July/August 2007

Meal Deals

25 meals for $25(or less!)

By Patrick Evans-Hylton

Who doesn't love a bargain? Each year, when Restaurant Week rolls around in Norfolk, Virginia Beach or Williamsburg, we love to sit down and make a list of all the eateries we want to try and then go for the gusto.

For the uninitiated, Restaurant Week involves a number of participating restaurants, usually more than a dozen or so, that offer dinner and lunch specials for a prix fixe price all week long. For example: shell out $20 (or $30, depending on the restaurant and city), and you get an appetizer, entrée and dessert. Just add tax and tip (and the cost for any libation), and bingo—instant bargain.

Recently, this creative culinary concept got us thinking—why can't Restaurant Week be every week?

In a world of ever-increasing entrée prices, we sought out eateries that give diners a pretty good bang for the buck. It's our take on cheap eats, but with a twist.

We took $25 and went to 25 restaurants, looking for a full-blown meal. Not just an entrée, but a meal that also included at least two other components: either an appetizer, dessert or alcoholic beverage.

We stayed away from buffets and fast food options and instead sought out genuine restaurants where a server takes your order and you don't empty your own tray in a garbage can. We traversed menus, took notes, did some calculations and voila!—below is the end result.

This is real life—nothing filtered—so some ended up as better deals than others. Some lacked atmosphere, others in food quality, some in service, and a few in stomach satisfaction (or how full we felt when we left). But, overall, the experiment was a success, saving us some greenbacks to use for another foray out into the restaurant world on another day.

For the complete list of 25 restaurants for $25, see the July/August issue of Hampton Roads Magazine, currently available on newsstands.