Getting In
There's nothing more frustrating than showing up at that restaurant you've been eager to try, only to be told the wait is 60 minutes. Instead, call ahead. All of the menus in this guide indicate whether the restaurant takes reservations. If the restaurant is booked when you call, see if they take online reservations. Sometimes restaurants that use reservation tools like Open Table have tables set aside specifically for those bookings. For high-demand restaurants, consider an early (4:30 or 5 pm) or late seating (after 8 pm) or book a midweek dinner.
Giving Back
Restaurant workers were hit hard by the pandemic. If you want to serve up some hope to the people serving you during Inlander Restaurant Week, here are three easy ways to help.
1. Make a donation to Big Table. When you go out to eat during Inlander Restaurant Week, your custom three-course menu will have a QR code on it. Scan it, and make a donation to Big Table. Big Table cares for restaurant and hospitality workers in crisis through timely interventions, intentional relationships and transformational care.
2. Carry loaded unexpected 20s. This is probably the most fun you will ever have with a $20 bill. Request an envelope from Big Tables website, or download a do-it-yourself template to create your own. Load it with a $20 bill, then watch for an opportunity to give it to someone at a restaurant not as a tip, but as a gift. Give it to your server, or the busser or ask someone on staff who is having a hard week, and ask to have this gift delivered to them.
3. Write receipt notes. With your tip, write a personalized "thank you" on the restaurant copy of the receipt using your server's name. Not only will they see it, but their manager will see it too when the receipts are reconciled.
Key to the Menus
GF / GFA / V / V+
This year, more restaurants than ever before are offering options for the gluten-free, vegetarians or vegans. We even spotted some keto-friendly designations on menus! So how do you make sense of it all? GF means the dish is gluten-free. GFA means the dish can be prepared, by request, gluten-free. V stands for vegetarian, while V+ means the dish is vegan, or can be prepared vegan by request.
Drink Local
Local just tastes better. While Inlander Restaurant Week aims to support our awesome local chefs and restaurants, we also want to spotlight the amazing distilleries, wineries, cideries and breweries that make our community taste so good. Each restaurant is highlighting one local beverage in the listings found in this guide, and then you'll find two more options on the menus inside each restaurant.
Hours
While we intended Inlander Restaurant Week to be primarily a dinner event, more restaurants than ever before are now offering their three-course meal all day. So how do you know when the three-course meal is being served? The hours the Restaurant Week menu is offered are listed right on the menu. These aren't the hours the restaurant is open, but strictly when they are making their Inlander Restaurant Week meal available.
Reservations
If you don't see Reservations Recommended noted in red on a menu, then that restaurant doesn't take them. But if they do, make the call now. Some high-demand restaurants may book up even before Restaurant Week begins.
