Making food from scratch typically requires advance preparation, adherence to a recipe, and your third and final genie wish. Save the third wish for more wishes with today’s Groupon to Sacks Cafe and Restaurant. Choose between the following options:

• For $15, you get $30 worth of upscale New-American cuisine at dinner.
• For $8, you get $16 worth of upscale New-American cuisine at lunch or brunch.
  
  

An OpenTable Diners’ Choice winner with an “exceptional” rating from Frommer’s, Sacks Cafe and Restaurant earns praise from customers and critics alike with eclectic fusion dishes made with fresh, local ingredients. Though offerings change daily, previous dinner menus, have included starters such as fresh Alaska oysters from Stedman Cove with a watermelon geleé ($12 for four), whose half shells can be clapped together as castanets for a midmeal serenade. Diners may encounter main dishes such as the hot-and-sour curry pot, in which fresh Alaska king salmon and halibut comingle with tiger prawns, sugar snap peas, and jasmine rice in a savory broth and coconut-milk drizzle ($29). The lunch menu garnishes gullets with the likes of the Special sandwich, black forest ham with soft brie, apricot chutney, and caramelized onions accompanied by house-made fries or salad ($13.50), or a cup of tomato-and-gorgonzola soup ($1.50 additional) that warms the insides more quickly than a Valentine written in tabasco sauce.

Sacks’ impressive wine list wrested away an Award of Excellence from the grape-stained hands of Wine Spectator, with notable pours such as Bored Doe Blend 2009 ($7/glass) from South Africa’s coastal region. The restaurant’s bright orange and yellow walls and ever-changing, sometimes florally themed local artwork invite patrons to stop and discreetly sniff the two-dimensional flowers.

Listed prices are subject to change.