Dine Around Downtown

Dine around downtown is an amazing way to try out local eateries. $ 3-​$ 7 gets you a healthy serving of a restaurant’s signature dish. I won the Dine around Downtown instagram contest and won 20 free tastings! The highlight of my day was a sesame dumpling from a (visiting) ShangHai restaurant, it was soft and chewy and one of best dumplings I’ve ever had. I’ll definitely be back next year!

I knew this was coming up this week, but wasn’t sure if I would be able to sneak away, but i forgot cash. ALL the vendors ONLY took cash. I had to run into the DR and get some cash, because I was gaming on falling in love with something and eating it.
Well I don’t know about you, but I love the idea of doing something different for lunch (I normally ALWAYS work out at lunch). I liked the variety of everything, but wayyy to many mac and cheese to choose from. I ordered from Wei West and I was VERY much a happy camper. I loved the seasme chicken and fried rice (ON POINT…(I will order from them again). I know a lot of places around me, but when I find a good Asian spot I stick with it. I can’t wait to use my dine in coupon (20% off)… This was a great gift they gave us. Everyone was helpful at all the locations, but especially this spot. It was a long wait, but totally worth it.
The wind was kicking up pretty hard and things were flying, but they did say RAIN or SHINE. they were NOT kidding. There was over 40 venues out here doing their thing. I really appreciated everyone still making an effort to come out and feed downtown. When are we doing this again? maybe it should be every three months, I would love to help organize these type of events. Its really down my alley. The burgers were calling my name this day, but I said «Daisha you always have burgers». That Asian food hit the spot. I also tried a bite of my friends «lobster mac». YUMMMY
SIDE NOTE: just ask if they have combo plates, assuming they probably do.

It is a great event. It’s not perfect, some lines can be long, choices can be uninspired (every third place has slider or mac and cheese or fried rice), and if you want a few things you will have to break that 20 as the prices and portions are reduced but not to $ 0.99 cent store levels. But everyone is pleasant. You get to see all the different restaurants that maybe you walked by but never stepped into or had the time to sit down at. I have not had a bad dish in either of the last two years or in it’s previous incarnation. It is too bad it is only once a year. It isn’t quite 5 stars but is better than 4 for what it is. In theory you can do this at the seaport or Hudson Eats but you would be hard pressed to find much for under $ 10 there.

I thought it was a good idea!
You get to check out all the famous/​popular nearby places, without getting stuffed (all the portions are tiny), quickly (booths are all located side-​by-​side in the plaza), along co-​workers and friends (at least if you work in One Chase ;)), and with ability to taste great food and compare it right then and there.
Only downside — pretty expensive! $ 6 for a mini burger and the likes ^^

I appreciated that a ton of restaurants downtown participated, but truthfully — if you are trying to get people to try your restaurant, pricing the food at $ 7 – 8 a portion aren’t going to get you a ton of new customers, especially when the $ 7 burger is actually a slider.
The purpose of this should be to showcase your restaurant, and get people who might not have otherwise every thought to stop at your restaurant, the chance to see how awesome your food is — not to try to make money. Restaurants are so confused.
The one’s who priced items at $ 3 – 4 had the right idea.
And lunch here, cost me over $ 20. And I did not feel full, but was reluctant to spent any more.