Fancy food for bite-sized prices, Seattle Restaurant Week offers a taste of the high life

Seattle-area restaurants would like you to dine out more often. They’re still trying to get their groove back post-pandemic. Many are hoping Seattle Restaurant Week, a two-week dining event starting Oct. 22, will provide a much-needed boost.

Many restaurants may look busy, but behind the scenes, it’s a different story. At a recent preview event for Seattle Restaurant Week, chefs were handing out samples to highlight menu items.

Rachel Yang, chef and co-owner of Revel in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, said some days tables are full, but other times, business is slow. This inconsistency is not limited to the dining room; it happens on the staffing side, too.

“We’ll have days when everybody will show up, we’ll have days when people call in sick and having issues,” Yang said. “The frequency has been a lot greater since the pandemic and I think we’re still not really back from that.”

One reason for the fluctuations could be that diners are being cost conscious. Yang can sympathize—they’re feeling the effects of rising food costs.

“One day the gas price is up, the next day it’s the eggs, the next day it’s the milk," she said. "But then you cannot really fluctuate our price like that for our guests.”

So, restaurants try to find ways to get around these price fluctuations. Nicco Muratore, chef at Mamnoon, said one thing they’ve changed is their portion size.

“If we were used to be able to give, say 10 ounces of chicken on a plate, maybe now we need to scale back to 8 to make it make sense to keep the price point the same for guests,” he said.

So, it’s not your imagination that your dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to.

“As someone who loves to go out to eat, I eat out less now than I did before the pandemic because the prices are higher," Muratore said.

Rising food prices aren't the only issue affecting the restaurant industry. When companies shed workers, restaurants feel the impacts, too.

“People are scared to spend money in good restaurants, but they like good food,” said Preeti Agarwal, chef owner of Kricket Club in the Ravenna neighborhood. And they like good deals. She hopes the two-week promotion will help nudge people to eat out.

“I’m very hopeful because a lot of good restaurants are participating this time,” Agarwal said.

Seattle Restaurant Week was started in 2010 by a group of chefs to help business during slow months in the fall and spring. Diners paid $25 or $35 for a three-course meal.

The program has since evolved under Seattle Good Business Network, a nonprofit group. This year, menu specials range from $20 to $65, said Program Manager Mariah DeLeo.

“The whole public could participate and be part of it at the level that fits their budget and their needs,” DeLeo said.

The program also extends to food trucks, popups and casual dining spots. It’s part of an effort to include businesses that tend to be overlooked.

“We really wanted to show the breadth and the diversity that’s within our culinary community,” DeLeo said.

She added that the fee for restaurants to participate has been lowered to make Restaurant Week more accessible. More than 200 restaurants and businesses will be participating this year.

Rachel Yang of Revel said she understands that people’s habits have changed during the pandemic. She said she hopes a couple of new menu items will entice people to come out and remind them of the joys of dining out.

“There’s something magical about getting a three-course meal that you’re not sharing with anyone and just remember what it feels like being in bustling restaurants where you celebrate them,” Yang said.