Beginning Sept. 12 and continuing through Sept. 21, 33 restaurants in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City are offering three-course dinners for $25.

This is the chance to try some of the finest dining Utah has to offer -- The New Yorker, Metropolitan, Xiao Li and Third & Main, to name a few -- for a fraction of the usual cost. Even some less upscale restaurants are joining the special promotion to get diners downtown by offering three-course meals for two people for the $25 tab.

It's the best deal in several towns, combined.

In the inaugural year of what The Downtown Alliance hopes becomes an annual event, restaurateurs are setting up menus -- some constant for the 10-day run, others changing daily -- that will showcase their cuisine for dining regulars and initiates.

Take Absolute! and the Dijon Provencale Bistro, for example. The neighboring restaurants, just west of the Capitol Theatre on 200 South between Main Street and West Temple, every week serve hundreds of theatergoers and conventioneers, who make up about 80 percent of their clientele. Owner Kimi Eklund looks forward to this promotion as a way to introduce more diners to her restaurants, confident that they will embrace chef Matt Anderson's French and Italian cuisine.

For $25 at Dijon, diners can start the evening with a choice of escargot or tapenade and vegetarian spreads for the table; choose between entrées of chicken piccata and pasta or cassoulet du jour with French white beans, duck confit, pork sausage and braised lamb; and finish with an apple cinnamon cr�pe tarte.

Austrian pork schnitzel and spaetzle or red trout with tomato and leek hash, with a finale of panna cotta with blackberry sauce and fresh berries, are among the offerings at Absolute!

"It's a nice way to generate more business. . . . We're excited to be a part of it," said Eklund, adding with a laugh, "The worst that can happen is that people will at least think about coming downtown."

If French food isn't your weakness, don't despair. Among the 33 participating restaurants are those that specialize in seafood and steaks; at least a half-dozen Italian cafés, contemporary and traditional; Thai, Chinese and Japanese restaurants; a Mexican "cantina"; pub food, contemporary American cuisine and the true Melting Pot, serving savory and sweet fondue.

Restaurants are taking different approaches to the "Dine O'Round." At Shula's Steakhouse, $25 gets you limited selection but a terrific meal of a beefsteak tomato and gorgonzola salad, an 8-ounce grilled filet mignon with garlic bordelaise, and a slice of seven-layer chocolate cake.

Over at Lemon Grass, diners can pick from 10 three-course dinners, including a vegetarian meal. Many of the restaurants offer a choice of two or three entrées, plus a salad and either an appetizer or dessert.

The set menu at Xiao Li, one of eight restaurants that will feed two people for $25, revolves around Peking duck, with a first course of roasted duck soup, followed by crispy roast duckling served with cr�pes, hoisin sauce and condiments, and a third course of shredded duck stir-fired with bean sprouts. Red Rock Brewing's 2-for-$25 includes a baked cheese-dip appetizer, salad or soup, and either shrimp scampi, almond-crusted trout or rotisserie chicken.

Not all of the restaurants have firmed up their menus, and as Restaurant Week progresses, revisions may be made to some of menus cited.

Restaurant servers will be doing their regular work for a deep discount off the usual bottom line, and your savings shouldn't come at the expense of their tip. Fifteen percent to 20 percent of the tab is the rule of thumb on a regular night; unless service is severely lacking, make sure during this special promotion that it's closer to 20 percent.

Here is a list of participating Salt Lake City restaurants. Call for hours and reservations.

Restaurants offering one three-course meal for $25:

-----

Nancy Hobbs is The Tribune's restaurant reviewer. The newspaper covers the cost of meals at restaurants reviewed and there is no connection between reviews and restaurant advertising. Hobbs welcomes food and wine news, comments and suggestions at nhobbs@xmission.com.