Recession Is Your Friend

Deal or No Deal: Smith’s $35 Chicken Dinner

Photo: Melissa Hom

Most every restaurant in the city is offering a meal deal of some kind these days, and it’s hard to differentiate between the bona fide steals and more sinister bait-and-switch-type fare. Smith’s, owned by Cindy Smith and Danny Abrams, the latter of Mermaid Inn fame, recently installed Doug Psaltis to reinvigorate their year-old restaurant on MacDougal Street. Psaltis introduced this chicken-dinner deal a few weeks ago, perhaps to boost numbers on slow Monday and Tuesday nights. The chef’s pedigree and the owners’ reputation for crowd-pleasers alone make the deal worth trying. Our take:

The Offer: Chicken dinner for two, $35

What’s Included (pictured): Spring Chicken for Two, with an appetizer of tender lettuce salad with shaved vegetables and herbs and accompanied by sides of creamy polenta and mushrooms. Dessert, also included, is a chocolate mousse with pistachios and lightly whipped cream.

What’s Not: Booze.

What You Need to Know: The deal isn’t yet listed on the menu, so you have to know to ask for it. Offered on Monday and Tuesday nights only.

Color: Doug Psaltis’s chicken, while not buttery like the king bird for two at Balthazar, comes out nicely browned and very moist. Serving size is generous to insanely generous, especially dessert. $35 is the all-in, not per person.

Deal or No Deal: DEAL.

Deal or No Deal: Smith’s $35 Chicken Dinner