Royal Oak Dishes up Great Deals During Restaurant Week

Everyone loves a good deal and Royal Oak is dishing up nine days worth starting Friday.

The first kicks off Friday and runs through April 2. About 20 restaurants will participate in what organizers hope will be an annual event. Each eatery will offer three-course meals for $15 or $25, depending on the location. The price does not include beverages, gratuity or tax.

While this will be the first Restaurant Week for Royal Oak, many other cities have hosted similar events, including Grand Rapids, Detroit, Birmingham and Ann Arbor. The idea is to bring in more diners and encourage them to try restaurants they might not otherwise. 

The event will showcase the dining diversity in Royal Oak and allow diners to try new places at a lower price.   

“We participated in the event because we really wanted to showcase our three locations," said Brent Stevens, manager at the  complex at Main Street and Fifth Avenue. "We're really excited about it. We hope to see some new faces. This is a great opportunity to show people what we're all about.”

The Bastone complex offers three styles of dining. During Restaurant Week, will offer a three-course meal for $15 while Bastone and will offer enticing three-course meals for $25.

No passes or reservations are required to take part in the special deal at any of the participating restaurants, though reservations are encouraged to guarantee seating. Patrons can take advantage of Restaurant Week deals as many times as they'd like. Many eateries are adding extra staff to be prepared for a busy week and each restaurant has carefully selected options to feature on their discounted menus.

“We decided to feature our two best-selling dishes for restaurant week,” explained Stephanie Atias, manager of . “And we wanted to make sure we offered a non-meat item for Lent so we went with our Blackened Catfish.”

Other restaurants have taken the opportunity to expand their menus.

“We worked with our chef to create the entrees that we will serve,” said Burke Harris,  manager. “None of them are on our usual menu. But there is the possibility that the dishes will be added when we revamp our menu.” BlackFinn will provide $15 and $25 options. “We just wanted to make sure we had variety, so we decided to offer a meal within each price,” Harris said.

The most extensive Restaurant Week menus are available at and . Pronto! has separated its $15 options into two categories: salad, pasta entree and dessert or soup, sandwich and dessert. At Woody's, patrons may choose between nine $15 meals, all including soup, salad and dessert.

The special pricing does not include beverages, although most locations will feature their usual happy hour specials.

The restaurants in the Bastone group will offer drink specials at each location. Vinotecca's happy hour, 4-6 p.m. every day, offers half-off glasses of wine. For a happy hour filled with variety, stop by  where from 2-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, customers may receive deals on almost any type of drink. Another impressive happy hour can be found at  where from 5-7 p.m. Monday-Saturday, patrons can take advantage of a large selection of martini specials and half-off draft and bottled beer, glasses of house wine and standard well cocktails.

Restaurant Week is presented in conjunction with the 4th Annual  hosted by and   from Sunday-April 2. Tickets are available at royaloakmusictheatre.com and comedycastle.com.

In addition to the comedy festival, other nightly entertainment will be hosted at select locations. 

For a full list of participating restaurants, menus and entertainment, visit dineroyaloak.com.