The Coral Gables Restaurant Week is almost upon us, so now is a good time to peruse menus and start making dinner reservations. There are quite a few restaurants participating, so in order to save you a little time, we went through each and every one of the menus and picked out the ones we found most interesting and provided the best bang for your buck. (Note: The menu links following each entry are .pdf files.)

• Caramelo: This, in our opinion, is one of the better deals. The $20 lunch menu only offers one option for each of the three courses, but it's $20 and it comes with a glass of wine. That's especially good considering the entree includes Florida grouper. Dinner, which is $35, also comes with wine included. [menu]

• California Pizza Kitchen: Lots of choices here. For $25, you get a half-portion of your choice of three salads, plus any of the pizzas on the menu and any of the desserts. [menu]

• Caffe Abbracci: The restaurant week menus don't give you too many choices, but at $24 (lunch) and $35 (dinner), they're good deals, considering the prices on the regular menu. Still, we weren't terribly excited about the offerings. [menu]

• Fleming's Prime Steakhouse: Three courses, $33.95. The first and third courses don't sound all that exciting, but those mains look good: tempura shrimp in chile aioli and pineapple mango salsa; bleu cheese-glazed filet mignon with cabernet butter sauce; and beef short ribs with herbs, spices and pan juices. [menu]

• Fritz & Franz Bierhaus is offering the same options for lunch and dinner, both for $25. Our choices would be goulash for appetizer, sausage sampler for the main, and definitely the sacher torte for dessert. [menu]

• Le Provencal definitely wins in the "most choices for entree" category. Eight entrees for lunch, ranging from the traditional Caesar salad ($9.50) to the couscous with lamb shank, lamb sausage and vegetables ($15.95). No competition there — we'll have the lamb. Appetizer options are soup of the day, salad with homemade dressing, or salmon terrine, and the dessert is whatever the kitchen has decided to make that day. [menu]

• Given the regular prices at Ortanique on the Mile, the $35 restaurant week dinner menu is a steal. Appetizer options are soup, mango salad (yes please!), or curried crab cake. For entrees, choose from jerked chicken penne pasta, butterflied spiced pork chop, or curried shrimp and diver scallops. As for dessert, there's rum cake, mango sorbet or guava cheese cake. [menu]

• When it came to the Por Fin menu, all we wanted to know was whether or not the "eggs at Por Fin" were on it. They are: only on Mondays on the lunch menu, but always on the dinner menu. That short ribs entree sounds good too. The dinner menu is $38. [menu]

• You can get mango risotto (arroz con mango!) at Two Sisters as a lunch appetizer. Entree options are skirt steak, with chimichurri of course, seared mahi mahi and roast chicken, all for $24. [menu]

Coral Gables Restaurant Week [Official Site]