Long Island Restaurant Week is back for its fall season, affording diners a chance to break free from their culinary routine and travel the world one dish at a time, from Cuba to France, without breaking the bank.
The event, which runs from Sunday, Oct. 27 to Sunday, Nov. 3, offers a prix-fixe menu for lunch and dinner and 188 restaurants to choose from across Long Island, including Suffolk and Nassau counties, according to Nicole Castillo, president of the Long Island Restaurant and Hospitality Group.
The most affordable is a two-course lunch at $24, she said, while three-course dinners range from $29 to $46. The experience spans the entire week during restaurant operating hours except for Saturday, when the prix-fixe ends at 7 p.m. in most cases.
Popularity is on the rise, so Castillo recommends reservations to avoid disappointment.
“We’re really getting back to our pre-COVID levels, which is exciting to have so many different restaurants to choose from,” said Castillo, whose group launched Long Island Restaurant Week in 2006 as a fall promotion that expanded to tri-annual. “We’re just excited that people are excited about it and that the restaurants are on board."
Area residents embrace Long Island Restaurant Week in different ways, she said, with some taking advantage of the experience to dine out five days a week and many stepping outside their comfort level to try a new culinary delight or venue. Long Island Restaurant and Hospitality Group has surveyed attendees and found that some “use this week as an opportunity to get together with a group of friends and have an affordable dinner together.”
New this year is a sweepstakes giveaway, Castillo said, which diners can enter on the group’s website (longislandrestaurantweek.com) for a chance at restaurant gift cards in the amount of $100, $150 or $250.
According to the website, the event helps promote positivity and business for restaurants and has blossomed due to customer and restaurant demand. Inspired by New York and Hamptons restaurant weeks, the Long Island foodie adventure is a revenue spike during sluggish periods that raised $2.8 million its very first year, the website said.
“We added the spring version in 2011 and then we added the winter version in 2016. So it started out small and then the people loved it so much….that now we do it three times a year,” Castillo said.