If you still have any money left after all the Obama lunchboxes, frisbees and commemorative coins you bought this week, keep it under your mattress for a few days. Center City Restaurant Week starts Sunday, and it’s a doozy.

We already published the master list of all participating joints, but $35 multiplied by all those places equals a lot. So, being friends of the common man, we’ve perused the list of restaurants whose menus are online and culled our Top 5 Restaurant Week Sweet Spots for y’all. A bunch of restaurants, including 10 Arts and other big names, haven’t posted menus yet, so stay tuned.

Stephen Starr‘s center city socialist club, Alma de Cuba, has always offered Cuban food more interesting than big flat sandwiches, and their R.W. menu is no exception. Guava BBQ ribs and suntanned Chilean salmon with yuca cous-cous sound great, but would sound better if the $35 included a rum flight.

This pick will not be shocking to anyone who read The 2008 Phoodie Awards: Zahav is already awesome, but gets a gold star for tossing in a fourth course. Most of the words on their menu are new to us, but the Chicken Freekah sounds especially wild. House cured beef with garlic, fenugreek, aleppo peppers, and pickled persimmon sounds lush, as does cashew baklava with white chocolate.

Jose Garces posts Amada and Tinto both offer two plates in the the first two courses, scoring some variety points. Tinto’s Manchego mousse and Amada’s sea bass with cockles and salsa verde battled for this spot, but Tinto’s duck confit with black cherries, serrano, and Le Peral spread just cinched the victory. Flip a coin.

Lolita lets you BYO ‘B’ or, even better, ‘T’ (tequila), so that is pretty great. The heirloom tomato gazpacho with lobster avocado salad isn’t exactly curl-up-by-the-fire winter food, but still sounds ace. The rest of their upscale Mexican menu looks great too, but the desserts are the standouts, especially the pecan cheesecake with Green Meadow Farm goats’ milk caramel, and dark chocolate-ancho chile crust. Wear a Lucha-Libre mask and you get 10% off. Just kidding. But you should do it anyway.

A snowy night at Lacroix at the Rittenhouse Hotel would be especially great to grab a window seat and do some park-watching. Maybe you’ll catch a bum snowball-fight. Regardless, their menu descriptions are characteristically elemental, but they likely belie some interesting food. The white belly fluke crudo with Pancetta, blood orange, and celery sounds perfect right now and curried pork shoulder with eggplant, maple, and parsnip intrigues.

Tinto: 114 South 20th Street, 215 665 9150
Alma de Cuba: 1623 Walnut St, 215.988.1799
Lacroix: 210 W Rittenhouse Sq.,  215.790.2533
Amada: 217 Chestnut St, 215.625.2450
Lolita: 106 S 13th St, 215.546.7100
Zahav: 237 Saint James Pl, 215.625.8800