Your guide to Lakeland Restaurant Week 2021

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Lakeland Restaurant Week | Photo via Red Door Lakeland

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year: Lakeland Restaurant Week. This means that today through Sunday (Jan. 31), you can take your tastebuds on a culinary journey, without ever leaving the comfort of our little Swan City.

Here’s the gist of how it all works:

🍴 Chosen local restaurants will share a prix-fixe menu (pronounced pree-fix) featuring some of their tastiest culinary creations. A prix-fixe menu typically offers an appetizer, entree + dessert for one fixed price Get it? While most restaurants will have a prix-fixe menu specially designed for Lakeland Restaurant Week, their regular menus are usually available as well.

🍴 FYI: Some restaurants create menus specifically for restaurant week. Meaning: if you fall in love with a dish, it may not be available the next time you go back. Certain chefs use this time to test new tastes + show what they’re capable of cooking up. Our recommendation: Think outside the to-go box and try something different.

🍴 #ProTip: When you order from a restaurant, make sure to mention “Lakeland Restaurant Week” to your server or when making your reservation.

So overwhelmed that you’re having *reservations*?
Not to fret. We scoured each and every menu, then narrowed down the most delicious deals on the table – so all you’ll have to worry about is whether or not you want to add in an optional wine pairing. (We say always.)

Taste of Home Grill, 502 E. Main St.

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Jamaican Black Cake | Photo via Taste of Home Grill

  • Deal: $20
  • Cuisine: Jamaican + Southern
  • Appetizer: Coco bread with honey butter
  • Entrée: Red Snapper Escovitch with rice
  • Dessert: Jamaican black cake with ice cream
  • Reservations: 863.409.4960
  • Full prix-fixe menu

Explore this unique combination of flavors by chowing down on some red snapper with rice, peas + pan-seared Callaloo + wash it all down with the deep sweet notes of Jamaican black cake and rum and raisin ice cream –– all drizzled with a rum sauce. Oh, + don’t sleep on the Island Fusion Tonic.

The Back Nine, 7331 US Hwy 98 N.

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Tuscan-style tortellini pasta | Photo via The Back Nine

  • Deal: $20
  • Cuisine: American Classic
  • Appetizer: Cesar Salad
  • Entrée: Tuscan-style tortellini pasta
  • Dessert: Mini pie
  • Reservations: 863.603.3700
  • Full prix-fixe menu

Who needs tea-time when you have tee time (and mini chocolate peanut butter pies?) After chowing down on a serving of tortellini pasta with grilled chicken, play a round of golf on one of The Back Nine’s 80+ digital courses.

Plenty, 640 E. Main St.

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Broccolini + Brussels bowl | Photo via Plenty

  • Deal: $35
  • Cuisine: Mediterranean-inspired
  • Appetizer: Edamame hummus with crudites + sourdough bread
  • Entrée: Broccoli + Brussels with your choice of skewers
  • Dessert: Plant-food cookie
  • Reservations: 863.603.8135
  • Full prix-fixe menu

If you’re trying to keep your healthy New Year’s resolution plans –– look no further. Pair your broccolini bowl with two beef skewers + score a plant-based cookie of your choice from Vegetation Plant Food. Bonus: This meal option comes with a free drink at The Joinery’s bar. Pick a signature craft cocktail, beer, or wine.

Glory Days Grill, 3790 Lakeside Village Ct.

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Oreo® sliders | Photo va Glory Days Grill

  • Deal: $20
  • Cuisine: American grill + bar
  • Appetizer: House Salad
  • Entrée: Eight dry-rubbed wings
  • Dessert: An Oreo® slider
  • Reservations: 863.225.8958
  • Full prix-fixe menu

Try the crispiest wings in town, paired with waffle fries + make sure to ask for extra Thai Chili Sauce (trust us). Finish your meal off with an oreo vanilla ice cream sandwich slider, served with Hershey’s® chocolate syrup for dipping.

Bay Street Bistro, 211 E. Bay St.

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Shrimp + Capellini | Photo via Bay Street Bistro

  • Deal: $35
  • Cuisine: Upscale Seafood
  • First Course: Eggplant Rollatini
  • Second Course: Tomato Bisque Soup
  • Entrée: Shrimp + Capellini
  • Reservations: 863.683.4229
  • Full prix-fixe menu

From golden bars of rolled eggplant to thinly stretched pasta covered in fresh shrimp –– feast your eyes on this classic local restaurant’s three-course menu. #ProTip: While this prix-fixe menu doesn’t include dessert, we highly recommend asking your server to show you the dessert options of the day.

