dineLA Restaurant Week

You may have already heard of "Restaurant Week", which is a bi-annual nationwide event that promotes trying out new restaurants by luring you in with a prix-fixe menu at a sensational price. 
To find out when Restaurant Week is at the city near you, check out the site here.

Although I've heard of dineLA Restaurant Week for quite some time now, Jeff and I actually never participated.  We never really found the time, I guess.  And the price is not always that great of a deal  (the prix-fixe menu is typically a 3-course meal, and the flat rate price you pay is usually around the cost of the appetizer and entree, so you are pretty much getting the dessert for free.  If you don't usually order dessert, then it really isnt a deal then).

What got me interested in dineLA Restaurant Week this time around, was an email that I got from American Express:  Sync up your Amex card with Foursquare, check-in on Foursquare at the restaurant, pay for your dineLA meal with that Amex card, and get $5 off your credit card statement!
Now, $5 isn't that much, but it *does* give me a good excuse to try out dineLA, so I enrolled.

After reviewing the super long list of dineLA participating restaurants, then refining my search by only selecting the lowest pricing pricing tier (which is $26 per person), I decided to go to the restaurant "Little Next Door".  I've heard of this restaurant, the prix-fixe menu looked great and the yelp reviews looked positive.

Upon reaching the restaurant, we realized that the restaurant I had in mind was "The Little Door", and "Little Next Door" is actually the sister restaurant of "The Little Door" (and is located... you guessed it... next door to "The Little Door".  haha!), and is not as upscale.  Whoops.
The names are so similar, anyone can get confused!

After coughing up $7 for valet (damn you Beverly Hills/West Hollywood), we were seated immediately (probably because it was 8:30pm on a Tuesday night). 
We both chose the escargo for appetizers, Jeff ordered the moules frites for the entree while I ordered the steak and frites.  Dessert was unfortunate because they were all out of flourless chocolate cake but at least they still had lemon tarts available.

The food was good, not the best, but still decent and $26/ person is pretty good for a 3 course French meal!
And I thought their lemon tart was absolutely amazing.

The escargo.  I asked to take the shells home to add to my snail shell collection but they said "no",  they reuse the shells. =\

The moules!  They were tender and delish, but there was 1 dead one in there.  =(
Frites are not pictured.

 Steak and frites.

 The lemon tart that made me want to die of happiness.
Isn't that cat-face logo so adorable?! It reminds me of the 7-legged spider drawing.

Remember my Amex deal, where you get $5 off your credit card statement? 
Well, Jeff synced up his Amex to his Foursquare on his Iphone while at the restaurant, and we asked the waiter for separate checks.  We each paid with our own Amex, which makes it $5 off per person, making the meal $21 per person!
Woohoo.  =)

What a fun dineLA experience that was.