When I first moved to NYC 7 years ago, I thought Restaurant Week was the best thing ever. Every time RW rolled around, I would get excited since it was an affordable way to sample cuisines at high end places. The experience for me was carefully orchestrated like tactical warfare - countless hours poring over the list of 100+ restaurants to seek out the "best bang for the buck" in terms of menu offerings from normally expensive restaurants like Nobu. Culling the list down to the Top 5. Gauging interest from various circles of friends and coordinating their schedules was Phase 2. Phase 3 consisted of the difficult task of booking the table, a separate battle in itself.

Was the time and effort worth it? 

There were more misses than hits - let's be honest, most spots don't really care and it shows. Offerings would include a generic assortment of salad, salmon or chicken breast, and some variant of a chocolate souffle - all items that aren't even close to the standard menu. Other places would serve anemic bite-sized portions that weren't worth the $38 admission.