Hey, fellow Beijing foodies! The next restaurant week has been announced and this year they’ve extended it to three whole weeks instead of just one.

Every year, restaurant week finds Beijing’s top restaurants and asks them to create set lunch and dinner menus that showcase the restaurant’s signature dishes at a special price. Basically, it’s a week (or in this case, three weeks) of dining at a discount. Yum!

Chef Ivan Miguez at Rive Gauche

Take Rive Gauche at The PuXuan Hotel for example. The restaurant has one Michelin plate and Chef Ivan Miguez and his interpretation of French classics have made this bohemian Parisian restaurant a favorite amongst Beijing’s foodies. An average meal at Rive Gauche isn’t without delightful culinary surprises from the kitchen as they share their latest mind-blowing creations, and a meal at Rive Gauche usually costs you around RMB 500 per person. During Restaurant Week, however, Chef Miguez’s 3-course lunch menu is RMB 138 and the dinner menu is RMB 288.
*Rive Gauche is currently closed. Their Restaurant Week menu will be available for booking soon.

Scan the QR code below to see the list of restaurants that have already been announced and the menu that they’ve created just for Restaurant Week. Over the course of the next few weeks, more and more restaurants will be added to the list.

I love a good dining deal and as a Restaurant Week veteran for the past eight years, I recommend that you start skimming through the menus before booking opens so you know which ones to go for as soon as the countdown reaches zero. Restaurant Week seating is limited at each restaurant, so you can bet that seats at the city’s most expensive restaurants are going to get snagged up within minutes.

This year’s Restaurant Week is from Apr 30 to May 24, which means if you plan your foodie adventures well, you can spend five blissful days of May Holiday dining in style for a fraction of the price.

Photos: Dining City, PuXuan Hotel

Restaurant Week is back for its fifth edition and it’s bigger and better than ever. This time the event will go on for 11 days from September 4-11. As ever, restaurants will be offering set lunch menus from RMB 78 to RMB 128 and set dinner menus from RMB 168 to RMB 258.

In addition to old favorites like The Cut, Mosto and Alameda, a couple of big names are joining the line up this year, including Matta, Morton’s, Via Roma and Tiantan Kitchen. We sampled the menu Matta will be offering last month and it represents very good value.

Booking officially starts on August 26 at 10am. You’ll want to be get in there quickly to nab the big ticket restaurants – last year Opera Bombana sold out within the first couple of days. Luckily, if you follow the Dining City WeChat account (DiningCity_Beijing) you can book a day earlier on August 25 and if you happen to have a CitiBank credit card you can nab the best seats even earlier on August 21.

This post appeared in thebeijinger.com on August 12, 2014.

Photos: thebeijinger.com