Restaurant Week in New York City continues through Aug. 20 and Cheddar News checked out some of the most delicious and inspirational dishes at Dagon Restaurant, a Mediterranean-style eatery known for its exquisite cuisine and led by Chef Ari Bokovza.

<div class="block">Restaurant Week in New York City continues through Aug. 20 and Cheddar News checked out some of the most delicious and inspirational dishes at Dagon Restaurant, a Mediterranean-style eatery known for its exquisite cuisine and led by Chef Ari Bokovza.</div>

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On The Scene: Mediterranean-Inspired Restaurant Dagon

New York City Restaurant Week is offering deals on two course lunches and three course dinners. And here to give us a taste of what's on the menu at de Go on. Manhattan's upper West side is Michelle Cao. And here's the moment we've all been waiting for. Chef Aria has graciously prepared some of the restaurant week menu for us. So I'm gonna start with this. So tell me a little bit more about why you guys decided to participate in Restaurant Week. I think it's a great way to showcase your restaurant to people beyond your regulars. It's a great way to bring people from all around to the restaurant so they can try your cuisine at a good price. And um, yeah, it's something that I've done my whole career and I'm proud to continue the uh the tradition. Now, it's, if I understand it correctly, it's a two course lunch for $30. So you can get this as your appetizer. And then this actually is a main that will be on the dinner menu. So what's the difference between the 45 and the $30 menu and the 45 dinner? So the $30. Just, you know, we think that it's more appropriate to spend that type of money at lunch where, you know, for lunch you're coming in, you're filling your belly dinner is more of an experience. So the cuisine will be a little more involved. It'll be a little more intricate. It'll be a little more thought out. Now, you started to go during the pandemic. How, how was that experience? It was a whirlwind. You know, we had the opportunity to open up on the outside and that was something that was up for debate. But ultimately, we decided that if we're going to open the restaurant, we want to do it the right way, we want to make it count. So we waited and once they, once they made the announcement, it was actually Valentine's Day. That was our first day of service. We just, we got in here and we made it happen. Now, how does restaurant week help businesses really get more publicity and survive at a time like this? You make more friends, people that might not usually go to your restaurant or all of a sudden enticed to not just dine at the but to go out and dine everywhere around the city. So it's really a great way to boost the restaurant and have a more broader reach for sure. Now I'm gonna try this summer grilled vegetable plate. Yes. Tell me a little bit more about Israeli cuisine and kind of what kind of menu items you can expect here at a restaurant. So Israeli cuisine is, I mean, I think that's like you could ask 100 chefs, what's Israeli food? And they'll give you 100 different answers. I think, for me it's, it's basically a celebration of the, uh, the people that migrated there, the cultures, you know, the neighboring countries around Israel, eastern Europe, North Africa, if I had to get like more specific, if I think of Israeli food, I think of food that's, you know, grounded in thousands of years of heritage and tradition. I think tomatoes, I think olive oil, lemon, herbs, spices, just food that is authentic. Now you do a seasonal menu. What goes into the thought process of when you cycle in new items? Yeah. So my personal process is we'll always look at like, you know, we have, we know that tomatoes are summer and lagoons are fall, but we'll always keep our eye out on like, you know, what's coming. OK. So this is going to be in season in a couple of months. Then I'll say, what does that go with? And I'll put it together in my mind. I'll taste it in my mind and then sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't work, but we usually, we'll taste it, we'll sit down, we'll try it, we'll tweak it. We ask everybody else, you know, I could serve the food that I love all day at the, at the end of the day, it's the food that your guests love. And that's something that, you know, you learn as a chef. You got to keep your finger on the pulse of what your guests like. Now, I have to ask a question about the restaurant week menu. It's a selection. You have like four or five items on each option? Sure. But does it hit all the favorites at most restaurants? Do you have any ideas for people who might want to try something that might not be on the restaurant? That's a great question. I'm a big believer in offering something for everybody. So if you've come here every single day for the last three years since we've opened, you will still come into the restaurant and see something new and fresh on the menu. Now to the people that have never been here before, I want them to try the dishes that represent, but I also want to have new stuff. So we have a little bit of both. We have the classics and then the specials. Well, these are definitely delicious. I'm having a great time here. So I'm going to finish these courses and going back to you guys in the studio, but I'll be here for a little bit for a little while this morning. Looks delicious. Great job, great job to the chef. Sign me up for that okra. Maybe you can bring some back to the office.