Recommended: Prix Fixe
Price: $55 Number of Courses: 4
Cuisine: New American Neighborhood: Upper East Side
David's favorite winter ingredient: Turnips
With fixed-price menus and specials offered during certain times of the day or certain days of the week, chef, restaurateur, and innovator David Burke has turned himself into something like New York City's king of upscale value dining. As Burke said in an interview on Fox Business News, "A value-driven deal, as long as it's 
also a quality-driven deal, absolutely works for us." His first restaurant, and still his flagship, David Burke Townhouse (formerly davidburke & donatella), was rechristened as such in January, 2009 after Burke took over ownership from his former partner. He briefly closed the eatery for renovations in August, which included a bar-wall backsplash made of pink-Himalayan rock salt, and reopened in September, 2009.
The menu at Townhouse has also undergone some modifications, with additions such as roasted stuffed organic hen with bacon and lobster, as well as rack of lamb and roasted octopus making it onto the a la carte menu alongside Burke classics like his crisp & angry lobster and sea scallops "Benedict." The $55 four-course menu is a new feature with one of two appetizer options, followed by a palate-cleansing Thai lobster consommé, one of two main course options, and any one of their myriad desserts. The focus is on seasonal ingredients and putting together dishes that allow cxe
cutive chef Sylvan Delpique to employ his creativity - so the menu changes nightly.
Townhouse also offers $29 and $35 three-course brunch Saturdays and Sundays, noted as one of Zagat Survey's top 25 - and a permanently "restaurant week"-priced $24.07 three-course lunch daily. Every Sunday night Townhouse offers a three-course dinner for $30. Although the options are toned down a bit from the usual assortment of luxe selections on the $55 menu, and it can be hard to get a reservation, this Sunday night meal may be the best value in the city.
163 East 61st Street • 212-813-2121 • davidburketownhouse.com
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