Day 4 Restaurant Week

This week is Restaurant Week in Alexandria, VA.  During Restaurant Week many restaurants that are normally more expensive offer three course menus for $35.  I usually like to take this as a chance to try places that have I have never tried before and to try places that are generally out of my Tuesday Night price range (That's another thing I try to do: go earlier in the week when it's less busy.  It was just the roomie and I going so we didn't need a romantic candle lit dinner on a Saturday night... Tuesday will do just fine :)   

Our D.C. Restaurant Week adventure last week to SeaCatch in Georgetown was so delish and successful that we decided to go for seafood in Old Town too.  After scouring menu's online for a couple of hours (another thing I find fun... I need a life, I know...) we finally decided on The Wharf.  I saved all of my extra points this week so that I could feast on She Crab Soup, Filet Mignon, Crab Imperial Stuffed Shrimp, and Creme Brulee with berries.  Definitely sounds worth the splurge!

As any diet veteran knows, eating out is one of the hardest parts of dieting.  There are a few simple rules I have learned to follow.  If you know you are going out to eat later in the week, make sure you save enough of your extra points so that you can enjoy yourself.  No one wants to eat a salad with fat free dressing when you can eat that at home anytime you want.  ALWAYS look up the menu to the restaurant online if you can.  This will give you a chance to plan your points as well.  Also, if it is a chain restaurant many times the nutrition information is posted online and you can even calculate your points before you go.  Obviously unexpected meals out will come up (sometimes you just need that impromptu Happy Hour or your boss decides to take you to lunch.... and you CAN'T turn that down!), but if you can control ahead of time what you are ordering by reviewing the menu, you should. 

Now, I am sure you know that the easiest way to save points and calories while eating out is to skip the bread basket.  I am actually pretty good at this if I put my mind to it!  This subject brings me to dinner tonight at The Wharf.  We sit and I order my diet coke and she crab soup.  The soup comes out almost immediately and tastes delicious.  So far so good.  Well it took 50 minutes to get the steak and shrimp and in that meantime I was so hungry I ended up eating 2 slices of the bread.  I had saved 15 points from my daily allowance as well so by the time dinner time came I was starving.  My stomach just couldn't wait 50 minutes!  Because of this bread indulgence I only allowed myself to eat about 1/2 of my creme brulee to make up for the points... which let me tell you was a thousand times better than the bread.  Yet another reason to pass on the bread plate.  Lesson Learned.

So.  Would I recommend the Wharf?  Well the soup was delicious and so was the food when it finally arrived.  However, anything probably would have been tasty at that point.  On top of that my roommate and I were the only people in the place under the age of 60, so unless I am taking my grandma out for some early bird specials, I probably won't be going back!

On the plus side?  I still have a few extra points left to spare :)