DC Restaurant Week returns January 9 – 15. As expected, the deal is a 3-course fixed price lunch for $20.06 and a 3-course fixed price dinner for $30.06. Restaurant week means busy restaurants. Very busy. Service suffers, and the goal at each place is to turn your table as quickly as possible. At all but the most expensive restaurants $30.06 per person exclusive of drinks isn’t as amazing a deal as you might think. At most mid-price places it represents perhaps a free dessert. And the most expensive restaurants are the ones most likely to limit your menu choices to their less expensive dishes or control portions. Another reason for limited choices on the menu is to limit the time it takes to prepare food, or allow the kitchen to pre-prepare as much food as…

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The Los Angeles Times reports on a 45 hour delay of an Air India flight where the passengers revolted and just got off the plane: Finally, Wenz, the professor, said he just walked through a door that attendants had opened. He climbed down the stairs and off the plane to wait on the tarmac. Other passengers, he said, followed. Far worse than just losing some bags!

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In his latest column, Joel Widzer excuses complaints about major airline carriers as caused by unfair expectations When flying a network airline, travelers have grander expectations than they do when they fly a budget carrier. When flying Southwest or JetBlue, people adjust their attitudes to lower expectations. Psychologists call this the expectancy value. Excuse me? People expect more from Delta than JetBlue? Customer satisfaction surveys of JetBlue are high because JetBlue offers a better coach product than the major carriers. Seats behind row 9 offer extra legroom, matched only by United’s Economy Plus (which can’t be reserved by everyone) and American’s dwindling More Room Throughout Coach. Anyone can reserve these better seats on JetBlue, and the JetBlue website even recommends these seats. Continental, Delta, Northwest, and USAirways don’t offer any coach seats with legroom to…

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Starwood’s 2006 hotel category changes for award redemption are up at Flyertalk. 133 hotels are going up in category (which means it will take more points to redeem at them) and 29 hotels are going down in category (so fewer points required). Starwood categorizes in groupings numbered one to six based on the average room rates that a hotel achieves during the prior year. While there are occasional changes during the year, these lists are mostly stable throughout the year with major changes loaded each late December or early January. It’s important to remember that these categorizations are based on room rate and not a reflection of a hotel’s quality. There are some real gems in Category 1 and 2, and some really awful Category 4 hotels. This past year Princes de Galles in Paris…

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The description from Tyler Cowen’s Washington, DC dining guide remains correct — mini bar “takes many chances and doesn’t always hit.” But it doesn’t need to when they’re serving you 35 different things over the course of a couple hours. The “caviar” made of peas is fascinating, an amazing creation, the texture is just right — but tastes like, well, peas. The Friday night before last when I ate there was the most fun I’ve had at a meal, purely over the food, in a long time. It’s my second favorite meal of the past twelve months behind Tetsuya in Sydney — which puts it ahead — in terms of sheer enjoyment — of the Inn at Little Washington, CityZen, Citronelle, 2941, Indebleu, etc. Minibar is a restaurant within a restaurant. It’s just six stools…

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