Yay! it's Dine Originals Week! Dine Originals Week offers fixed-price menus at all of the DOC restaurants, priced for exploration at $10-$30. It's a great chance to get out and try a new restaurant. I have just spent the better part of an hour reading everyone's menus; I will pretty much be working all week, so as usual I won't be partaking of very many (if any) of these special menus, so I will have to live vicariously through your experiences. Please share them with me and my readers!
I was discussing Restaurant Week with a chef friend of mine a few days ago, and we were wondering why there are some uninspired menus in the lineup. I challenge you, chefs - see this as a chance to get new diners in the door, put your best foot forward! Believe me when I tell you that the dining public in Columbus wants to try new things. Be brave.
A note to diners: I frequently hear vegetarians complain that there aren't enough vegetarian options with DOC. To vegetarians I say, don't fear - most restaurants will happily make you a vegetarian entree, we hear it all the time. I am encouraged to see more chefs putting vegetarian entrees on their menus, and would encourage more to do so. Of course you all know I'm certainly no vegetarian, but especially during the fall there are so many great options for vegetarian options with all those yummy squash and greens and root vegetables.
The links go to the restaurant's DOC Week menu; you can see all participating restaurants, with menu links, on the DOC site.
- Alana's ($30/3 courses) has duck leg cassoulet; I've had something similar last year and it was amazing. Dessert is a choice of something sweet or an Ohio cheese plate.
- Banana Bean ($10/2 course) gets a bonus pat on the back from me for throwing poached or fried eggs on top of all three of their lunch selections (all $10 for 2 courses). Choices are crab cakes, espresso rubbed steak, OR lobster and potato hash, all topped with eggs.
- Bodega ($10/3 courses) gets a listing, even though they broke the "no options" rule, because their menu is vegetarian, and looks very yummy - a beet salad with Lake Erie Goat cheese and a cheddar/local apple panini won me over.
- The Burgundy Room ($20/3 courses) has Butternut squash lasagna or short rib sliders.
- Deepwood ($10/3 course lunch as well as both $20 & $30/3 course dinner options) boasts numerous menus and gets bonus points for their vegetarian pot pie and lamb shank cassoulet. Extra credit goes to them for putting cod brandade on as an appetizer (yummmmm).
- The Elevator ($30/3 courses) has sauerkraut balls and also features a vegetarian option.
- G. Michael's ($30/3 courses) offers up a menu with lots of choices, including pork belly, prime flat iron steak, and stuffed quail).
- The Granville Inn ($20 lunch, $30 dinner) has a drool worthy menu featuring duck cassoulet and squash ravioli. I'm a little curious about the "braised ribeye" (why would you braise a ribeye?) so if anyone tries it, please let me know. The maple creme brulee sounds tasty as well.
- The Inn at Cedar Falls ($30/3 courses) doesn't have a huge lineup but I think you should go there, because it's awesome. The restaurant is charming and delicious, and the setting is amazing. It's probably going to be one of the last lovely weeks of the year, so get down there!!
- L'Antibes ($30/3 courses) golden beet borscht? yes, please! If I were going to go somewhere just because I hadn't been there for dinner, it would certainly be L'Antibes! They're never open on my days off so I've never been there for dinner.
- Luce ($30/3 courses)is one of those restaurants I'm always hearing nice things about but their location (way to far to travel for Husband) means I haven't made it there yet. Their DOC week menu is full of Autumnal goodies like apple-quince saute and squash ravioli and sage. Yummy.
- Pistacia Vera always blows me out of the water. It is hands down the best bakery in the city (maybe even in the state, and beyond), and everything is always so flawlessly executed that it's always a good value, too. $10 for a flight of amazing treats is a steal. If you can only afford to do one restaurant week event, this is the one. Take your significant other there and thank me later.
- The Short Story Brasserie ($30/3 courses) seems to have a course missing from their DOC menu online, but one of the appetizers featured is Cuban pork belly, and that sounds promising. I worked there one weekend a few months ago and can attest that the food was pretty freaking delicious. You should go. It's much closer than you think, really only about half an hour away.
- Skillet ($30/3 courses) has a tummy-growl-inducing menu featuring two great starters and then choices simple Bluescreek Hanger Steak, organic veal two ways, and Taleggio & pumpkin risotto (mmmmm). I was a little surprised to see they didn't appear to have a $10 lunch menu?
- Surly Girl ($30/3 course dinner FOR TWO) - another winner for those on a budget, yet still wanting to take their sweetie on a date, Surly features two menus: Trashy (Frito Pie and meatloaf TV tray dinner) and Classy (mini quiches and scallop rotini). Just for the record, although some options at Surly come on TV trays, the food on them is made in house...
- Z Cucina ($30/3 courses) offers sweet potato polenta fries - I don't know what those are, but they sound tasty. Crispy cider braised pork sounds pretty good as well.
So there you have it, a few places I'd go if I had any money or time off! And again, I encourage everyone to share your restaurant week experiences!
