LAGuide
The Best Deals for Dine LA Restaurant Week
photo credit: Jessie Clapp
It’s officially Dine LA season, or as we like to call it, The Two Weeks Where Chefs Throw In A Free Panna Cotta And Call It A Day. The truth is that most of the specials during Restaurant Week are pretty underwhelming—it's basically like coupon-clipping for people who've watched a season of Top Chef—but, hey, we get it, everyone loves a bargain. At any rate, we crunched the numbers this year and found several excellent restaurants that are offering deals worth knowing about. Here are a few that caught our eye.
Dine LA Restaurant Week runs from October 6th-20th. For the full list of participating restaurants (there are 350+), click here.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Jakob Layman
The Deal: $45 per person for dinner, details TBA.
Why We Like It: Incredible pasta in warm, sexy lighting. We almost always order the chicken liver crostone and radiatore in a spicy pork sugo at this Silver Lake spot. Pastas typically start at $20. So $45 per person sounds like a solid deal.
The Deal: Four-course dinner for $55 per person.
Why We Like It: $55 for four courses isn’t a deal that will keep a Groupon fanatic up at night, but the Dine LA menu is still noteworthy. Some of these dishes aren't available on All Day Baby’s regular dinner menu, including the queso fundido with longaniza, a steak tartare au poivre, and a country fried steak hugging a side of smashed fried potatoes.
photo credit: Matt Gendal
The Deal: Three-course lunch for $65 per person.
Why We Like It: Besides more bang for your buck, you’ll be getting excellent Mediterranean food in a nice Santa Monica setting. Picture yourself snacking on kabobs poolside on comfy rattan furniture. Life could be worse.
photo credit: Durango Cantina
The Deal: $45 per person for dinner, details TBA.
Why We Like It: If you come to Durango Cantina in Beverly Grove for a tequila cocktail and guac, you’ll probably walk out spending less than $45. But the northern Mexican food is good enough to warrant a full meal. Consider the Dine LA deal a good opportunity to do just that. (Normally, the braised meat entrees start at $32.)
The Deal: Three-course dinner for $45 per person.
Why We Like It: Not only does Jame make some of the best pasta in LA but it also serves a legendary kale salads (both of which are available in this special). There are four pastas to choose from—and a chicken parm—including ultra-thin cappellini in 36-hour tomato sauce and tubes of paccheri with pork sugo and pecorino.
photo credit: Jakob Layman
The Deal: Six-course family-style lunch or dinner for $45 per person (minimum two people).
Why We Like It: Colapasta is one of the most consistently recommendable restaurants near the dining wasteland that is Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade. The Dine LA menu gives you the chance to try a chunk of the menu at once, with soups, three kinds of pasta (including their very good lasagna), and dessert.
The Deal: Three-course dinner for $65 per person.
Why We Like It: You go to this classic steakhouse in Pico Rivera to eat a hunk of meat, like a steak topped with bacon, onions, and peppercorns. Considering that cut normally costs $69, the Dine LA deal feels like a good value. You also get an appetizer and dessert of your choice.
The Deal: $65 dinner per person.
Why We Like It: No matter which night you go, Farmhouse in West Adams is a fun group dinner option with kitschy neon decor, elaborately garnished cocktails, and big Thai dishes you can share. For $65 per person, you'll get a bowl of spicy gaeng kanoon made with young jackfruit curry plus your choice of starter and entree. We always order the hat yai fried chicken and the beef noodle soup.
photo credit: Jakob Layman
The Deal: A $75 six-course meal (with drinks) that feeds two for lunch or dinner.
Why We Like It: Not only does this deal get you a ton of food, it gets you really good food. Culver City's Mayura is one of our favorite Indian spots in the city. It's worth a trip anytime. Maybe especially so when you're getting a two-person set that includes samosas, a choice of four main dishes (including their famous Kerala-style fish curry), plus garlic naan, rice, gulab jamun, and mango lassi.
photo credit: Andrea D'Agosto
POWERED BY
The Deal: Lamb taco dinner for $55.
Why We Like It: Let's be clear, you could have a great taco dinner for way less than $55 in LA. But if you factor in panoramic views of Downtown and the fact that LA Cha Cha Chá is consistently one of LA's best Mexican restaurants, this deal is pretty good. Bring a few friends to split lamb barbacoa with sides of bacon-studded frijoles, rice mixed with tomato salsa, pickle-y escabeche, and blue corn tortillas.
The Deal: $69 per person for dinner (includes AYCE Brazilian barbecue and the hot/cold buffet).
Why We Like It: This consistently good all-you-can-eat churrascaria in Koreatown usually costs $75 per person. With your $6 in savings, you can pay for the valet downstairs instead of hunting for K-town street parking. Then stuff yourself silly with picanha and cheesy bread.
The Deal: Two-course lunch for $25 per person.
Why We Like It: Ospi's excellent handmade pastas usually cost around $20, so tacking on a choice for antipasti (get the crispy, deep-fried provolone) for a few more dollars is a solid deal. Besides pasta, you can also choose from some of Opsi's more popular entrees, like the cold-cut "Godson" sandwich or crispy, thin-crust pizzas. There's also an option to add one of their house cocktails or a glass of wine for $10.
The Deal: Five handrolls and salmon sashimi for $25 per person at lunch or dinner.
Why We Like It: Normally the salmon sashimi at this handroll mini-chain in Ktown costs $8 on its own. So $25 for five handrolls and an order of sashimi feels like a good deal to us. Come for lunch or dinner if you're in the area.
The Deal: A three-course lunch or dinner with a cocktail, and chips and salsa for $35 per person.
Why We Like: El Barrio Cantina is one of the best restaurants in Long Beach. They serve great drinks and snacks in a fun, busy dining room. You have a couple of options to choose from on the Dine LA menu, but we'd go: taquitos de papa (they're amazing), carnitas chile verde or the Mexican hot chicken, and a house margarita. They'll throw in dessert, too.
The Deal: Three-course dinner for $55 per person, and three-course weekend brunch for $35 per person.
Why We Like It: The $35 deal at this excellent Taiwanese-Japanese spot in Hermosa Beach includes a beverage of your choice, an appetizer, and entrees ranging from shoyu ramen to Japanese egg salad avocado toast. If you're set on dinner, you can get dishes like a Nashville hot chicken karaage, black truffle fried rice, and soy milk pudding for dessert with ginger churros for $55.
The Deal: A four-course family-style meal that feeds three to four people for $69.
Why We Like It: You might easily gloss over this deal if it cost $69 per person, but it's $69 total for a lunch or dinner that feeds up to four. Plus, you'll get to enjoy some of the best Sichuan food in the city, including tingly cold noodles and dumplings, lamb skewers, tea-smoked ribs, and boiled fish with peppers. They also add on your choice of beer or an ice jelly dessert.
The Deal: Appetizer, soup or salad, and entree for $55 per person at dinner.
Why We Like: As busy as Lawry's gets during Dine LA, we'd much rather head to Tam O'Shanter, its Scottish-themed sibling in Atwater Village (the food is near-identical). The $55 dinner deal saves you quite a bit, compared to the regular menu. We'd suggest starting with the deviled eggs, the wedge salad, then go for prime rib with creamed spinach and mashed potatoes for your entree (of course, you're getting the prime rib).
