The time has come for Restaurant Week 2024. Starting tomorrow, 48 eateries across Champaign, Urbana, Savoy, Mahomet, Paxton, St. Joe, and Rantoul will participate in the nine-day celebration of restaurants. The Experience Champaign-Urbana event will run Friday, January 26th through next Saturday, February 3rd.
With nearly fifty participating restaurants and only nine days, it’s certainly a lot. What’s good? Who’s making something special? And where are the best deals? Not all participating restaurants are doing special things. There are Restaurant Week menus with the same ole regular items at lower prices (some at higher!), but there’s quite a few chefs shooting for the stars and cooking up something exclusive for Restaurant Week. Those appetizing RW specials are what I’m focusing on in this list because hello, it’s Restaurant Week — and also don’t we all like special things? At the end of the list, find two C-U restaurants offering deals too good to miss — two spots with menu favorites at an impressive discount worth trying this Restaurant Week if you haven’t yet. And so, here are 15 things to eat for Restaurant Week 2024, let’s go.
Van Winkle’s Short Ribs at Watson’s Shack & Rail
Watson’s is bringing it this year with their Restaurant Week menu. This year, the Downtown Champaign chicken shack has four specials: an app, this short ribs entree, a waffle flight dessert, and an exclusive Restaurant Week rye-pineapple cocktail. Made with limited-edition 10-year Pappy Van Winkle bourbon whiskey and Campbell Apiaries honey, the short ribs main sounds absolutely amazing. Save room for the special Restaurant Week dessert of four waffle triangles, each with a different topping: Fruity Pebbles cereal, strawberry bourbon jam, Dutch chocolate drizzle, and candied pecans.
Lamb Brusco at Baldarotta’s Porketta & Sicilian Sausage
For Restaurant Week 2024, Baldarotta’s is offering three never-seen-before dishes, and I really want to eat the lamb special. It’s herb-roasted Australian lamb with speck prosciutto, spinach, roasted mushrooms, and fresh mozzarella with a Lambrusco cream sauce and housemade rosemary focaccia. The sandwich shop’s regular menu has Sicilian sandos and pizza, but the owners are always making specials. Each day, there’s a sandwich special, but sometimes they cook up arancini or spare rib oso bucco. I trust these Restaurant Week dishes will be awesome, and Italian herb-roasted lamb with warm, freshly-baked focaccia for $17? It’s a must.
All the Specials at 83 Vietnamese
83 Vietnamese is throwing out their regular menu for a full menu of specials: appetizers, soups, rice dishes, a sandwich, and desserts, all exclusive to Restaurant Week — which is impressive and very cool. Pork belly isn’t usually on the menu, but for the occasion, 83 Vietnamese will have pork belly in steamed buns, a rice bowl, and on their signature banh mi sandwich instead of the usual char sui (slow-roasted pork). More than just pork belly specials, 83 Vietnamese’s RW menu has so many appetizing options like Asian calamari, shrimp-filled fried rolls, hot braised beef, custard buns, and more. Check out all their Restaurant Week offerings here.
Sticky Rice’s Curry Flight for Two
In Downtown Champaign, the Lao-Thai restaurant Sticky Rice is offering a Restaurant Week curry flight special. The $33 dinner is for two people, and it includes a choice of three curries plus steamed rice, sticky rice, and two drinks (either Thai tea or Thai iced coffee). Definitely get the yellow curry; it’s always in my Sticky Rice takeout order because it’s absolutely delicious. Other curries available for the curry flight include red, green, Mussamun, and Panang.
Tasting Dinner at The Space
First time participant in Restaurant Week, The Space restaurant in Downtown Champaign is offering a multi-course tasting menu. If it’s anything like their New Year’s Eve tasting dinner, it will be excellent. The Restaurant Week dinner starts with a first course of vichyssoise, a creamy potato-leek soup. The second is an egg-yolk raviolo, the third a choice of cola-braised short ribs or roasted rockfish, and there’s two dessert options: foie gras Snickers (pictured above) or panna cotta. Plan ahead for this one because this RW special is available by reservation only.
Num Pang Burger at A Taste of Both Worlds
I need to try the special num pang burger at Broadway Food Hall’s A Taste of Both Worlds. For Restaurant Week only, the restaurant will top a beef burger patty with the roasted pork they use on their delicious banh mi, plus shredded daikon and carrots, cucumbers, cilantro, and sriracha mayo. Their Restaurant Week menu is packed with dishes, desserts, and drinks exclusive to the event including bistek (stir-fried steak with onions and rice), crispy fried chicken, cantaloupe juice, and more. See all their RW specials here.
Shrimp and Scallop Alfredo at Neil St. Blues
I ate this shrimp and scallop alfredo dish during last year’s Restaurant Week, and it was incredible. Not on the regular menu, this dish shows off just how talented Neil St. Blues is at cooking seafood with Southern flair. Fettuccini pasta gets tossed in a pinot grigio wine sauce, topped with super seasoned shrimp and scallops. And in true Southern fashion, the portion was really generous. This upscale dinner special costs $42 and comes with a soup or salad plus a choice of dessert (go for the banana pudding — it’s insanely good!), but there’s two other choices, too. The restaurant is also offering a $22 smoked half-chicken with two sides or a $32 plate of braised short ribs with mashed potatoes plus one more side of the diner’s choosing, and a soup or salad.
Pollo en Mole at Maize
I really want to eat Maize at The Station’s Restaurant Week pollo en mole. I love that delicious housemade mole sauce on their chicken wings, so it’ll be so delicious on chicken breast. The mole here has a satisfying spice level with a strong ancho chili flavor. This RW dinner includes a choice of soup: the sopa de tortilla (tortilla soup) or sopa tarasca (black bean and ancho chile soup). The only other thing I’d need is a mango habanero margarita.
