Peninsula Restaurant Week 2023 has officially kicked off! It's running from Friday, May 19 - Saturday, May 27!

I first heard about restaurant week in college where Boston has an amazing restaurant week. There's basically 2-course pre-fixe lunch specials and 3-course pre-fixe dinner specials at restaurants throughout the city for the week. It was a chance for poor college students to get dressed up, experience a fancy dining experience at an upscale place for an affordable price. It was one of those traditions we looked forward to each year!

Over the years, I've seen restaurant weeks pop up in different cities but they were too far away. For the longest time, there was nothing in the Bay Area. And in recent years, it finally came into existence for the Peninsula - YES!

Here's the website where you can check out places to eat for restaurant week. Filter by city or type of food, or just do what I do and browse them all! The restaurants are listed and if they have a special, then it's linked too. For this restaurant week, the specials range. Some of them have a special price for a certain item, some have a limited edition menu item, some offer a free item with a purchase. Others do what I think is a more traditional restaurant week offering - a lunch special and then a dinner special for a fixed price.

I haven't gone to any this year yet, but I'm eyeing:

• Coupa Cafe where they have $11 paninis if you order using their app with their special discount code (multiple locations throughout the Bay)

• SWEET55 Dessert box for $32.50 (It's a Swiss chocolate place that opened in Palo Alto Town and Country plaza)

• HE&C TEA+POT for $30 hot pot + 1 tea

• Oren's Hummus in Mountain View for 2-course lunch for only $15!

Are there any places on the list that catch your eye that you'd like to try this week?

Here are some pictures from when we went to Peninsula Restaurant Week 2 years ago to Arya Steakhouse (formerly in Redwood City but now in Palo Alto). It's a Persian steakhouse and it was yummmmyy! The steak was truly amazing. The roasted head of garlic on the right and the salt/pepper in a pile on the left there was really good.

Kebabs there are good too!

Desserts:

We were stuffed after! I think we had the pomegranate pistachio meatball as an appetizer too and I was surprised at these flavors I never thought would go together!

Overall, we wouldn't have ever stumbled across Arya Steakhouse if it hadn't been for restaurant week, so I think it's a great way to discover new places that you'll return to.

Hope you have time to check out Peninsula Restaurant Week this week!