Discover new favorites at Restaurant Week

Cleveland Restaurant Week, which continues until March 30, is a great opportunity to sample the food and learn about the culture of dining rooms you’ll want to visit in the future. Coordinated by Cleveland Independents, it offers threecourse fixed price meals for $33 a person.

For some of the most top-end restaurants that is a remarkable deal. The Cleveland Independents website (www.clevelandindependents.com/ restaurant-week) makes it easy to see the menus being offered at each and includes the phone numbers and addresses of all 41 participating restaurants.

For reasons I don’t understand, The Cabin of Willowick is the only Lake County restaurant taking part in the promotion.

It’s at 28810 Lake Shore Blvd., and like many of the others, it requests reservations for dining. (440-9435195)

Its three-course menu offers a choice between two appetizers and two desserts framing an entree choice between red wine braised lamb shanks and Oscar salmon risotto.

But I’ve written about many other Restaurant Week participants over the years, often because of a local connection.

They’ve become some of my own personal favorites when we dine out.

The Tremont neighborhood’s Fahrenheit, for instance, is operated by Chef Rocco Whalen, a Mentor native whose family still lives here. At 2417 Professor Ave. (216-781-8858) it always has great things to eat.

For Restaurant Week Whalen has outdone himself with a choice of three dishes for first, second and third courses.

The Coffee and Mustard Crusted Pork Tenderloin with Whipped sweet potatoes, sautéed greens, toastedspice walnuts, and Ohio maple glaze caught my eye, but my steak-loving husband was delighted to see a filet mignon offered for an additional $10.

Zack Bruell is one of my favorite Cleveland chefs with several restaurants, all completely different from one another.

His Alley Cat Oyster Bar, next to the Cuyahoga River in the Flats neighborhood at 1056 Old River Road is one of our summertime standbys. (216-574-9999) Crispy oysters are among the appetizer choices for his menu there along with choices between fish and pork tenderloin for a second course.

Bruell’s L’Albatros Brasserie in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood at 11401 Bellflower Road serves my husband’s favorite French onion soup. (216-791-7880)

It’s not among the promotion’s appetizers, probably because the hearty soup is a meal in itself. But the roasted mushroom tart and goat cheese croquettes are.

Steak is, of course, among the choices at Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse-Beachwood at 26300 Chagrin Blvd. (216-464-0688).

But there’s a choice of salmon and chicken Milanese described among the 6-ounce petite twin filet and dry aged roasted sirloin chop.

My mouth was watering to read about the wedge salad with candied pecans, tomato and blue cheese dressing among the first-course choices.

A browse through the Cleveland Independents website reveals plenty of choices for those on a plant-based diet.

Pier W in Lakewood (216-228-2250) and Provenance at the Cleveland Museum of Art (216-707-2600) both have great vegetarian fare among their choices.

My mouth waters just to read their description, which is what I suggest if you’re even remotely interested in the two-week long Cleveland Restaurant Week.

ILLUSTRATION BY DOMINIC SCIBILIA