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Vol.
5 | Issue 2 | January 9, 2007 | |
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All the participating restaurants agree to offer three-course prix-fixe menus at $24.07 for lunch and $35 for dinner, per person, exclusive of beverage, tax and tip. Depending upon the restaurant, this can mean a really big savings from normal prices. For example, a prix-fixe lunch at Chanterelle is normally $42, and the cost of three courses a la carte at Sea Grill in Rockefeller Center is well past $50. Not all of the restaurants, however, are the bargains during Restaurant Week that they used to be; quite a few that have participated since the program's inception in 1992 have adopted some version of the prix-fixe menu and pricing year-round. The restaurants are located all over Manhattan, from the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side to the Financial District, Tribeca, Soho, the Village and most places in between. The only exceptions to the Manhattan locale are Water’s Edge in Long Island City and the River Café in Brooklyn, both of which have spectacular city views. Types of fare also run the gamut, from all the Asian cuisines to Mediterranean, Scandinavian, contemporary American and French. If you don’t have time to venture far afield from your local base, hotel restaurants participating include those in the Hotel Plaza Athenee, the Waldorf Astoria and Le Parker Meridien. Some of the big-name restaurants — Asia de Cuba, Ben Benson’s, Café Boulud, Café des Artistes, Eleven Madison Park — are offering the program at lunch only, but almost 100 of the participants are offering either the dinner deal or both lunch and dinner, including renowned venues such as Cité, René Pujol, Sea Grill, Smith & Wollensky, The Water Club and Vong. A list of the participating restaurants involved
can be found on the
city’s
tourism Web site, but each reservation booked through OpenTable.com’s Restaurant
Week section triggers a donation to local charities Citymeals
On Wheels and Share our Strength; the site has the complete list of
hours and locations. |
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Fare Afloat |
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Self-Serve At Schiphol |
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Buy Onboard American |
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Shaken And Stirred |
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Security Stats |
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Miami
Nice From the time my airport limo pulled into the private driveway of the Mandarin Oriental, just across a causeway from downtown on Biscayne Bay, the service was impressive, with all sorts of valet parkers and bellmen waiting to help. Just driving up to the tall, curved building is impressive, and the lobby’s soaring glass walls looking onto the bay carry that impression through the interior. Because the building is a long thin curve, the lobby manages to seem both spacious and intimate at the same time, with various smallish areas for congregating, bounded by the martini bar at one end and a restaurant a the other. There are Asian touches in the woods used, but Asia meets Miami in the brighter colors and tropical plants. The registration desk was modest. I had to wait on a short line both checking in and checking out, but the desk personnel couldn’t have been nicer. I was soon handed off to a bellman for the elevator ride to my room, which turned out to be a junior suite with a long glass wall and balcony. The whole impression was cool and tranquil, with bright white bedding and upholstery and dark woods, including the doors, which went all the way up to the high ceilings. Even the bathroom had a view; there was a separate glassed-in shower, and then an opening in the wall above the tub so that I could look out the window or watch the bedroom TV. The bathroom came with super-fluffy white towels, bathrobe and slippers, too. I had a living area with a loveseat, chair and tables, and a good-size desk with a built-in Internet cable — no wireless; the Internet access cost $15 a day, which I grudgingly paid. There was a minibar, but one look at the prices kept me away (fortunately, there were free nuts and fruits in the spa waiting area, and housekeeping delivered bottled water each day). The standard TV only got normal cable channels, but there are free DVD players on request, and the concierge loans free DVDs, though the selection wasn’t very current. On the plus side, the bed was extremely comfortable, and the ice bucket was nifty — in 24 hours the ice had hardly melted, and it was pretty to look at, too. The hotel has an infinity pool outside the tri-level spa (for more about the spa, see the January issue of Global Traveler), overlooking the private beach; there’s also a jogging trail around the key on which the hotel is set. I enjoyed both the elegant, trendy Azul restaurant (see eFlyer, Oct. 31, 2006) and the more casual waterfront Café Sambal, with its Asian-fusion food and both indoor and outdoor dining. I got a chance to tour the spectacular Presidential suite on the top floor, and while I envied the large flat-screen wall-hung HDTV, I found that I actually preferred the view from my room on a lower floor — I could see water from the bed or chair in my room, while on the top floor the only view was sky. Score: ••••• Mary
Hunt | ||
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Club World Seat Sale |
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Bermuda Bargain Bash |
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ANA’s Online Booking
Bonus |
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| Try A Tropical Valentine’s
Day Occidental Hotels & Resorts in Aruba, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Mexico offer a “Grand Romance” package that’s perfect for celebrating Valentine’s Day. The packages are available to any couple who books a deluxe or better room for at least three consecutive nights at any of the all-inclusive resorts, and includes a bottle of Champagne or wine upon arrival, breakfast in bed the first morning, one romantic dinner on the beach, a one-hour in-room couple’s massage, 10 percent discount on spa services, and chocolate-covered strawberries. Depending on the property, rates start from $96 (Occidental Grand Puerto Plata, D.R.) to $279 (Occidental Grand Aruba) per person per night.  |
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New Year, New Routes, Double
Miles |
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© 2007 FXExpress Publications Inc. All rights
reserved. Reproduction and/or distribution of eFlyer is strictly
forbidden without the written authorization of the publisher. |
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Produced by Mercury Solutions - www.mercury-solutions.com |
