My boyfriend had made reservations at Mesa Grill for Restaurant Week lunch. Mesa Grill is head-chefed by the reigning (?) American Iron Chef who puts a “new twist” on American southwestern food. We excitedly strolled up to the place and were seated pretty much immediately after the hostesses acted like they were really stressed out even though at 12:30 there were only about 15 people in the restaurant. It filled up throughout the next hour.

We got our menus and stupidly didn’t even open the regular lunch menus but just stuck to the Restaurant Week prix fix. Oh, and I’m fine with just water, thanks, I don’t want any other “beverages.” With a mostly American winelist (nothing from the old country, thanks Bobby Flay). One of the reds boasted a variety of crazy notes with a “and root beer” that really puzzled us. I had heard that some restaurants were skimping on their restaurant week plates, making the serving sizes smaller, and/or leaving out some fancy ingredients, and I didn’t think it would be noticeable but, judging from the plate sizes of the diners next to us (who weren’t having the restaurant week menu) we were really getting small sizes.

Nevertheless, for appetizer I had some shrimp and roasted asparagus taquitos (yes, tiny soft tacos) that were absolutely delicious. I could have eaten 10 of them (I got only two.) And then for entree I had a bbq chicken cobb salad that was just so so. There was supposed to be some cayenne-buttermilk dressing which sounded really good and I probably would have enjoyed it had there been more than two teaspoonfuls on my plate. Sam had some kind of cilantro soup that was very tasty and some kind of chili-encrusted roasted scallops with a little tortilla strip salad. His meal was good.

Dessert was alright, I’m more of a traditionalist, meaning I would die for outstanding creme brulee, and this was a little more experimental in terms of combining flavors. We spent $2.75 each on cups of really strong coffee, I stole a role of toilet paper from their bathroom (which wasn’t that nice) and we went back to our respective workplaces having spent $28.00 each on lunch.

But the regular-menu big-ass Bobby Flay burger is $11 for lunch. I’d get that if I went again. It looked really good.

Next: hopefully Nobu.

***Note: a lot of the restaurants on the restaurant week website have a star next to them which means they’re keeping up their special until Labor Day. What a sweet deal!