For the next 10 days, restaurant enthusiasts who are on a budget get to eat at some of Sacramento's finest restaurants for a little less.

From Thursday, January 15 to Saturday, January 24, you can get a 3 course meal at 26 downtown and midtown restaurants for only $31. (FYI - the extra $1 goes to the Food Literacy Center, a great charity that helps teach school children how to make healthy food choices.)

Participating restaurants include Grange, Ella, Firehouse, Hook & Ladder, Blackbird, etc. Visit the Dine Downtown Web site to see what the local chefs are offering.

But getting a $31, three-course meal Ella, Firehouse, or any one of the top tier of restaurants is the easy and obvious way to do it. If your budget only allows you to eat out once, then by all means, go to a great restaurant like Grange.

If you have the opportunity to do it twice (or more), I encourage you to expand your horizons. Go for one of the less obvious restaurants, or for a restaurant that you walk by all the time to see what they have to offer. I'm personally guilty of this with Chops. I work on that block, walk by it every day, and yet have never eaten dinner ther. (Happy hour's another story.) I should go there and discover that place. The investment's only $31. Maybe it's a great find that's waiting to be discovered.

Maybe that restaurant for you is Blue Prynt. It's a little out of the way, but there must be a reason that restaurant has survived this long. Maybe you'll like it.

So spread the love, and visit one of Sacramento's gems that's waiting to be discovered by you.

More News:

Feast Q&A: 10 years of Dine Downtown event in Sacramento - Ten days, 26 restaurants, three courses for $31. The numbers add up to the 10th annual Dine Downtown Restaurant Week, a bargain-priced opportunity for foodies and newbies to revisit old favorites and discover new ones. Allen Pierleoni in the Sac Bee.

Eat fancy for $31: Dine Downtown kicks off Thursday - Some of these participating restaurants are among the fanciest and priciest in town: Ella Dining Room & Bar, Grange, Biba, the Firehouse Restaurant. Grange put its coffee-braised zabuton—the little-known, tender cut between the chuck and the rib eye—on its Dine Downtown menu, and the dish usually goes for $28 all on its own. That dish, by the way, was featured in the Saveur 100. Big deal. Janelle Bitker in Sac News & Review.

Get great meals for a steal during Dine Downtown - This year, the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, which produces Dine Downtown, is hosting scavenger hunts on the weekdays leading up to the event. The games begin at noon at various midtown and downtown restaurants, and folks can participate by following #DineDowntown2015 on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Prizes include items like IMAX tickets, passes to the Sacramento Food Film Festival and tickets to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, all paired with a gift card to a local eatery. Jessica Rine in Sactown Mag.