Here at Wolverine Cuizine we enjoy a good deal more than a good meal. During last week’s Restaurant Week many of us found both, so read on for the best and the worst of Ann Arbor Restaurant Week 2010. 

Café Felix by Rachel L 
Restaurant Week was held January 17th-22nd this year in Ann Arbor and it continues to be one of the best deals around. Three course lunches were only $12 a person and three course dinners were only $25 a person at some of the best restaurants in Ann Arbor. These prices made a meal at these restaurants affordable for even students to go without their parents. However, Restaurant Week was also characterized by long waits everywhere. On Saturday night, a few friends and I headed down to eat at Seva’s, the local vegetarian restaurant on Liberty. But our call-ahead seating still left us with a 45 minute wait. So we decided to head down to Main Street. Knowing that it was Restaurant Week, one of my friends made a few calls to discover that most places were booked solid. Grizzly Peak had a 2 hour wait! Dejected, we started heading back to William Street. Then, somebody pointed out Café Felix, where there seemed to be no wait. We walked in and were seated immediately. Additionally, for some reason, whenever I’ve been to Café Felix, I’ve never had to wait. There never seems to be a crowd, even though the restaurant’s food rivals many other well-known restaurants and they offer a large drink menu with inventive martinis. As we were seated Saturday night, we were wary that the Restaurant Week deal at Café Felix would not compare to others because it was just so empty. However, our meal turned out to be great. Most of us ordered off the Restaurant Week menu. We received fantastic house salads with goat cheese and an entrée of either Chicken Boulouris, Rigatoni with veal and pork hand-rolled meatballs or Chicken and Prosciutto Fettucini. We tried each one and they were all very well done. For dessert, we each had a Nutella crepe with ice cream as part of the deal. Café Felix presented us with a very good meal with no wait. The emptiness of the restaurant may have implied that many people, like us, simply resort to Café Felix when everywhere else is full. Rather than choosing it as a second choice, I think next time it would be worth a first choice. And as Restaurant Week is officially over, that next time will definitely be with my parents because my paltry budget can only handle Ann Arbor’s yearly special deal.  

Vinology by Nick D
Restaurant week is awesome. $12 lunches are a steal in a town trending towards San Francisco pricing. In order to take advantage of this situation, I visited Vinology, a classy bar and grill on Main St., to sample their fare. 

Their menu carries mostly Italian- and French-based fare and we were provided with small salads, an entrée, and teensy desserts. My Portabella Ratatouille—a mixture of various sautéed vegetables in a tomato sauce—was a bit bland, but the goat cheese lumped on top saved it. My partner-in-review’s Bolognese Cavatappi was significantly better, the pasta topped with a significant portion of meat, celery, carrots, and other assorted things that are good for you. The three bites of brownie sundae we each received for dessert tasted like brownie sundae, neither remarkable nor unremarkable. While the food may have been underwhelming, I learned that one does not visit Vinology for their cuisine. It is their extensive wine list (100+ selections) that allows it to carve its own niche. On a scale of one to Abbey Road, I’d give it a Let It Be, with certain parts having the potential to be great, while others were lacking. 

Miki Japanese Restaurant by Sarah H 
I headed to Miki for lunch because they were doing a 2/$12 deal. They had two options, a tempura and terriyaki bento box, or a sushi lunch featuring 5 pieces of nigiri and a tuna roll. I opted for the sushi lunch, which had a nice variety of nigiri and a tasty tuna roll. My only beef with the lunch experience was the service. There were only around 20 people maximum in the restaurant, and it took over 40 minutes to get soups and salads, and another 35 to get our lunches. They only appeared to have one waiter working, so it's expected that the service would be a slower, but waiting over an hour for a prix fixe meal tainted the whole experience.