Houston Restaurant Week: Lunch Deals

This year Houston Restaurant Week is offering $20 prix-fixe two-course lunch deal in addition to the $35 three-course dinner deals of years past. (The Houston Food Bank gets $3 for every lunch, and $5 for every dinner.) So as a service to you, dear reader, I have pored over the almost 200 hundreds menus to pick out some of the lunch selection that leapt off the computer screen at me.

*17
Restaurants are only required to offer two courses for lunch, but *17 in the Alden Hotel goes the extra serving on this one. You can choose from the likes of a crab cake as the app, a braised Texas peach pork shank for the main, and an orange glazed chocolate pound cake for dessert. More food = mo better.

The Grove
Meanwhile, The Grove has a list as long as Discovery Green is big. There are 12 first-course selections, including a fresh fish ceviche and Ryan Pera's famous meat and cheese picnic platter. For the main, try to narrow down 18 selections, like a house-made lamb burger and soft shell crab BLT.

Mark's American Cuisine
Always wanted to try Mark's but were intimidated by the Bentley parked outside? Well go there for Restaurant Week lunch and stuff a pyramid of corn soufflé or crab risotto down your middle-class pie hole.

Sage 400
Most Japanese restaurants on the list offer a selection of sushi, but Sage 400 shakes up lunch with a miso sea bass served with truffle oil fried rice and albacore carpaccio.

Benjy's on Washington
Why risk going down to Washington Ave at night and traveling down the street with the most DUI arrests in the world (that is a made up statistic, it is probably just America) when you can go there for lunch? How can you go wrong with crunchy chicken, marbled potatoes gratin and sweet corn with a little tres leches cake action to finish thing off?