With over 230 restaurants participating in dineLA's Restaurant Week, selecting a restaurant to try may feel like a daunting task! Here is a shortlist of notables you might want to consider:

Asia de Cuba at the glitzy Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood features Asian and Latin fusion cuisine. Their miso cured Alaskan butterfish, which is on both the dineLA lunch and dinner menus, is to die for. Tender, sweet and flaky, it just melts right in your mouth. They also offer optional wine pairings with the three-course meal for $64 per person.

Drago Centro has gotten many kudos from dining critics since its opening just a little over a year ago. This has become the place to go downtown for fine Italian food in an elegant urban setting. You can't go wrong with their venison carpaccio starter or their braised veal ossobuco.

Fig Restaurant Santa Monica brings local, organic California ingredients to our favorite comfort foods... with some creative twists. The shortrib and pancetta meatloaf—that's both shortrib and pancetta in the meatloaf!—is a signature favorite, as are the fig bars served with Greek yogurt and fresh figs for dessert (how appropriate).

Grace Restaurant typically provides seasonal five-course tasting menus set by the chef, but their three-course restaurant week menu allows for more choices by the diner. Their dineLA entrees are all solid favorites from their regular menu (salmon, jidori chicken, beef in New American styles), and their signature sticky toffee pudding with hazelnut gelato is one of the dessert options. If you feel like splurging, Grace has supplemental courses and select substitutions at an additional cost, as well as wine pairings for the different courses for $30. The dessert doughnut flight for the extra $5 will be worth your while.

Jar Restaurant is the place for a simple, quiet meal away from the bustle of life. Their signature dishes on the dineLA menu are the pot roast, served with choice of side, and the chocolate pudding. Jar's purple yam is an unusual side that is worth a try; it comes with creme fraiche and chives. Don't forget to check out their cocktail menu, which includes their signature spins on the classic manhattan and bloody mary.

K-Zo Restaurant in Culver City features Japanese fusion cuisine, but is best known for their excellent sushi. Authentic sushi lovers will find all their favorites here and an extensive selection of Jizake (premium Japanese sake) to accompany their meal. Both K-Zo's dineLA lunch and dinner menus offer sushi assortments and steak, chicken, and grilled fish for those who prefer to eat their meat cooked.

Ortolan Restaurant is one of only a handful of Michelin starred restaurants participating in dineLA this winter, making haute French cuisine briefly availabe for under 3 figures per person. The regal atmosphere of the dining rooms and the impeccable service sing "high-end" and "special occasion" (or "celebrity"), but during restaurant week, it can be all about you. And anything out of the kitchen of chef Christopher Émé is worth a tasting.

Piccolo Ristorante is a hidden gem in Venice Beach and serves some of the best Italian food in LA. This is not your mom's "spaghetti and meatballs" kind of place; think "tagliatelle with venison ragú." The seared scallops with truffle shavings will blow you away. What's more, Piccolo has five courses instead of the usual three on their dineLA menu at no extra charge. Make reservations early because it's a tiny—shall we say "piccolo"?—place.

Spago Beverly Hills is the finest dining experience that celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck has to offer LA, and during restaurant week, it's for nearly half the price. You can't go wrong with the braised beef short ribs or any of the desserts, especially the fruity ones. If you're lucky, Wolfgang himself will swing by your table and say hello!

Water Grill is Zagat Guide's "Best Seafood Restaurant in Southern California" and boasts a Michelin star of its own. It is famous for oysters and clam chowder, both of which are available on the dineLA menu. With their grand, rustic dining hall in the middle of downtown LA, Water Grill is the place to pamper and indulge the seafood lovers in your life during restaurant week.

If you want to dig into the enormous list yourself, here are some helpful tips for making your restaurant week visit a good taste of the actual restaurant you're visiting:

1. Check to see that the dineLA menu is comparable to the restaurant's regular menu. Sometimes restaurants produce a special menu just for restaurant week that is not representative of their normal fare. This might make a great one-time meal, but won't be an indication of what you'll find if you go back there at another time.
2. Take note of the best times to dine at that particular restaurant. For example, The Foundry on Melrose has live music almost every night at various times throughout the week. For the full experience, you'll want to be there during the music. Or, if you prefer a quieter meal, avoid those times when the bands are playing.
3. Watch out for the lunch selections. Where they have restaurant week for both lunch and dinner, DineLA for lunch at some places are a fantastic deal (e.g. Spago); at others, it is not a good indicator of their usual menu and not worth it. The best deals are prix fixe lunch menus that are similar to the dinner menu because you're getting comparable food at a lower cost. The Boxwood Cafe by Gordon Ramsay is offering the same restaurant week menu items for both lunch and dinner, but lunch is $22 while dinner is $34.
4. Consider wine pairings and extra offerings to beef up your meal, especially if you're taking a guest to impress! Quite a few restaurants supplement the prix fixe menu with appropriate wine flights and extra courses at an additional cost. Nic's Beverly Hills has vodka flights! Some places even lay on complimentary amuse-bouches and mid-courses for free (Jar, The Foundry on Melrose, Tiara Cafe, Water Grill, to name a few that have done so in the past).
5. Don't forget dineLA menus come in three tiers: Deluxe ($16 lunch, $26 dinner), Premiere ($22 lunch, $34 dinner), and Fine ($28 lunch, $44 dinner).