaurant Week because we get to try out dining hot spots that are usually out of our budget. We choose our picks based on these criteria:

> $$$$ price category (which means we wouldn't normally eat there unless it's restaurant week) > place comes highly recommended
> location (e.g. River Cafe) or history of the place (e.g. One if by Land, Two if by Sea)
> we know the chef (the chef doesn't necessarily know us)

RW could be a hit and miss. Since 2002, the restaurants we've tried had us feeling good and happy about the food and the service (except at Inagiku last year). We've had...

the best time at Terrace in the Sky
the most romantic date at Josephs Citarella
the best steak at Smith & Wollensky and Delmonico's (Restaurant week aside, our personal faves are Uncle Jack's and Peter Luger)

We'll see if Morimoto will be in this special list after July 24.

And feel free to share your RW picks with me.

Note: Learn more about the NY Restaurant Week.