Restaurant discounts

[alaric99x]

Who else uses the restaurant.com web site?  I found this accidentally when I was looking for a restaurant gift certificate for my daughter.  What the site offers is a gift certificate at a discounted price.  On the site you type in your zip code and a desired radius in miles.  The site will then show a listing of participating restaurants within that radius.  You can look at information about each restaurant including menus.  You'll be given the option to buy certificates of various values, depending on the restaurant.  I usually get $25 certificates because I usually just go to eat with my wife.  The standard price for a $25 certificate is $10 and you'll be obligated to spend a total of $35 at the restaurant.  This means you use your $25 certificate and spend at least $10 more at the restaurant.  That's OK, but I quickly discovered the this web site offers even better deals.  Once you buy your first certificate they send you emails every time they have a special offer, and those come around very frequently.  The offers might be 50%, 70% or 80% off and they're so frequent that I now only respond to the 80% offers.  What that means is that the $25 certificate costs $2 with the 80% off offer.  Being required to order at least $35 worth of food and drinks in a restaurant means that you can get a certificate for $2, spend another $10 in the restaurant, meaning that it's possible to get $35 of food for $12.  Of course you will end up paying $40 or $45 for the food, and the certificate also obligates you to an 18% tip, but it's still an excellent deal to get a $25 certificate for $2.  I've used these quite a few times and never had a problem.  Has anyone else ever used this web site?

[Valerie1979]

i have used it before but it has been a while -- I was thinking about it again yesterday but didn't buy anything yet

[alaric99x]

Well thank you, I'm glad I got some kind of response.  It looks as if I got listed as making some kind of advertisement, but that wasn't my intention at all.  It's just a great deal for restaurant discounts, but, as I said, look for and wait for those 80% off offers.

[delgadoe]

sounds great im going to check it out right now

[wolbachia]

Me too! I love eating out and saving money!

[alaric99x]

The site just sent me another email with a 60% off offer.  That means that a $25 dollar certificate will cost you $4.  You have to use the promo code "steak" at check out.  Like I said before, this is not the best deal they offer, I always wait for the 80% off deals and then stock up on restaurant certificates.

[sommap]

I have been there a few times, but don't care for any of the restaurants offered in my area.

[Valerie1979]

these certificates also make great gifts... I usually try to check out restaurants in areas where my family/friends live as well, but most of the time I don't find much that I think they would LOVE
there is a few places that are always on there that we enjoy locally so that is nice -- especially with the 80% offers!

[lynnc35]

That was alot to take in. Wow. But I get your point. I don't know we have a card for buy one get one free for fancy restraunts, ha we haven't went to one. I don't know why my husband don't take me to any of them. it is like almost free. oh well.

[alaric99x]

It's obviously true that not all the restaurants on a listing are worth anything.  The site shows me 52 restaurants within a 15 mile radius of my zip code.  First of all, I can eliminate at least a dozen that are too far away from where I actually live.  Then there are another dozen or so that are low cost or buffet type restaurants where I couldn't possibly find any meals to buy for only myself and my wife that cost $35, I would have to find one or two more people to bring along to get up to that amount.  From all the restaurants that remain after those eliminations, I would still have to eliminate more than half because they're restaurants that I would just never go to,  but that still leaves me plenty of possibilities.  The only thing I'm missing on my list is a good sushi restaurant.

You can also use this site if you're planning a trip somewhere, and if it happens that you can't make it to the restaurant, you'll only have lost $2 - assuming you got the coupon on an 80% offer.

[sommap]

You can also sign up at a restaurant''s site.  Some of them have specials or clubs.  I signed up for one on Friday and got a coupon for a free appetizer with an entree.  There were three of us and the other two just wanted small plates from the appetizer/small plates side.  I knew if we had one check they would probably take off the one that was for $3, so we had two separate checks.  I got a regular entree and then ordered the stuffed mushrooms for $9.00 as my free appetizer.  I received 7 gigantic mushrooms, stuffed with cream cheese.  They would have been enough for a meal.  I shared my mushrooms and ended up taking home half of the order and half lf my entree. 

[kapeh12]

On another site I got a deal to buy a $50 gift certificate to restaurant.com for $20 and bought a couple of them.  I send one of the gift certificates to a friend in NYC, and used the other one myself.  I purchased a $25 gift card to a local fondu restaurant and took my sister and oldest nieces out for dinner.

I found it may depend on where you live as to what deals you have to choose from to make it worth your while.  My friend in NYC has a couple hundred choices, I have about a dozen or so - but they are restaurants I like.  My sister is near Rockford and none of the restaurants that showed up on her list were any her family liked so they passed on the site.

I thought it was a good deal as long as you have enough restaurants in your area that participates on the site.