Winterlicious starts tomorrow! 😀 And y’all know I’m excited for that! For those who don’t know, Winterlicious is an annual foodie event in the city of Toronto where over 100 restaurants participate in offering special price fixe lunch and dinner menus, as well as special culinary events and presentations throughout the duration of the festival. The food fest starts tomorrow on the 28th, and runs until February 10th and you can bet I’m going to haul my tooshie to at least one awesome eatery!
I posted about my amazingly fun Summerlicious dinner experience at Southern Accent when I first started the blog almost 2 months ago and I also did Winterlicious for the first time last year with my dear friend Sally at Big Daddy’s Crabshack and Oyster Bar. So I’m excited to try something new for Winterlicious! The price fixe menus offer 3-course meals (appetizer, main, and dessert) and prices range anywhere from $15 for lunch to $45 for dinner, with $25, $30, and $35 menus in between. As well, if you have a day and time in mind, it certainly doesn’t hurt to make a reservation as many of these restaurants fill up their seats quickly for this event.
This time around I’ve set my sights on lunch menus and I’ve really taken the time to pore over the Winterlicious website to narrow down my choices. I’m not afraid to say that I want bang for my buck and that I’ll toss out options that aren’t up to snuff. I want to be able to tell right off the bat when I go over a menu that the establishment wants to go above and beyond with no strings attached. There’s just no sense in going if you feel you can try any of the dishes any day on their permanent menu, or if the dishes are things you’ve seen and heard a million times over. That’s the beauty of Winterlicious and Summerlicious to me; it enables you to go crazy and to try things you either wouldn’t normally try because they’re out of your comfort zone, or things you’ve always wanted to try but couldn’t because of the price tag.
I’m soooo looking forward to this! And I’m also really looking forward to a bunch of things I have up my sleeve for the blog in the near future. The Lunar New Year (or Chinese New Year as I normally refer to it since I’m Chinese) is next week (Februrary 3rd!), and Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, so I’m definitely going to take advantage of them both to share a bunch of photos and stories with you guys. I’m not a sucker for seasonal and celebratory occasions for nothing! 😀 For those planning on munching away at Winterlicious, have fun and feel free to share your awesome eats and experiences here with me! See y’all tomorrow ❤
Ate by Ate 
I was JUST browsing through Winterlicious menus before logging on to Facebook to find the link to this post at the top of my newsfeed.
I was at Big Daddy’s last week and they actually have a regular prix fixe menu – $25 for a three-course dinner. I got the calamari, jambalaya (again), and creme brulee. ‘Twas fab.
I’m not as impressed with this year’s menus as I’ve been in previous years. There seem to be fewer restaurants participating, too. I might also be having trouble finding something because I want to try something totally new.
Looking forward to the next post(s)!
Oh gosh, tell me about it! I’m being super picky with my choices and for good reason, you know? If you’re going to shell out the dough, why in the world would you choose Caesar salad or something?? >_< For me it was half process of elimination and half scrutinizing meals based on uniqueness. It was like, "okay, this one doesn't offer lunch. Next! This one doesn't have a $15 lunch. Next!" lol.
And that is awesome about Big Daddy's! 😀 Do you know if they're doing a different price fixe for March? Last year they did a special Lagniappes price fixe during March and I'm so sad because I didn't go
Haha, your process of selection is identical to my own!
I’m not sure if Big Daddy’s changes up their prix fixe menu, but this Lagniappe business is intriguing.
The Lagniappes price fixe menu from last March was amazing (I actually still have it, LOL). They had one set menu for the appetizers and desserts, but they split the mains into two columns, with one at $22 and the other at $29. They had 8 choices for each price point so there was a lot to choose from. So if you chose a main from the $22 column, your whole 3-course meal would be $22. So sad I didn’t take advantage! >_<
We have something similar to Winterlicious here, except it has a less cool name (we just call it Chicago Restaurant Week). I love it because my boyf & I get to try a few different restaurants we might not be able to normally afford for a great price. I think we’re going to try to go to 2-3 different ones this year.
That’s exactly why I love it too! The appetizer and dessert combined are $15 at most places (or the mains are $20-$25 on their own), so to get a whole meal for that much is peachy 😀 Is Chicago’s around the same time as ours?
They pushed it back this year (it used to be end of Jan) but this year its Feb 18th-27th (apparently in restaurant speak, a week is really 9 days. bonus!). I have a list that I gave the boyf to pick from of where I want to go. Good thing he has a few weeks to decide 😉
That’s hilarious, I did the exact same thing! I gave Richard a list of my picks to choose from 😀 We are ladies totally in the driver’s seat when it comes to this, hahaha.
Gah, jealous! Around here it’s a big deal when the “chain restaurants” do a 2/$20 meal – which is an appetizer to share and two entrees [mind you, smaller than their usual sized entrees] & no dessert. Clearly, it’s the same places I’ve been to a million times, so it’s nothing extravagant, let alone new & exciting, haha.
Aww, is the food at least decent? LOL. One of these days we’re going to have to get you to come back north of the border and we will have ourselves a BLAST 😀
Pingback: Vibrant, Delicious Indian Flavour – Winterlicious at Amaya’s Bread Bar « Ate by Ate
Pingback: Tummies, Start Your Engines! Veggielicious Is Just Around the Corner « Ate by Ate
Pingback: Soaking Up the Sun and Good Food – Preparing My Taste Buds for Toronto’s Summerlicious! « Ate by Ate