Have you heard about Fox Cities Restaurant Week? From Thursday, August 27th to Thursday, September 3rd, many of the best restaurants in the Fox Valley will be offering a special discounted menu to tantalize your tastebuds! Fox Cities Restaurant Week intends to highlight our locally owned restaurants during one of their slowest weeks of the year, giving you a chance to fall in love with a new favorite, or perhaps induldge in haute cuisine that may otherwise be out of your price range.
The eight day event is being organized in a beautifully simplistic manner, there are no tickets required or special planning needed for you to partake. Each participating restaurant will be offering three-course meals at a fixed price. $12 for lunch menus and $25 or $35 for dinner offerings, each with the appetizer, entree, and dessert included!
With over 30 local favorites participating, there may be no shortage of appetizing menus to choose from, but it can certainly be overwhelming to decide which places to try. Luckily, I'm a food geek and my first thought was to ponder which restaurants are offering the best menus. I culled through each menu to select the top five Fox Valley Foodie favorite restaurant week menus you won't want to miss!
Disclaimers, methodology, and other fun jargon:
To compose this list I considered both how enticing the dinner menu items appear to be, as well as the discount the diner is receiving compared to the traditional pricing. Savings ranged from 0-$2, all the way up to $15. All of the restaurants I selected are offering $10-15 off menu prices.
It should be noted for clarification, though I would happily dine at any of the 5 restaurants on this list, this is not a list of the '5 Best Restaurants', as I have not been fortunate enough to sample each menu item listed. Rather, my aim is specifically to highlight the five Restaurant Week menus I find most enticing.
So, without further adieu let's start drooling over some menus!
Fox Valley Foodie's 5 Favorite Restaurant Week Menus!
#5. Spats - If you are a Reuben junky like me, the Blarney Stones catches your eyes right away! It's a bite-sized Reuben, rolled up in a ball and deep-fried. Can't go wrong with that! It reminds me of the Deep Fried Sauerkraut Balls recipe that I posted a few months ago, which thanks to Spats' menu, I'm now craving.
I also love to see Jacob's Meat Market being featured on their menu, providing the tenderloin for their Tenderloin Newberg. Anytime you top a quality cut of beef with shrimp, scallops and real crab, you have my attention! Plus, supporting local businesses is, after all, the spirit of this event and it is fantastic to see the restaurant pass it on. I'm also not known for ordering dessert, but pass me some Jack Daniel's Pecan Pie!
#4. OB's Brau Haus - I've written about Old Bavarian before on FoxValleyFoodie.com. They serve up some of the best German fare in the Fox Valley. I love their Restaurant Week menu because I know the food is always great, and by offering $40 worth of food for only $25, the discount you'll be getting is even better! I've had the pleasure of eating their Jager Schnitzel and Schnitzel Art Des Hauses and highly recommend each, though I am dying to try the Wild Pork Shanks, as well.
#3 Appleton Beer Factory - I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Appleton Beer Factory ever since they started construction, they were with me at pretty much the start of this blog in 2012 keeping the FoxValleyFoodie.com community up to date on when their doors would open. Thankfully, their food was always as good as the hype, so I continue to sing their praises.
Their Restaurant Week Menu is fantastic. They serve up some of the best deep-fried cheese curds you'll find in the valley, so plan on ordering those. However, with bacon, cheddar, and cream cheese all in a honey-glazed pepper, you will want to bring a friend to order the Brewery Poppers. Just make sure they drink plenty of the house-made beer and steal their poppers when they use the restroom. Don't worry, you can always get new friends.
This menu also stands out because you have three starters and three entrees to choose from, whereas many other menus whittled it down to two. This will make it easy to ensure everyone finds something they like. I'd be honing in on the Brown Ale Pork Shanks. Who doesn't want meat braised in beer?! Finally, cap it all off with a Stout Cupcake & Ice Cream. I first wrote about my excitement for their Stout Cupakes in 2012, well over a year before they opened. It is great to see them stick to the game-plan that got me so excited for them in the first place.
#2 Apollon - This high-end Mediterranean establishment is placing their menu within reach of the masses during Restaurant Week. Offering a $50 menu for $35 certainly makes fine dining more palatable to the pocketbook.
Grilled Haloumi is a mint infused grilled cheese that would be a safe bet for most Dairyland tastebuds, whereas Kalamarakia would certainly intrigue the more adventurous. However, the Lamb Tenderloin Sumac is what I'm dying to try! Citrus flavor combined with succulent taste of lamb is a sure winner. Finally, make sure you order the Galacktoboureko to get a taste of their homemade gelato. Pronounce it as "Galactic Burrito" when you order and I promise you will sound extra sophisticated.
#1 GingeRootz - The folks at GingeRootz Asian Grille really went above and beyond on their menu. Not only are you getting a $40 meal for $25, but they offer four starters, four entrees, and four desserts to choose from! If your dinner guest can't find something they enjoy on this menu, bring them to Appleton Beer Factory, steal their Brewery Poppers, and stop being their friend.
Not only do you get a lot of options to satisfying your cravings, you will be treated to exceptionally prepared food made from scratch. Scratch made Pan-Fried Dumplings are a sure pleaser, and how can I pass up Ahi Tuna at such a great price? There is nothing on the dessert menu I don't want. Though, I would have to try the Mochi Sampler because ice cream dumplings sounds heavenly.
There you have it! My five favorite restaurant week menus! With so many great options to choose from, it was not easy limiting it to just five. What are your favorites? With Fox Cities Restaurant Week starting tomorrow, be sure to peruse the menus and find what you've been craving! You can check them all out on the Fox Cities Restaurant Week website. I'd love to know which restaurants you can't wait to visit. Let me know in the comments below!
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