The 2017 Jacksonville Restaurant Week, also known as Sip & Savor Jax, is upon us. It runs 10 days: Septmber 28-October 8. 24 well known Jax restaurants are participating this year, each offering a special 3-course menu for $15, $25, $35, or $45 for either lunch or dinner or both. This is a great way to try a restaurant perhaps you have always wanted to go to or has been on your list, but you haven’t made it. No time like the present; no excuse like restaurant week specials!
You can check out each restaurant with their Sip & Savor menus and prices here, but we’ll give you our recommendations for the best way to Sip & Savor, plus lay out all the vegan options for our plant-based friends:
Empire City Gastropub is one of the big winners for Sip & Savor Jax. Empire City is offering a $15 lunch with choices like lumpia, scotch egg, drunken mac n cheese, and creme brulee. Dinner is just $25 with dishes like Moroccan Shrimp & Grits. If you’ve been holding out on Empire City Gastropub, don’t wait any longer.
Empire City Gastropub – Mac n Cheese
Terra Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse is a don’t miss stop for Sip & Savor Jax. Because they offer a Rodizio Experience, where gauchos continually rotate through the dining room offering various meats cut fresh from the spit onto your plate, Terra Gaucha does not have a 3-course meal for restaurant week. Instead, they are offering their regular Rodizio Experience plus dessert for $35. A regular visit is $42.95 without dessert. You get $8 off and dessert just for showing up and telling your server you’re there for Sip & Savor. Our favorites at Terra Gaucha are the picanha, which is the house specialty sirloin, shaped like a crescent moon, and the warm cheese popovers they bring to your table. Next Valentines Day I don’t want roses or candy, just a dozen Terra Gaucha popovers.
Your Pie (Southside) is the only fast casual restaurant participating in Sip & Savor Jax. One thing you might not know about Your Pie is their dough is made fresh, never frozen, hand tossed to order before your eyes. Your Pie Southside is participating in both lunch and dinner, for $15 and $25 respectively, and each offer feeds at least two people. $7.50 per person for lunch? Sign us up. The dinner says it’s for two, but cheese bread sticks, salads, pizzas, and dessert would probably feed a family of three, maybe four. Fresh pizza with 40+ toppings, salads, real gelato, and local craft beer make Your Pie a consistent win for us, restaurant weeks or not.
Your Pie
Vernon’s is a steakhouse at TPC Sawgrass that is participating for dinner in Sip & Savor Jax. Florida seafood and wagyu grade beef make the $35 3-course pre fixe menu a steal.
Matthew’s probably has the most options of any participating restaurant for their Sip & Savor menu. Long known as a fine dining destination in Jax, Matthew’s special menu for restaurant week is as impressive as you would expect for a $45 price point, plus there are five different entrees to choose from.
Hobnob is worth the trip for the art and design you will take in not only in the dining room, but on your plate. At hobnob you are surrounded by gorgeous features such as a blown glass lighting display, floor to ceiling windows, “waves” swirled around one another from the ceiling, and open walls into the kitchen. You might have a glaze brushed across your plate or dots of sauce artfully finishing a dish. For $35 you can have an experience from start to finish during restaurant week.
Hobnob
The restaurants offering vegan dishes on their Sip & Savor menus include Hobnob, Matthew’s, Bellwether, and Taverna.
Three restaurants slated to be a part of Sip & Savor Jax sadly suffered damage from Hurricane Irma and are still closed while being repaired: Kitchen on San Marco, Bistro Aix, and Morton’s Steak House
From Moxie to Blue Bamboo to Bellwether to Town Hall to Taverna to B.B.’s to Candy Apple Cafe, there are more restaurants than you can go to in 10 days, so pick the ones you have your belly set on and go eat!
Blue Bamboo