Eating Lunch on the Fixe

Mondays only, Nineteen offers a three-course $19 lunch. Choose one of five entrées, then sample from the café’s salad/meat/cheese and dessert displays. Park-Hyatt at the Bellevue; 215-790-1919.

Amada’s “Catalan Express” weekday lunch costs all of $12.50 for your choice of soup (get the white bean and ham stew) and salad/sandwich. 217 Chestnut Street; 215-625-2450.

Lacroix’s “Appetite Stimulus” lunch continues under new chef Jason Cichonski. For $24 you can sample three courses of Cichonski’s innovative cuisine (read: split pea soup with orange-jasmine jam, and baked risotto with pork belly). The Rittenhouse Hotel; 215-546-9000

Chifa’s $18 two-course “Hiram Bingham Express” lunch lets you pick a first and second course off the regular lunch menu at Jose Garces new Peruvian/Cantonese restaurant just off Washington Square. May we suggest one of the house ceviches and the pork belly sticky buns? 707 Chestnut Street; 215-925-5555.

Even Perrier has instituted a prix fixe to lure in lunch crowds. Le Bec-Fin’s $15.23 (the restaurants address) express lunch includes soup or salad and Perrier’s filling burger Lyonnais. 1523 Walnut Street; 215-567-1000.

We’ve said it before: The $13 bento box (filled with sashimi, sushi, dumplings, bacon-wrapped shrimp, green salad, steamed white rice, soup and tuna tartare) at Raw Café @ Boyds might just be the best lunch deal in town. 1818 Chestnut Street; 215-564-0411.

All you really need to know about Rouge’s $16 “Choose Two” lunch menu is that includes a pint-size version of its acclaimed burger.  205 South 18th Street; 215-732-6622.

For $14 at tres French Bistrot La Minette, you can order a mise en bouche and plat principal, or a plat principal and dessert. And for $5 more, you can order all three. 623 South 6th Street; 215-546-7256.

At The Palm, the $17 Business Lunch Menu gets you three-courses. Start with a salad or soup, dig into two filets with red wine sauce, steak salad, chicken parm, a cheddar burger or fish of the day (the tilapia is lovely), all which come with the signature half and half (cottage fries and fried onions) and end with a slice of cheesecake or key lime pie.  The Bellevue; 200 South Broad Street; 215-546-7256

Long before the lunch prix fixe was even on any other restaurant’s radars, Mr. Joe’s Café’s $10 dollar lunch—gratis glass of red wine, salad, pasta entrée and dessert—was a well-kept South Philly secret. 1514 South 8th Street; 215-334-1414.

At Conshohocken’s Blackfish, lunch is a mix-and-match affair. For $12, create your ideal lunch—appetizer and entrée, entrée and dessert, or appetizer and dessert. 119 Fayette Street, Conshohocken; 610-397-0888.

Continental’s Blue Plate Special lunch deal translates to a heck of a lot of food. $13.50 buys your choice of three items from the “Plates” portion of the Old City location’s lunch menu. 1801 Chestnut Street; 215-923-8818.

For lunch, Buddakan does a sort of fine-dining bento box for $14. You choose one item from three categories, for a meal that sounds something like … shrimp spring rolls, vegetable rice and chicken yakitori. 325 Chestnut Street; 215-574-9440.

Table 31 in the Comcast Center now has a three-course $24 lunch prix fixe, which includes items like a grilled flatiron steak, seared red snapper and house-made agnolotti. 1701 JFK Boulevard; 215-567-7111.

Twenty-two merchants at Reading Terminal are participating in a $7 meal deal (available seven days a week). Some of the more generous offers include a chicken leg (fried, baked or smoothered), collard greens, rice, cornbread and a small strawberry lemonade from Delilah's Southern Cuisine; and a buttermilk pancake, two eggs, choice of meat, and fresh-squeezed orange juice and from the Dutch Eating Place. 12th and Arch streets; 215-922-2317.

At Tinto, get the $18 Bilbao Express and you can choose from charcuturie, salads, soups or cheese and get a second course of sandwiches (think fried oyster or shortribs with aoli) or plates like mussels or chicken with Brussels sprouts. If it’s brunch you’re after, try the $25 three course Basque-inspired Sunday brunch. We just can’t get enough of that generously portioned smoked salmon plate. 114 South 20th Street; 215-665-9150.