DFW Restaurant Week, the annual culinary event for budget-minded diners, returns in 2024 with approximately 160 participating restaurants serving prix fixe meals benefiting the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) and Lena Pope.

This is the 28th annual DFW Restaurant Week — "Week" being a misnomer, since it has, over its 27 years in existence, extended from its original week duration to a full month: from August 5-September 1.

And really, it starts on August 1 since there is also a "preview weekend" at select restaurants that runs from August 1-4. But Restaurant "Month" sounds less essential than Restaurant "Week", which conveys a don't-miss-out sense of urgency.

Dining options include:

• Dinner: Three-courses for either $49 or $59
• VIP Dinner: $99 which may include cocktails, chef’s table, or extra courses
• Lunch: Two-courses for $29 at some not all restaurants
• Weekend Brunch: Two-courses for $29 at some not all restaurants

According to a a release, approximately 20 percent of the cost of each meal will be donated to NTFB in Dallas or Lena Pope in Fort Worth.

Dallas was the second city in the U.S. to hold a Restaurant Week back in 1997; New York did it first in 1992. The Dallas version was originally "KRLD Restaurant Week," co-founded by Jim White, who had a restaurant radio show on the AM radio station at the time.

While its luster has faded locally, some DFW restaurateurs still welcome it as a way to maybe pick up business during August, which is notoriously slow — even if it means welcoming diners who may only visit that one time.

Dallas' list of participants is always weighted heavily towards steakhouses and that's no exception in 2024, with 50 steakhouse entries out of the total 160 restaurants. Those 160 restaurants also include a few repeat locations of the same concept — four locations of Cru, five locations of Thirsty Lion, three locations of Perry's Steakhouse, four locations of Fogo de Chao — etc. If you subtract the duplicates, it's more like 128 restaurants — although really, what does it matter, as the Moxies in Plano may very well be a completely different experience than the Moxies in Dallas. Stop nitpicking.

The 2024 list also boasts local institutions with a charitable bent like Terra Eataly and Fearing's — a bargain at any price — as well as a few hipster participants like Komodo Dallas, El Carlos Elegante, and Beverley's Bistro & Bar.

And the event can serve as an incentive to get around to finally trying new-ish restaurants like Lyla on McKinney Avenue or Soy Cowboy out in Arlington (whose founder Ben Berg of Berg Hospitality Group sits on the board of Restaurant Week in Houston, where it's a much bigger deal than Dallas).