Dill Pickle Pizza at Po’ Boys Barbecue
Po’ Boys restaurant serves great barbecue in Urbana, but their thin-crust pizzas are fire. For Restaurant Week this year, they’re serving a special pizza with garlic sauce, fresh chopped dill, and pickles. This pizza made an appearance last February at the Pond Street pop-up, but it’s back for Restaurant Week — and it’s not the only special. This year, there’s two additional pizza options (a thin-crust pizza with smoked salmon with capers and red onions or deep dish pizza by-the-slice during lunch hours) and meal specials for one, two, and four people. Check out all their RW eats here.
Tofu Banh Mi at The Literary Kitchen
So there’s amazing lamb, beef, pork, chicken, seafood, and cheesy pizza for Restaurant Week 2024, and that’s wonderful, but for a vegan Restaurant Week bite, check out The Literary Kitchen, the café inside Downtown Champaign’s bookstore-bar. The Literary has only one special for Restaurant Week, but it will be a hit with vegan (and possibly omnivore) eaters. The $13 sandwich has grilled tofu with pickled carrots and onions, cilantro, jalapeño, and a lime-cilantro crema on a roll, and it comes with The Literary’s yummy garlic fries.
Glazed and Confused from Smith Burger Co at Collective Pour
For Restaurant Week, Smith Burger Co is coming in hot with one of my all-time favorite burgers: the illusive Glazed and Confused burger on a Ye Olde doughnut, which is usually only available on 4/20. The Glazed and Confused burger is so delicious — and not at all vegan, obviously, with its double beef patties, strips of bacon, pepperjack cheese, and sweet chili aioli. Smith Burger Co is slinging this amazing glazed doughnut burger plus two special sandwiches during RW 2024. There will also be an off-menu fried chicken sandwich called the Smashville Hot with housemade slaw, and there’ll be an exclusive black bean burger with mushrooms, bleu cheese, and blueberry-pepper jam.
Chicken Cutlet Sandwich at Dee Dee’s Beef
If you want to celebrate Restaurant Week in Campustown, check out the RW special sandwich at Dee Dee’s Beef inside Cracked! on Green Street. The restaurant usually specializes in Italian beef sandwiches (with slow-cooked shredded beef and customizable toppings), but they are serving up something different: a chicken sandwich. The $13 sando has crispy chicken cutlets on a deli roll covered with marinara and mozzarella. Dee Dee’s Beef launched their special a little early, and so when I was there eating arancini for my Cheap eats list, I ordered the sandwich, too. The sando was a gooey, Italian mess of chicken and cheese on bread that couldn’t contain it, but it was so good. For dessert, be sure to try the made-to-order tiramisu.
Chocolate Sangria Cake at Punch! Bar & Lounge
Punch! Bar is participating in Restaurant Week for the first time. Not known for their food, the cocktail lounge does serve small bites, but for RW 2024, Punch! is offering something the regular menu doesn’t have: a $33 three-course dinner. The dessert course sounds amazing and on point for a bar: chocolate sangria cake (devil’s food cake, chocolate buttercream, and strawberry-fig sangria sauce). Course one is a Cajun shrimp cocktail (clever). For the main, it’s blue corn crab bread, described only in nouns: “poblano, smoked cheddar, Cajun butter, roasted corn-poblano salad, jerk chicken, pickled red onion, radish, remoulade.” I’m not sure if it’s cheesy poblano peppers over a poblano-corn salad with some jerk chicken or bread with veggies, butter, and side sauce or where the crab part comes in, but it sounds interesting, and I want to try it. Rumor has it there’ll be a RW cocktail, too.
Prix Fixe at Hamilton Walker’s Steakhouse
Hamilton Walker’s is an elegant spot for dinner in Downtown Champaign. Regularly, entrees range from $21 up to $58, but for Restaurant Week, the steakhouse is offering a three-course dinner for $33. This year’s RW options aren’t all that different than last year’s, but they sound delish. The first course is a choice between mushroom bisque or one of three salads. The entree options are either six ounces of beef tenderloin or six ounces of salmon, each served with mashed potatoes and green beans. For dessert, diners choose between flourless chocolate cake or bread pudding. On the regular menu, the salmon entree (without potatoes, green beans, and dessert) costs $32, so really, this is a good deal for Restaurant Week. Check out my review of last year’s RW dinner at Hamilton Walker’s for more.
$5.99 Pulled Pork at Wood N Hog Barbecue
Finally, this $5.99 all-day Restaurant Week special at Wood N Hog Barbecue is too good. Though it’s on the regular menu, this pulled pork sandwich (and two other sandwiches) have RW discounts at the Urbana location. Priced lower than usual for all nine days of the event, the Restaurant Week deal includes fries. Go for the pulled pork sandwich because Wood N’ Hog’s barbecue pork is smoky and so tender. On every sammie I’ve had there, the portion of pulled meat overflows from the bun, and always, the fries are drowning in spicy barbecue sauce — which I love. Dousing everything in sauce (choice of mild, mix, or hot) is the standard, but they’ll put it on the side if you ask when ordering. Besides fries, the other side options also include baked beans, potato salad, and coleslaw.
Next week on Smile Politely, we’ll be publishing reviews by the Editors of our Restaurant Week meals, so look for that. If you ate something awesome or have opinions about this year’s Restaurant Week, send us an email or leave a comment on our socials.
