Restaurant Week - It's not to late to make your reservation

Restaurant Week started yesterday -- surely by now all the hot seats are taken, right? Yes and no. It may be hard to find a great spot during prime time dining hours, but if you are willing to dine on the early or late side there are still some great tables to be had. My own dip into the pool of late reservations (made this morning) yielded tables for two at Westend Bistro, the Oval Room, PS 7's and Zentan. So don't be too discouraged if you didn't get early reservations, there's probably still a table out there for you.

Update: Tom Sietsema chats tomorrow at his usual 11 p.m. time, and I know he will get, well, a few restaurant week questions. But one thing that I know people wonder about is how much to tip during restaurant week. I asked him for his thoughts and he was kind enough to provide this tip for tipping:

"Servers should be thanked for good service during Restaurant Week just as they are any other time of the year. My general rule of thumb is to leave a 20 percent gratuity on the pre-tax total, and perhaps throw in an extra buck or five if they went above and beyond the norm. (Hey, I was a waiter in another life.)"

--Justin Rude