I don’t dine out very often. It is simply not very budget wise. However it sounds like I can now do it at 60% discount or even more. How?
Restaurant.com is a place to buy gift certificates for more than 7,000 restaurants nationwide. Most of these certificates are significantly discounted. $25 gift certificates cost $10, while $10 certificates cost only $3. In addition, if you use coupon code DINE before February 28, 2007, you will get an extra 60% off of your purchase.
Once you buy it, the gift certificate is emailed to you. Print it and take to the restaurant with you to pay for your food.
There are certain limitations
All certificates I have tried are good for dinners only. Also, there is a minimum purchase requirement. For example, to use a $10 certificate you need to buy a dinner for the amount of $15. And don’t forget those tips as well!
There is one more issue — it can be hard to find your favorite place in the list of restaurants. However if you feel adventurous and don’t mind to try something new (and save money on the way) then Restaurant.com is the way to go.
It should be noted that they have recently teamed up with Amazon and it looks like now you will be able to buy these same certificates from Amazon. However no matter how hard I try I get “No results match your search in Restaurant.com” error message. This looks like a bug to me.
photo: “just one little bite” by Robert Terrell
My biggest complaint is the lack of restaurants. I live in Northern NJ which has HUNDREDS of great restaurants, yet barely any of them show up for restaurant.com.
My guess, Restaurants.com is a way for new, lesser know restaurants to market themselves. This is why there is little choice. This also explains the low prices. There is no free lunch and you have to give up something to gain something. ;-)
Below is a copy of correspondence with rjgators and restuarant.com. R.J. Gators only supplies 20 coupons per month which cost them a total of $140. Restuarant.com should state this on their web site. Bait and switch.
I have tried for several months to obtain coupons at the restaurant.com web site. This is only the third of the month and you are “out of coupons”. This strikes me as fraud or at the very least irresponsible advertising. I have written the restaurant .com organization to have you removed from their list. By these actions I will be eating much less at your establishment.
“I have tried for several months to get coupons for rj Gators in Boynton Beach FL. Today is the 3rd of the month and they are “sold out”. Either make the coupons available like the others or drop them. This appears to be fraudulent if they are out by the 3rd of the month. “
They are above our minimum, its just that some people when purchasing may purchase more than one, say ten, and there goes ten of them right away.
Lisa xxx
Customer Support
xxxx @Restaurant.com
http://www.restaurant.com
1-800-979-8985
More companies need to add software like this http://www.faxnumbersoncd.com/freetext.htm to their website so we all can get a deal sent to our cell phone via text message.