Red Door Lakeland, 733 E. Palmetto St.

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Pan-seared Cod | Photo via Red Door Lakeland

  • Deal: $35
  • Cuisine: New American
  • Appetizer: Roasted Wild Mushrooms
  • Entrée: Pan-seared Cod
  • Dessert: Chocolate Bread Pudding
  • Reservations: 863.937.9314
  • Full prix-fixe menu

Take your taste buds on a brand new journey with a dinner featuring roasted wild mushrooms with creamy polenta, a farm-poached egg + truffle oil, a pan-seared cod with crispy spaetzle + fennel fumet + chocolate bread pudding with espresso gelato. P.S. Red Door is known for its large selection of drinks –– like the Golden Age Cocktail (door barrel-aged gin, Montenegro, orange bitters, cocktail cherry).

Cob & Pen, 1221 Florida Ave. S.

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Schnitzel and Spaetzle | Photo via Cob & Pen

  • Deal: $35
  • Cuisine: American-fare Bistro
  • Appetizer: Deep Fried Brussel Sprouts
  • Second Course: Roasted Tomato Basil Soup
  • Third Course: Schnitzel and Spaetzle
  • Dessert: Grandma’s Magic Bars
  • Reservations: 863.937.8126
  • Full prix-fixe menu

Start the night off with a perfectly-friend order of crispy Brussel sprouts with house bacon, candied nuts + a fried egg, followed by a crème fraîche-based tomato basil soup, all to prepare your appetite for a pork cutlet with German pasta, lemon caper sauce + kale. And if that’s not enough, then end it all on a sweet note with Grandma’s Magic Bars –– graham cracker, chocolate, peanut butter, coconut, candied nuts, and vanilla ice cream.

Nineteen61, 215 E. Main St.

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Tres Leches Cake | Photo via Nineteen61

  • Deal: $35
  • Cuisine: Upscale Latin American
  • Appetizer: Green Apple Salad
  • Entrée: Churrasco
  • Dessert: Tres Leches Cake
  • Reservations: 863.688.1961
  • Full prix-fixe menu

This lineup from Nineteen61 will have you writing sonnets about your foodie experience. Start off with an artisan salad with pepper twirls, aged white cheddar + macadamia nuts + prepare to feast on an entree, consisting of aji panca glazed flat iron, black bean risotto, avocado mousse, salsa criolla + chimichurri. Afterward, find room somewhere for a decadent and refreshing Tres Leches Cake – a three milk sponge cake, dulce de leche, and strawberries.

Britt’s Cafe, 3662 Harden Blvd.

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Onion Rings | Photo via Britt’s Cafe

  • Deal: $20
  • Cuisine: Everyday American
  • Entrée: Rice Bowl
  • Side: Onion Rings
  • Reservations: 863.940.4300
  • Full prix-fixe menu

If you’re looking for comfort food that doesn’t break the bank, look no further. Purchase two rice bowls for $20 + customize them to your liking with ingredients like fresh grilled sautéed veggies (mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and spinach) and top with your favorite protein. You’ll definitely want to choose the onion rings as your side (extra crispy, please).

My Indi Kitchen, 2810 Lakeland Highlands Rd.

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  • Deal: $20
  • Cuisine: Indian
  • Deal: Buffet option with sides
  • Reservations: 863.225.8057
  • Full prix-fixe menu

Spice up your dinner plans with various dishes at the newly-opened, My Indi Kitchen. For $20, you can chow down at the buffet (which includes apps, entrees + desserts) and sip on a tasty Mango Lassi. Options include finds like Eggplant Pakora, Gajar halwa + more.

Frescos Southern Kitchen & Bar, 132 S. Kentucky Ave.

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  • Deal: $35
  • Cuisine: Modern + Traditional Southern
  • Appetizer: Southern Green Tomato Bruschetta
  • Entrée: Spicy Sorghum French Cut Pork Chop
  • Dessert: Orange Cardamom Cake
  • Reservations: 863.576.5596
  • Full prix-fixe menu

Delight in an oven pan-roasted pork chop with sweet potato hash, and sauteed greens, all finished off with an orange cardamom cake drizzled with cream cheese icing + served with house-made honey orange ice cream. #ProTip: Pair with Whiskey Smash (Redemption Rye, Lemon, Simple, Mint).

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