Eat Well, Spend Less

From top, Rialto’s anise-orange panna cotta; semolina noodles with favas and Italian sausage; and chicken prepared two ways, with ginger-herb carrots. (Photograph by Sang An)

Three Value-Packed Tasting Menus

And why $40 is the new right price for a memorable meal.

Is the prix fixe the last great hope of fine dining? Sure looks like it: Even restaurants that didn’t seem remotely price-sensitive before last fall have launched three-fer deals to try to recruit new regulars.

Among those offerings, $40 has become the industry standard, representing that sweet spot between profitability and get-’em-in-the-door price-slashing. “It’s a herd mentality, some of it,” says Boston restaurant consultant David Shinney. “They’re making less than their normal profit margin in the interest of increasing volume.” There’s also the psychological appeal of a nice round number: “That’s what my younger customers are comfortable paying for dinner,” says Hamersley’s Bistro chef Gordon Hamersley. If the restaurant can cover the food costs and sell a glass of wine or two, everybody wins.

For upscale diners accustomed to $35 salmon, it seems like a bargain. Scan the menus of some places, though, and you see paltry choices or cheap ingredients. So, how do you best get your fixe?

Start by doing the math. Although Rendezvous’s $38 deal sounds (and tastes) great, a three-course à la carte dinner there typically averages about $44. By contrast, a single strip steak at Sensing costs $32, but for $8 more, you can add a seasonal risotto and an orange blossom panna cotta.

You also want to be pro-choice. Much as we love Hamersley’s, its prix fixe comes with the appetizer and dessert preselected. The most satisfying menus offer multiple options for each course.

Finally, demand a little ambition. It’s a buyer’s market, after all! The recent menu of iceberg salad, haddock, and bread pudding at Davio’s, while tasty, looks meager compared with the more adventurous fare found elsewhere.

OUR PICKS:

T.W. FOOD

Chef Tim Wiechmann has landed on a formula that keeps his Huron Village bistro buzzing: Make the prix fixe nearly identical to the regular menu, minus a dish or two. What remains? The beef tartare, the rustic potato gnocchi, and a choice of appetizer or two items from the “larder” menu, including pork rillettes, duck pâté, and Polish bacon kielbasa.

377 Walden St., Cambridge, 617-864-4745, twfoodrestaurant.com.

PIGALLE

Nine apps and mains, five desserts—this is no cheapskate setup. In fact, Pigalle’s fixed-price menu is longer than its standard one, with French classics like coq au vin and interpretive numbers like spiced asparagus soup garnished with shiitakes and bacon.

75 Charles St. S., Boston, 617-423-4944, pigalleboston.com. 

RIALTO

Providing three options in each of its three courses, the menu at this Italian mainstay reflects chef Jody Adams’s signature ingredient-driven style, and is stocked with seasonal winners like handmade lasagna with English peas and morels, and roasted cod with lobster broth, parsnips, and fava beans.

Charles Hotel, One Bennett St., Cambridge, 617-661-5050, rialto-restaurant.com.