Have expensive tastes, but not the cash to indulge them? Well, starve no more. We have been scouring the city’s best restaurants for deals that will allow wallets of any thickness enjoy the gourmet meals they so heartily deserve.

MONDAY

Campanile: Family Style Prix Fixe 624 S. La Brea, Los Angeles, CA 90036, 323-938-1447

Monday nights are family-style at famed Campanile. For $40, you are treated to a 3-course meal. As you can imagine, space fills up quickly, so get your reservation in early.
The menu changes every week, but recent offerings included prosciutto salad with baby turnip and blood orange, whole roasted snapper with fennel, and flourless chocolate cake with vanilla sauce and crème fraîche. Another week featured a classic iceberg salad with blue cheese dressing, fish and chips with onion rings, and buttermilk panna cotta with sugar cookie and raspberry caramel. All for just over the price of a single entrée on the normal menu!

Dolce Enoteca

Experience the dolce vita at Dolce Enoteca when you take advantage of their 50% Mondays. Yes, that means that everything on the food menu is…half off! So go ahead. Carbo-load on their chicken gnocchi and lobster demilunes, or try the osso bucco over saffron risotto. The pork chop in cherry port sauce with pesto mashed potatoes, or the seared yellowfin tuna medallions with artichoke hearts and fresh forest mushrooms are also great choices. At half the price, though, you can savor whatever it is you eventually order that much more.

Jar: Mozzarella Mondays 8225 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048, 323-655-6566

Suzanne Tracht’s mid-city, mid-century Americana chop house has one of the most unique deals in town on its Mozzarella Mondays. Every week, you can sample a changing array of cheesy canapés like the one with buricotti cheese, braised artichoke hearts, pine nuts and currants; or the buratta with shallot confit, bacon, and charred marinated escarole. Items range in price from $5-12. There is also a special wine menu available to complement the mozzarella menu. The special applies only to dining in the bar area, though, so space can be tight..

Jiraffe:  Bistro Night Prix Fixe Menu 502 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401, 310-917-6671 (at right)

Spending an evening at this charming California-French bistro doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money. Each week, the Monday Bistro Night offers a new 3-course prix fixe menu for $38. Selections on a recent Monday included seared Fiji Albacore appetizer with a salad of braised endive, bak choy, Napa cabbage, red onion and a brown butter ponzu sauce; spiced lavender and honey Iowa pork chop; and cherry soup with Tahitian vanilla ice cream. And that was just one of the special menus.

Literati II: Design Your Own Burger Night 12081 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025, 310-479-3400

Sometimes you just feel like a good old-fashioned burger. But everyone likes theirs different—remember those Burger King’s “Have it your way” campaigns? That’s why the good folks at Literati II in Brentwood let you design your own burger at Monday Night Madness. Want yours with peanut butter and bacon? You have only to ask. The kitchen won’t judge you, and neither will we.

Luna Park: Blue Mondays, 672 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036, 323-934-2110 (at right)

Remember when you were little and wanted to be a trucker, roaming the open roads and stopping in a greasy diner every now and then for a “Blue Plate Special”? Well, dream no more, because starting in July, Luna Park is hosting “Blue Mondays” from 5:30-10:30 pm. The night will feature a special menu of discount entrees ranging from $10-12 per plate. You might try the honey glazed grilled pork chop with arugula salad and onion rings, the Moroccan spaghetti and meatballs made with beef and lamb, or one of the vegetarian entrees which will also be available. Drink specials like the signature mojitos in flavors like blackberry and kumquat, as well as the house sangria, will also be available for $5, and will change every week. So get on the CB, tell all your friends to don their trendiest trucker hats, and get on over to Luna Park for some grub.

Spanish Kitchen: Enchilada Night 826 La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90069, 310-659-4794

This restaurant’s name is a misnomer since the food at this hacienda-like eatery is mostly Mexican. Hence the Monday night enchilada special. With a special menu of 14 different kinds of enchiladas  (that’s right we said 14) you can sample 3-5 of their them for between $15-25. With options like the chorizo and potato enchilada, the fresh lobster and diced cactus enchilada, and the Sonoran enchilada with three tortillas layered with chicken, black beans, cheese and red and green salsa, you could come back every Monday night for the foreseeable future.  Just don’t try to wash them down with an equal number of their specialty 27oz “Margarita Gigante”! What’s the Spanish word for “trouble”?

Sushi Roku: Red Sun Hour 5:30-10pm 33 Miller Alley at One Colorado, Pasadena, CA 91103, 626-683-3000 (at right)

With small portions and expensively modern cocktails, sushi restaurants are rarely destinations for an inexpensive night out. But now, Sushi Roku’s Pasadena location hosts a Monday night special from 5:30-10pm called Red Sun Hour, where you can imbibe $3 glasses of house beer, sake and wine, as well as a variety of commonplace sushi rolls like spicy tuna and California roll for the same price. Arigato!

Taste on Melrose: Wine Discovery Mondays 8454 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, CA 90069, 323-852-6888

Whether you had to work through your weekend, or you just need some more hair of the dog that bit you, Taste on Melrose gives you a great excuse to start your week off with a drink. This chic eatery in the fashionable heart of Melrose offers all its wines at half off. What better way to shake the Mondays? The restaurant warns you to “tell only your best friends!” though. After all, you wouldn’t want word getting out to the riff raff.

(Need more options? Please peep the guides for the rest of the week: Monday; Tuesday; Wednesday; Thursday; Saturday; and Sunday.)

-- Compiled by Eric Rosen