5 Best Outer Borough Deals During NYC Restaurant Week 2016
The first NYC Restaurant Week of the year is running now through Friday, Feb. 5. Participating restaurants offer a three-course lunch for $25 and dinner for $38. Below are our picks for where to go in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. By Jessica Allen.
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If you haven't been to City Island in the Bronx, we urge you to start planning a trip immediately. You'll think you've left NYC and landed in Nantucket. During Restaurant Week, you can stop in at Bistro SK -- which claims to be the borough's only French restaurant -- and gorge on such old world specialties as French onion soup, escargot, beef bourguignon, or poitrine de poulet farcie farcie (chicken breast stuffed with spinach and mushrooms) at lunch or dinner.
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Staten Island's Da Noi offers upscale Italian food in the heart of the downtown district (as well as in a few other locations in New York and New Jersey). Grab a seat in the softly lit space -- or make a reservation a bit later, when things get clubbier. Then prepare to feast on entrees like risotto with saffron or mushrooms, salmon with fusilli, spaghetti Bolognese, linguine with seafood, and tortellini with prosciutto and peas. And that's just the pasta side of the menu . . .
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Unlike a lot of restaurants during Restaurant Week, French Louie, an extremely popular and highly thought of French restaurant in Brooklyn, is offering diners lots of options for lunch and dinner. To wit: lentil and walnut pate, steak tartare, rillettes, chicken paillard, moules frites, gnocchi with kale and mushroom consommé, and a French dip sandwich, with either a lime meringue tart or profiteroles for dessert. But don't just take our word for it: make your reservations now!
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If you're looking for a place to take your family for a meal during Restaurant Week (or any other week), then look no further than Manducatis Rustica in Queens. Specials during Restaurant Week include an arugula, pear, and gorgonzola salad, eggplant oreganata, fried calamari, orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabe, filet mignon, veal tortellini, chicken marsala, and cavatelli with shrimp, cherry tomatoes, and asparagus. Finish up with a cannolo, a gelato, or some biscotti.
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It's probably a good thing that Tanoreen has a limited menu during Restaurant Week, because the last time we ate at this Middle Eastern restaurant in Brooklyn, we ordered way, way too much food, and more or less had to roll ourselves back to the R train. Among our favorite items are the cauliflower steak (breaded with Parmesan and Panko, served with harissa and pomegranate molasses) and the mansaf (rice pilaf topped with lamb, almonds, and housemade yogurt).