West Haven Gets Its Own Restaurant Week in November. Here's How It Differs From the One That Just Ended.

The West Haven & Milford Regional Restaurant Week ended on October 4. It ran for 10 days, and its announced lineup had nine restaurants. Two of them were in West Haven. The city is now running a second dining week, November 15 through 21, and this one is open only to West Haven restaurants.

That changes who gets the attention. In September, most of the spotlight went to Milford dining rooms. In November, the whole promotion points at kitchens on Ocean Avenue, Captain Thomas Boulevard, Main Street, Union Avenue and the Boston Post Road. If you live here, this is the week built around the places closest to you.

Two of nine

The Connecticut Post reported that the regional event is run by the Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce and is now in its fifth year. Simon McDonald, the Chamber's director of membership and marketing, described it as "about a dozen restaurants" serving special prix fixe menus. In the same article, he told the paper that diners going to Bin 100 should "make a reservation — even if it's Tuesday."

Patch's roster as of September 14 listed Ola, Bin 100, Flipside, Reggiano's, Stonebridge, The Breakwall, Taste of Thai, Tropical Caribbean and Monty's River Grill. The Connecticut Post placed Ola in Orange and named The Breakwall and Tropical Caribbean as the West Haven participants. It placed the rest in Milford and noted that more restaurants could be added.

So a West Haven resident who used September's list as a guide was mostly being sent across the line into Milford.

What the city is asking restaurants to offer

West Haven's Economic Development Commission is running the November event. Its participation form says joining is free for all West Haven restaurants. The city's side of the deal is promotion through social media, print advertising and regional press releases. A summary of the commission's August 5 meeting says it discussed partnering with the Chamber of Commerce. The summary also says commissioner Andy Weinstein was put in charge of outreach and organizing, and that the city would make the marketing materials.

The format is more standardized than a typical prix fixe week. Each restaurant checks off one or more offers from a fixed menu of options:

1. A free appetizer with the purchase of two entrées
2. A free dessert with the purchase of two entrées
3. A $25 lunch
4. A $40 dinner
5. A fixed-price menu at a price the restaurant sets

The form says whatever a restaurant picks "will be listed on the city website." That means diners should be able to compare offers on one page. A pizzeria offering a free dessert with two entrées and a seafood spot offering a $40 dinner would sit side by side.

Restaurants have until October 15, 2026 to send the form to the mayor's office at 355 Main Street. As of October 12, the city's Restaurant Week page shows the dates but no participants. The lineup should firm up in the weeks after the deadline.

The city has run dining weeks in other formats before. Patch called the October 2012 West Haven Restaurant Week the third annual, with Chamber backing and three-course dinners at $19.95. A city newsletter promoted a separate West Haven Restaurant Week that began April 7, 2025.

The West Haven kitchens the November week can draw from

None of the restaurants below has been announced as a November participant. They are West Haven restaurants that local outlets covered between 2024 and 2026, which is the pool the city's form was sent out to reach. Listing them by area shows how spread out West Haven's dining is, well beyond the boardwalk. The details come from reporting by Patch West Haven, the Connecticut Post, The Connecticut Scoop and CTbites.

The list leans toward places that have changed hands or reopened recently. RipTide reopened under new owners in late 2024, as Patch reported. Ronnie Pizza had a grand opening under new ownership in April 2025. That same month, Frankies marked its 51st anniversary with a grand reopening. Prospect Beach House Deli reopened to the public on June 20, 2025. A free week of city promotion matters most to owners still building their customer base.

Zuppardi's is a different story. Patch reported in June that the family is moving its fast-growing frozen food business, Zuppardi's Frozen Foods LLC, to a larger space on First Avenue. The original Union Avenue restaurant stays where it has been since 1934. For Boston Post Road, CTbites' February feature on Dama Rose described a menu of mezze, pies, kebabs and shawarma. That's a cuisine the September regional list didn't include.

The shoreline has changed since last year's dining season

The biggest change to the Savin Rock dining map is a closing. Jimmies of Savin Rock at 5 Rock Street served its last day on December 7, 2025, after 100 years, according to Patch. NBC Connecticut reported in January that the site was empty and for sale. This November will be the first restaurant week in West Haven without it.

Two newer arrivals are at different stages. Coastal Cone Creamery took over the old Savin Rock Surf Shop space at 270 Captain Thomas Boulevard. The Connecticut Post named its owners as Kubra Tas and Kenan Yardim of Hamden. The Connecticut Scoop reported in June that it was open for a soft opening, with no grand-opening date set.

The Kelsey, a restaurant and event venue planned for the former Savin Rock Conference Center, has not opened yet. WFSB reported in March that the developers were projecting an opening between late 2026 and early spring 2027. The venue's own website still says it is under development and expected to open at the end of 2026. Either way, it won't be ready for a November 15 restaurant week.

The calendar between now and November 21

The farmers market season ended October 10. Here is what's on the West Haven calendar from now until the dining week ends:

1. October 15: Deadline for restaurants to submit participation forms to the mayor's office.
2. October 24, 5 p.m.: Halloween On The Green at West Haven Green, 1 Church Street.
3. October 28, 2 p.m.: Troll Doll Pumpkin Town at West Haven Public Library, 321 Elm Street.
4. October 31, 3 p.m.: The Kids Day Ball, also at the library on Elm Street.
5. November 15–21: West Haven Restaurant Week, with each restaurant's offer posted on the city's event page.

Between the form deadline and mid-November, the city's Restaurant Week page is where the list of restaurants and their $25 lunches, $40 dinners and free appetizer or dessert offers should appear.

Here at The Hill Team, we keep an eye on West Haven's shoreline and main corridors all year, including which kitchens change hands and which spaces sit empty. If you'd like to know what your home is worth on a street near Ocean Avenue, Union Avenue or the Post Road, ask us for a free home valuation. We'll walk you through how we arrived at the number.