$25 Girl Dinner Turns Thursday Night Into a Three-Course Deal at Favorites Bistro Bar

$25 Girl Dinner Turns Thursday Night Into a Three-Course Deal at Favorites Bistro Bar Sept. 24, offering a choice of appetizer, entrée, and cocktail for roughly the price of a single dinner entrée at many restaurants.

And despite the name, this isn’t a women-only event.

Favorites describes its weekly Girl Dinner as a night for girlfriends, couples, families or anyone simply looking for dinner out. The event is open to the public, casual, and requires no special admission beyond the $25 dinner.

The real attraction is what that $25 buys.

Guests choose one of five appetizers, one of three entrées, and one drink, including wine, a mimosa, or the evening’s featured house cocktail.

First, Pick an Appetizer

The opening course has considerably more choice than a typical prix fixe promotion.

Guests can choose a house garden salad with fresh greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, and house dressing; steamed mussels simmered in a rich garlic tomato sauce; pan-seared dumplings filled with shrimp or jerk pork and served with a house dipping sauce; crispy wings tossed in a signature sauce; or loaded fries topped with crispy fries, bacon and Parmesan cheese.

Then comes the entrée.

The Signature Rasta Pasta combines a creamy, spicy sauce with onions and bell peppers, a dish that fits particularly well with Favorites’ Caribbean identity.

There’s also Honey Mustard Salmon, with pan-seared glazed salmon served over garlic mashed potatoes and sautéed vegetables, or a Garden Stir-Fry Veggies option built around fresh vegetables and greens.

Then There’s the Cocktail

The $25 package also includes one drink.

Guests choose between the featured house cocktail, a glass of red, white or rosé wine, or a mimosa.

That makes the pricing stand out when compared with Favorites’ regular dinner menu.

The restaurant currently lists its Rasta Pasta at $18 and salmon at $27 before adding an appetizer or drink. Regular appetizers include $12 honey jerk wings and $15 mussels, while cocktails and wine are normally purchased separately.

Girl Dinner essentially bundles the whole evening into a single price.

Favorites Is More Haitian Than the Word “Bistro” Suggests

The restaurant itself is worth knowing because the name doesn’t reveal much about what’s happening in the kitchen.

Favorites Bistro Bar is a Black-owned restaurant run by Majan and Ederjson Pierre, and its food draws heavily from Haitian and Caribbean cooking.

Majan Pierre has described what Favorites does as Haitian street food, bringing flavors and dishes associated with Haiti into a contemporary downtown restaurant and cocktail-bar setting.

That influence shows up throughout the regular menu.

There are oxtail rangoons filled with braised oxtail and ricotta, jerk chicken, sweet plantains, black beans and rice, honey jerk wings, Rasta Pasta and dishes seasoned with epis, the aromatic seasoning base fundamental to Haitian cooking.

Favorites also uses pikliz, Haiti’s sharply flavored pickled vegetable condiment, alongside several dishes.

The result isn’t a restaurant attempting to reproduce a traditional Haitian menu from beginning to end. Instead, Caribbean ingredients and techniques move freely into familiar American restaurant formats.

An oxtail becomes the filling for a rangoon. Jerk flavors appear in chicken wings and sandwiches. Caribbean seasoning meets pasta, burgers, tacos and brunch dishes.

That crossover is part of the restaurant’s identity.

A Restaurant Entering Its Fourth Year

Favorites is still relatively young.

The restaurant opened on Bank Street in 2023, and this spring celebrated its third anniversary with something of a second beginning.

In April, the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut and Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting marking Favorites’ grand reopening and expansion into lunch service.

The restaurant had evolved beyond its original dinner operation, adding daytime hours and updating its menu while retaining the Caribbean flavors around which it was built.

Today, lunch brings dishes such as jerk pork sliders, orange chicken tacos, short rib melts, chicken and waffles and Rasta Pasta.

Dinner moves toward larger plates, including oxtail with rice, black beans and sweet plantains; jerk chicken; braised short ribs; steak frites; salmon; and tomato shrimp pasta.

Sunday has developed an identity of its own with brunch, including chicken and waffles and crème brûlée French toast.

“Girl Dinner” Has Changed Quite a Bit

There’s also a little cultural joke hiding behind the name of Thursday’s promotion.

“Girl dinner” exploded as a social-media phrase in 2023, originally describing the kind of improvised meal someone might assemble when cooking an actual dinner felt unnecessary: cheese, crackers, fruit, bread, leftovers or whatever else happened to be available.

It was less a recipe than permission to call a collection of snacks dinner.

Restaurants eventually began borrowing the phrase for specials aimed at turning the idea into a night out.

Favorites has taken that transformation nearly to its logical extreme.

There aren’t any crackers standing in for dinner here.

For $25, the restaurant’s version involves an appetizer, a plated entrée and a cocktail.

And although the name survived the transition, Favorites makes a point of saying everyone is invited.

Thursday Night on Bank Street

Girl Dinner begins at 6 p.m. Thursday at Favorites Bistro Bar at 90 Bank Street in downtown New London.

The promotion isn’t limited to Sept. 24. Favorites has scheduled it as a recurring Thursday event into the fall, making this week’s dinner part of an ongoing series rather than a one-night special.

The restaurant describes the atmosphere as relaxed and encourages people to come with friends, partners or family, or simply come on their own.

That may ultimately be the smartest part of the promotion.

At a time when dinner and a cocktail can quickly turn into a considerably more expensive night out, Favorites has made the offer remarkably easy to understand:

Pick an appetizer.

Pick an entrée.

Pick a drink.

Pay $25.

More information is available at the Event Website link below.

Details

Event: Girl Dinner on Thursdays
Date: Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026
Starts: 6 p.m.
Location: Favorites Bistro Bar
Address: 90 Bank Street, New London, CT 06320
Price: $25
Includes: One appetizer, one entrée and one craft cocktail, glass of wine or mimosa
Appetizer Choices: House Garden Salad, Steamed Mussels, Pan-Seared Dumplings, Crispy Wings or Loaded Fries
Entrée Choices: Signature Rasta Pasta, Honey Mustard Salmon or Garden Stir-Fry Veggies
Drink Choices: Featured house cocktail, glass of red/white/rosé wine or mimosa
Who Can Attend: Open to the public; despite the “Girl Dinner” name, everyone is welcome
Dress: Casual
Reservations: The event listing says guests may simply show up.
Phone: 860-446-6188

 

Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.