What Restaurant Week actually costs

Milton Restaurant Week runs September 14 to 20. The city bills it as "specially curated menus, exclusive deals, and unique dining experiences." Two of those three are a matter of taste. The third is arithmetic, so we did the arithmetic and priced every set menu against that restaurant's own regular menu, dish by dish.

Start with what it costs, because a percentage means little without the number underneath it. The median set menu is $42 a person. Half are $45 or more. The range runs $25 to $75. Dinner for two in the middle of that is $84 before tax and tip.

On the deals: three are real, four come out close to even, and three are less about the price than about a dish the kitchen does not otherwise make.

The cheapest way to eat out all week is Vintage Pizzeria. It is running $16 pasta rather than a three-course menu, which is why it does not appear in the comparisons below: there is nothing to price course for course. It is also the only sit-down meal on the board under $25, and worth knowing about if the rest of this list reads expensive. Playa Bowls is cheaper still at $5 for a sixteen-ounce smoothie before noon, but a smoothie is not dinner.

Where the discount is real. The Union's lunch is the steepest cut we found, around 30 percent, because sandwiches alone run $13.70 to $15 on its regular menu and three courses is $25. It is the cheapest three-course menu anyone is running, though Vintage's pasta beats it outright on price. Worth saying plainly either way: the best-value prix fixe in Milton Restaurant Week is still $25 before tax and tip. Tres Lunas takes about a quarter off at $30 and puts the most food on the table for the money. Hyde Brewing lands around 14 percent off at $30, on a softer comparison, because its ahi tuna tacos are not on the regular menu at all.

Where it is roughly even. Milton's Cuisine & Cocktails at $45, B&B Tavern at $39, Lily Sushi Bar at $48 and Vice Steak Bar at $75 all price within a few dollars of ordering the same items a la carte. That is not a trick, and every one of those menus is open about it: the dishes are on the regular menu at the same descriptions and the same prices. You are paying menu price for somebody else's ordering decisions.

Where the food is. Three kitchens are cooking something they otherwise do not sell, which is a better reason to go than a percentage. 7 Acre is plating Bordeaux-braised short ribs over comte risotto at $55. Smoke on the Farm turns Broast on Toast, its $17.50 sandwich, into a plated three courses at $30: boneless breast, mashed potatoes, bacon sawmill gravy, bourbon onion green beans. L'Antoinette is doing a seared redfish that is not on its regular menu at all. The only fish it normally serves is a halibut at $56, a dollar more than its entire three-course menu.

Fourteen restaurants are in, one fewer than the fifteen we listed in August; the city's lineup has changed since. Nahm is the only participant that has not posted a menu yet, and the city's deadline for restaurants is September 4.

The full board, every set menu, and a link to each restaurant's own menu are on our Restaurant Week guide. We will keep it current through the 20th, including Nahm.