Sometimes a deal is a meal for $5. But sometimes the deal is not the final price tag, but what you get for your investment. And make no mistake, investing $55 in dinner is an investment. But for that sum at the Tasting Kitchen, one of L.A.’s most exciting new restaurants, you get a four-course, market-based dinner produced with skill and passion by chef Casey Lane and his crew, all alums of Portland’s famed ClarkLewis. It’s served in a great-looking Venice space (the former home of AK) and accompanied with a short but sweet and not-overpriced roster of cocktails, beers and wines, including a delicious house white and red for $6 each.

Tasting Kitchen, 1633 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, 310.392.6644. L & D Tues.-Sun.