AJPeabody

The Fork allowed reservations at participating restaurants that did not give discounts. When discounts were offered, they ranged from 20% to 50%. I did notice that the 40% and 50% discounts were at restaurants that seemed overpriced without the discount, while the 20% and no discount restaurants seemed fairly priced.

Belinda

I don't use The Fork primarily for the discounts. When there is a discount available, that's a bonus. I have found interesting restaurants using the website that I might not have tried otherwise.

I just typed my address in with next Tuesday's date and got over 100 restaurant options. Three were my regular neighborhood cafes, where I really don't book ahead anyway.

There seem to be two primary automated reservations systems in Paris; the Fork and then ZenChef. The latter usually is initiated by the restaurant's website reservation link. You get an instant notification that you'll hear back within 24 hours if your reservation is confirmed. You usually get another reminder by email the day of the reservation and a request for a review after.

Making reservations online is easy if you're booking before arriving in Paris and if you're not particularly comfortable calling a restaurant and reserving in French. I would imagine the restaurants like these systems as well.

In the US I use opentable.com all the time. I also use it in London and have precooked 3 restaurants for my trip there in a couple of weeks.

fuzzbucket

I think you might have meant "prebooked" instead of precooked...

Belinda

you're right, of course

ekscrunchy

I think most restaurants prefer that you book directly so they do not have to pay these third-party sites. Although if they pay per month or per year, and not per reservation, I guess it would not matter. I do know that most places will not put all their tables on OpenTable, so it pays to phone if you do not see your preferred time slot.

I like booking directly with the restaurant, or with OpenTable, since that allows me to ask for preferred seating. If the place in city not my own has no online site, I ask the hotel to book for me.

tomboy

We got a nice discount(30%?) in Manosque last week.

Neither TripAdvisor nor Fourchette show ALL restaurants. We ate at Longchamp in listless...sorgue last week, and it didn't not sow on the map of French food restaurants. We enjoyed the joule de porch nevertheless.

michele_d

Really liked the convenience of using The Fork prior to our trip to Madrid. Made a reservation for the night we wanted with out having to deal with the language barrier or long distance phone call.

fuzzbucket

Most restaurants and cafes do not subscribe to either LaFourchette or OpenTable, due to cost concerns.
It must be a pain to have to deal with discounts and customers who don't understand the principle.

It is convenient for touristy restaurants, when people do not speak the language, though.

gomiki

Thanks to all. The comments are very helpful.