Is it But as far as heading to chain restaurants in the place you live all the time... if it's the lack of a sense of adventure, that's troubling. If it's worry about cost, well, Restaurant Week gives the squeezed the opportunity to have a three-course meal of Italian classics at, say, Lombardino's, for not much more than the same items would cost at The Olive Garden. And the meat in the spaghetti sauces will be locally raised from the Dick Cates farm and from Jordandal Farm. The special three-course prix fixe menus are $25 across the board for dinner; some participants also offer a $15 lunch. Even if you usually eat at locally owned restaurants instead of chains, here's an opportunity to pick a place you've never gone to and try it out. Some intriguing menu picks that piqued my curiosity from the L'Etoile menu is potentially mind-blowing. You could justify eating there three times during Restaurant Week just so you could try each item for each course. So many of my favorites crop up here -- a mulligatawny soup, a chicken liver pate mousse, fennel in one of the salads, and Willow Creek Pork with the unimaginably smooth L'Etoile polenta.
So many reasons not to miss Madison Restaurant Week winter 2010
