How To Tell If A Restaurant Special Is Worth Ordering

For help with spotting a special worth ordering, we spoke exclusively with Taylor Hester, the Executive Chef of Roman restaurant Roscioli NYC and a participant in City Harvest's BID 2024: CHTV! event on October 29, 2024. (Every year, the New York City nonprofit hosts a sampling of restaurants around the city to raise funds to feed people experiencing food insecurity.) According to Hester, uncommon dishes should have uncommon ingredients: "A restaurant special should be driven by something like seasonality or a product that is limited because of a small window or availability or demand." If a restaurant uses rare or seasonal ingredients in limited-time specials, it's a good sign that the ingredients are fresh and that you're ordering a unique dinner you genuinely couldn't get during other parts of the year.

Uncommon or seasonal ingredients signal a good special

As you might have guessed, fresh produce often tastes better than frozen produce. Frozen foods have most of their flavor preserved when they're stored properly, but over time, freezer burn can occur and the cell walls in the food begin to break down, compromising flavor. Lots of restaurants do serve frozen foods, especially after supply chain shortages in 2020, so keep an eye out for specials that take advantage of seasonal ingredients, which are more likely to be fresh. For example, during fall, fruits in season include pears and cranberries; autumn or winter vegetables include cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, ginger, and gourds like pumpkins or squash. In the spring or summer, meanwhile, look for fresh tomatoes, leafy greens, and strawberries, which keep their original texture better than frozen (or canned) strawberries.