I was hoping I wouldn’t have to re-report the success of Restaurant Week in light of our lovely recession (although retail sales have been up for the past two months), but here we are. Same shit, different day.

So it’s restaurant week, and I’m trying my best to impersonate someone who is actually enthused about this. In fact, I reached to the bowels of food reviewer hell to look up the website and pick a restaurant just trek to in the rain and fake feeling happy about eating…for less.  A daunting task, but some poor sap’s gotta do it. Here’s what I’ve come up with. Excuse the moaning and griping; I’ve been hanging out with a lot of French people.

My picks for the week are 10 Downing and Bond Street. I saw DBGB on the list, but A) Been there. Done that, although yet to report. and B) You can afford it without restaurant week. Yeah, newsflash to places like Club Room (puke), Restaurant Week’s original purpose, which has since been madly muddled, is to bring normal ‘ol folk exquisite cuisine that, under normal circumstances, would break the bank.

Why? 10 Downing because you can enjoy art while you eat, the pleasant atmosphere keeps for an even keeled, but never boring, crowd, and  the striped bass makes me want to float on a heavenly cloud to that dream diner in the sky. Maybe you can afford it without restaurant week, but their menu rocks. Do it.

And Bond Street because I’ve had their Restaurant Week menu several times as well as eaten there more times than I can count, and think it’s in the running for the best sushi in New York City. If it weren’t so cliche, I’d call it my favorite restaurant in New York. The carpaccio makes me teary and every piece of fish melts in my pretty pink mouth. Do it too.

Oh, riiiiiiiight… I seem to have overlooked you newbies. For those of you who haven’t eaten at all of the classic Restaurant Week spots yet, I’ve pulled them from the ghastly Restaurant Week list. You can thank me any time.

In no particular order: Megu, Tao, Le Cirque, The River Cafe, Morimoto, Nobu - if and only if you are absolutely broke and cannot go sans Restaurant Week, i Trulli, China Grill, and Delmonico’s.

These classics have graced the Restaurant Week list for years, so book in advance because the tourists are going to be swarming. Newbies take note, write these down and visit some this week - or month- and the rest the next time Restaurant Week comes around, which, in this economy, will be here before you can say “2009 was the most boring summer ever.” Then breathe easy knowing you can forget about Restaurant Week like the rest of New Yorkers.

NYC Restaurant Week  July 12-31  Average dinners $35 & lunch $25

Bon Appetite!

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