I have lived in Seattle for about two and half years and I’ve heard the phrase Seattle Restaurant Week (SRW) thrown around here and there, but never knew exactly what is was. After doing some research and trying a few restaurants participating in SRW, I have become a huge fan.

Restaurant Week is a semi-annual event that lasts around two to three weeks to celebrate Seattle’s culinary scene. The autumn 2018 edition of SRW is Oct. 21 to Nov. 8th. Restaurant Week menus are available at all participating locations Sunday through Thursday.

Each restaurant offers a dinner option which is a three course meal for $33. Some—not all— restaurants offer a lunch menu as well; this menu is a two course meal for $18. All menus are handpicked by the restaurant and typically offer three to four options for appetizers, entrees, and dessert.

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Crawfish claypot served as the main entree in Monsoon's Seattle Restaurant Week menu.

Restaurant Week is a great chance to try high-end, well-established restaurants at a discounted price. All participating restaurants are local, independent businesses that offer great customer service and delicious food. The SRW menus are required to have a “menu value” of $40 or more to encourage participation and leave the patron feeling fully satisfied in flavor and savings.

After learning more about SRW, I immediately hopped online to look up the which restaurants I wanted to try. SRW is put on by The Seattle Times, so you can easily find all the participating restaurants and SRW menus on SeattleTimes.com.

Their website is super easy to navigate because you can search by cuisine, restaurant, or neighborhood. You also have the option to isolate restaurants that have vegetarian, gluten-free, or vegan options.

I am on a very strict gluten-free diet, so the option to pull up only restaurants that offer gluten free option was something I have never seen before, but totally love! I was able to make a list of my top three restaurants I wanted to try. The three restaurants on my list included Monsoon, Zane + Wylie’s, and Central Smoke Bar and Smokery.

A friend and I went to Monsoon as our first SRW dining choice. Monsoon is a vietnamese cuisine that offers many different gluten free and vegetarian options. Monsoon’s menu reminded me a lot of Ba Bar, the cute little vietnamese restaurant on 12th across the street from Logan Field. Monsoon, however, had a different vibe: it was much quieter, each table had a little more space and privacy, and the food tasted and was presented in a way that made you feel like you were in a more upscale type of restaurant.

I ordered the imperial rolls as my appetizer, lemongrass prawns in a spicy yellow curry sauce as my entree, and the jackfruit ice cream as my dessert. I enjoyed every bit of my dinner! Everything tasted wonderful and I was so full after all three courses!

Without SRW, I would have spent upwards of $50 on my three courses, but because restaurant week offers the amazing deal of three courses for $33, I only spent $33!

My second SRW restaurant of choice was Zane + Wylie’s, which is a steakhouse. This restaurant was beautiful. Located downtown, just two blocks from the Nordstrom, another friend and I were able to borrow Orca cards from the Student Center and easily take the streetcar from campus to the light rail station, then the lightrail to Pacific Place.

I ordered the lacinato kale and gala apple salad (without croutons) as my appetizer. The apple cider vinegarette was interesting; it wasn’t super vinegary so the flavor of the apple was really prominent. As my entree I ordered the P.N.W. prime 8oz manhattan cut strip steak with a baked potato, roasted veggies, and garlic butter. Holy moly, this entree was incredible.

Unfortunately they didn’t offer a gluten-free dessert option on their SRW menu, however my server was wonderful and offered me a slice of their key lime pie, without crust. Totally worth it! The pie had a light whipped cream topping that accompanied the tart key lime pie so well!

For my last SRW restaurant, I went to Central Smoker Bar and and Smokery, which serves delicious barbeque. This restaurant was the closest and easiest to get ot since it is right off Jefferson across from the soccer field.

As my appetizer I ordered the spicy pickled persian cucumbers, which were so good. For my entree I ordered the smoked pork spare-rib served with two different barbeque sauces. As my dessert, I ordered the chocolate mousse, but ended up hopping between my dessert and my friend’s banana pudding dessert. They were both so different, but so good.

SRW allowed me to branch out from my usual three or four restaurants and try something new and fancy. I would not be able to afford one—much less three—courses from any of the three restaurants I tried. The three courses for $33 is an incredible deal and allows you to experience something from every part of the restaurant’s menu.

Sadly, SRW is over, but when the 2019 Spring week comes out, I highly encourage you and a group of friends to go enjoy each others company as well as incredible, high-end food.

Kaela may be reached at
[email protected]