This week, restaurant-reservations Web site Opentable.com is spearheading a promotion to get all you cash-strapped diners back into the city’s banquettes: Now until Friday, over 150 restaurants (click here for the full list) are offering $24 three-course lunches and $35 dinners. So if you’ve been jonesing for a meal at Poste, PS7’s, Rasika, or Corduroy or are looking to try new spots such as Art and Soul or Passionfish, here’s your chance. If you can’t make it out this week, plenty of other restaurant deals are going strong.

$19.90 lunch at Vidalia
This airy new-Southern downtown dining room is known for generous Restaurant Week specials. Its latest offering is a three-course lunch that lets you choose any appetizer, main course, and dessert from its regular menu. The portions are “tasting-sized” (Read: shrunken), but it’s still a deal.
 

Brasserie Les Halles has served its last onglet. The Gallic-inspired chain is shutting down its DC branch after 15 years, effective immediately.

Philippe Lajaunie, the charming, permanently tanned owner, told me last night, "I tried using my option but the new rent conditions were just unbearable. It has been swell."

When our December issue hits the stands next week, you’ll be able to read about 61 of our favorite Dirt Cheap Eats in the Washington area—everything from fabulous streetcart pizza to a West Coast-worthy coffeehouse to crab cakes that are just as satisfying (and half as expensive) as the ones at Johnny’s Half Shell.

So we want to know: What’s your go-to spot for a meal for $15 or less? Give us your insider tips in the comments!

Related:
Chew on This: How Much Do You Tip?
Chew on This: Where Should Barack Obama Eat?
Dirt Cheap Eats 2007

“I can’t afford green beans,” says Anthony Chittum, looking a bit lost. The chef at Alexandria’s Vermilion is known for hosting farm dinners with Washington growers and typically feels right at home at a farmers market. But constrained by a tight $25 Thanksgiving budget, he wanders through the Penn Quarter FreshFarm Market adrift.

Chittum studies his list. He looks at a selection of apples—too expensive. He jokes about collecting enough samples for his recipe but moves on. He does another lap up and down the market, then chooses a head of cauliflower and swaps green beans for kale.

Monday, November 17

Drink organic tonight at the Reef in Adams Morgan. A five-course dinner will be paired with beers from the Peak Organic Brewing Company. Brewmaster John Cadoux and local representative Tim Adams will be on hand to introduce each pairing, including a seared duck breast with sauteed arugula, duck cracklings, and pomegranate molasses, with a glass of pomegranate-wheat beer with açai juice. The dinner starts at 7 and costs $65 per person. Call 202-518-3800 for reservations.

Tuesday, November 18
Is your sweet tooth lightening your wallet? No problem. ACKC (2003-A Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria) in Del Ray is hosting a free chocolate tasting and open house featuring J. Chocolatier’s fall collection. Stop by from 6:30 to 8:30 to sample the goods. RSVP required: call 703-635-7917.

Need a new cookbook? At the National Press Club’s Book Fair, stroll by the chefs’ tables for free food tastings and book signings. Local chef José Andrés will be there with his new book, Made in Spain, as will Bon Appétit editor-in-chief Barbara Fairchild and former Kennedy family chef Neil Connolly. Cookbook authors and chefs Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, Laurie Forster, Jose Garces, Domenica Marchetti, Matthew Mead, and Suvir Saran will also be there. The event costs $5, with proceeds to benefit the Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library. 5:30 to 8:30 at the National Press Building (529 14th St., NW). For more information, visit press.org.

• The first two post-election weeks have been filled with politicos predicting who’ll be in Barack Obama’s cabinet, but at Best Bites we’ve been trying to figure out whom the president-elect might put in charge of the White House kitchen. A report in the New York Daily News reveals that there are three chefs in the running: Chicago-based Art Smith, chef of the new Art and Soul on Capital Hill; Rick Bayless, whose Chicago restaurant, Topolobampo, is rumored to be an Obama favorite; and Daniel Young, who cooked for Obama at the Democratic convention and currently feeds Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony.

Founding Farmers (1924 Pennsylvania Ave., NW; 202-822-8783) is owned by a co-op of 40,000 domestic farmers, whose food translates into portions as big as the restaurant’s two-story concrete interior.

Art Smith is an Oprah pal and a James Beard Award winner, and his Southern comfort menu at Art and Soul (415 New Jersey Ave., NW; 202-393-7777) on Capitol Hill is full of big, buttery dishes that stick to your ribs. Order a pork chop and you’ll get two.

Washington has never been a town of big, fat, messy sandwiches. Jackson’s Roasting & Carving Co. (933 N. Quincy St., Arlington; 703-312-1073) is bidding to fill that void; the meatloaf is a step in the right direction.