Get Your Pass For Ogden Restaurant Week Nov. 3-12

Ogden Restaurant Week 2022 is here, from November 3-12. It’s an annual event that showcases participating downtown Ogden restaurants.

The format has changed from its first year in 2013, when you just walked in and asked for the Restaurant Week special. Now you sign up for an online Restaurant Week pass at visitogden.com, and receive a mobile list of participating restaurants and their Restaurant Week menu.

“When visiting a participating business, simply open the pass and find the listing for the restaurant [where] you are located. Click ‘check-in’ and follow the prompt to use your phone’s GPS to check into that location,” says the Visit Ogden website.

After you’ve eaten at a certain restaurant, you click on the “I ate here” button and you’re entered in drawings for restaurant gift card prizes.

The participating restaurants are: Bangkok Garden Thai Cuisine, Hearth on 25th, Laan Thai Restaurant, Ogden River Brewing, Pig & a Jelly Jar Ogden, Ramen Haus, Roosters Brewing, Rovali’s Ristorante Italiano, Slackwater, Table Twenty Five, The Garden Grille & Lounge, The Sonora Grill, Tona Sushi Bar And Grill, Union Grill, UTOG Brewing Company, Warrens Craft Burger, La Ferrovia, The Angry Goat and WB’s Eatery.

This year’s Restaurant Week menus offer a stark reminder of how much food and staff costs have risen since the Covid era began. Restaurants are forced to raise their menu prices accordingly. Back in 2017 (the last time I wrote about Ogden Restaurant Week on this website), you could get a two-course lunch for $10 and a three-course dinner for $17. This year, Rovali’s is offering a three-course dinner (salad, a choice of three pasta entrees, and dessert) for $21.99. LaFerrovia is offering a two-item lunch for $15 and a three-item dinner for $20. Sonora Grill is offering a three-course meal for $22.95.

Not all restaurants are offering full-course meals. For instance, JoJo Bowls & Boba offers a free appetizer (choice of gyoza, edamame, spring roll, Agedashi tofu) with the purchase of two bowls. The bowls range in price from $10.95 (veggie) to $13.95 (beef, shrimp or salmon).

Table Twenty-Five is offering one item from each part of its menu: a small plate of smoked salmon toast, $14; a seared zucchini/red pepper salad, $15; wild mushroom pomodoro pasta, $18; maple-glazed chicken with brussels sprouts, $22; and spiced Pavlova dessert for $9.

The Garden Grille and Lounge is offering a three-course dinner for $50 — salad, dessert, and entree choice of either Kurobuta pork tenderloin, or Wagyu beef sliders. Kurobuta pork, originally from Japan, is a heritage breed raised in pampered conditions similar to Wagyu beef, to promote the meat’s marbling, juiciness and flavor. Having eaten at the Garden Grille, I can vouch for the restaurant’s quality. But at $50 per person, then adding in drinks, tip and tax, this dining deal probably won’t attract rock-bottom bargain-hunters. It might be considered more of a nice splurge.

Ditto for Hearth on 25th, offering a $50, six-course tasting menu that includes main dish choices of salmon, octopus, beef short ribs or mushrooms & fennel.

Another curious thing. I’ve always thought of a city’s Restaurant Week as a chance for restaurants to lure customers in with a discount deal. But some Restaurant Week prices are the same as their regular menu. For instance, Warren’s Craft Burger’s Cheesy Pig (burger with bacon and cheddar) is $13.75. That’s the same price as the regular menu. Ditto for Ogden River Brewing’s Turkey Bacon Avocado Sandwich — $15 on both the Restaurant Week and regular menu.

I called and asked Colt Jarvis at Visit Ogden, which organizes the event, why some restaurants aren’t discounting their Restaurant Week menu items.

He said because of the skyrocketing food prices, “This year we left it up to the individual restaurant to decide what they wanted to do, if they wanted to offer a discount or not,” he said. He added that in the past, some restaurants would plan and advertise a Restaurant Week special, only to have supply chain issues make those ingredients scarce and costly. “So we left it up to the individual restaurant.”

I tried to compare UTOG’s Restaurant Week and regular menus, but there are no prices on the regular menu I found online. I never eat at restaurants where I don’t have an idea of what I’ll be spending on a meal.

Also, in the past, it seemed that the goal was to acquaint people with some of the restaurant’s popular menu items. But some Restaurant Week dishes aren’t on the regular menus. For instance, Rooster’s Restaurant Week entrees are Porky Pie, $15; Santa Fe Chicken Burrito, $16; Chili Mac Pepper Jack, $14; Dr. Pepper Pork Chops, $17. Couldn’t find them on the regular menu. Maybe chefs are taking Restaurant Week as an opportunity to break out of their routine menus and cook something different?

And the only pizza offered on Slackwater’s Restaurant Week menu is a Thanksgiving riff, with turkey gravy as the base, spiced turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, herbed stuffing and three-cheese blend, garnished with a drizzle of spicy cranberry sauce and parsley, for $14.75. Sounds innovative, but I would prefer trying out some of Slackwater’s regular-menu pizzas, which are similar price-wise. Such as the top-selling California Sunrise (bacon, grape tomatoes, sliced avocados and fresh spinach.

It’s great to support local, independent restaurants, and Ogden has many good ones! So sign up for the Restaurant Week pass on Visitogden.com — it’s free, after all. Then do some comparison shopping on the menus and what fits your budget. If there’s a place you’ve always wanted to try, this may be the time.

I’d really like to hear about some of your Restaurant Week experiences, so if you want to share, please leave a comment at the end of this post, or email me at Val@chewandchat.com.