Great Discounts on Restaurants
 

Hey everyone,
When I travel, I like to check out the restauratn scene where I go and here is a great way to get cheap meals. Restaurant.com has gift certificates for a discounted price but this week, if you put in code 93935, you get an additional 60% off the gift certificates! Some restaurants are kinda small and not-so-well-known but they do have some great ones in the DC area.

Have fun!

These are a great deal. They ran a special like this in April and the website was very slow. However, I got $25 certificates for restaurants in Chicago for only $3.

Slow doesn't begin to describe it!

Unfortunately they have no restaurants in my area of the country.

Keith

Can you tell me what the url is for the gift certif listings?
I see all the reviews but can't seem to locate the area with certifs? Do you have to look at each restaurant and look for the little gift box icon? That would suck!

The only thing I can say about this is that restaurants that have to offer discounts need the business that badly for a reason.

Not true, Go...
I have used the certifs purchased via eBay for over a year.
Some are hurting but others are not.
Sonny Bryans in Dallas is always busy. Lone Star Grill in Hillsboro Tx is CRAZY busy, it's next to a big outlet mall.
Nedleys in Richardson, Tx is also so busy you are lucky to get a seat Mon - Sat.
I could go on and on.
I HAVe bought some certifs for small places that needed business but most of my experiences have been that there are many successful businesses that use this service, for whatever reason...
Maybe it is the same reason Bennigans had a coupon in the Sunday paper a few weeks ago...

Tx, purchasing gift certificates on ebay is different than a restaurant having coupons.

I stand by my premise that if a restaurant is offering coupons, that means they need the business. Restaurants only need business when the food isn't that good.

Not to say all the food in the coupon restuarant is bad.

Go,
There are some restaurants that offer the coupons in Baltimore that are great. I have eaten at these places before and with the coupons, it makes it even better!

Sorry to disagree GoTravel, but life isn't that black and white. Because a restaurant makes discount tickets available obviously means that it wants and/needs business. It doesn't, however, automatically indicate that the food isn't good.
I cite just one personal example: Every year I receive $50 coupon for dinner for two from an excellent chain operation in New York (Brasserie, Brasserie 8 1/2, Cafe Centro, etc.) We go to Brasserie 8 1/2, and believe, the food is excellent.

I stand corrected and agree it isn't a black or white issue.

Is this better:

In my opinion, in most cases restaurants that offer coupons (not gift certificates) do so because they need business. The main reason a restaurant isn't doing enough business is because the food isn't good.

Fair enough?

For the record, my husband has several restaurants and it makes me alittle jaded.

I agree with you, GoTravel. In our area, the truly good/topnotch restaurants never offer coupons. Not to say that some of the coupon-offering spots don't have some good dishes.......... but on a regular basis, those restuarants are not the ones I pay to go back to again and again.

Where do you enter this code?

Nevermind, I scrolled down and found it! D'oh!

Just be sure to check with the restaurant before going in and eating your little hearts out. Some places close to home have abruptly stopped honoring them and outside of getting our pittance back later from Restaurant.com, we couldn't get the restaurant to accept the certificates at the time we wanted to use them. Oh yeah, try eBay for the same certificates even cheaper.

GoTravel,I still don't concur. I certainly agree that MOST of the restaurants that offer discount coupons or sign onto IDine (or a similar operation) are not the best of dining facilities. However, I object to your blanket dismissal of any restaurant that offers special deals.
I am a member of IDine, for which I receive a 20% discount at restaurants on its list. So, instead of coupons it's a discount. I've used my IDine discount at many excellent restaurants in New York City. Sure, there are a lot of mediocre restaurants that try to lure customers with these special coupons or discounts, but please don't make a blanket condemnation.

Howard, I restated and said "In my opinion MOST restaurants...".

I agreed it isn't a black and white issue and have no blanket opinion.

OK, GoTravel, point well taken!
(PS: I must confess that I was not at impressed with the restaurants included in the Restaurant.com offer!)

And I can add that I couldn't find any Charlotte listings of any interest.

And there are NO restaurants for Durham, NC. There is only 1 restaurant in Chapel Hill. That restaurant is located near the UNC campus and will have less business in the summer because the students are gone.

When I went to restaurant.com and searched under "North Carolina - Raleigh" there were restaurants for Goldsboro and Wilmington and other areas no where near Raleigh. I'm not sure who placed the restaurants there, but the person doesn't know NC geography.

I use several of those restaurant.com certificates here in the city and i think they are great. I specifically use: City Crab (the best seafood cobb salad), Chango (mexican, delicious, and fun atmosphere), Soul Cafe on W.42 on theater row (southern cookin' & consistantly good), Erminia (on the rare occasion that they have it), Heartland Chophouse on W. 43 (perfect for a quick bite pre-theater), Tomato, Villa Della Pace, and the always adorable, Philip Marie. These are busy restaurants on their own, without a discount. Not on par with Bouley, but, who eats like that every night? I also find them to be great, inexpensive Christmas gifts for my receptionist, building management staff, housekeeper, pet sitter, etc. Chow!

It seems to me that it doesn't matter if you put in code 93935 or not. It always gets you $25 certificate for $10 or for 50% off. How do you get $25 certificates for only $3? Thanks.

I've used these gift certificates and found the restaurants to be fine but those I've tried were in Annapolis, Baltimore, and Washington DC. A lot of other people are learning how good it is to get $25 dollars off a fairly large bill and if it helps the restaurants - so much better.

I've also found them to be great little gifts - stocking stuffers - gifts to kids at college since a nice meal out helps a lot.

GoTravel, How many restuarants have you visited using coupons to have made this sweeping opinion?

Particularly post 9/11, almost all restuarant business is down. Many of both the good ones and bad would like more business.

Restaurant business depends on many factors, for example location or the economy. Offering a discount may have nothing to do with how good or how bad the food is.

Have been in restaurants with great food, that were nearly empty and ones with poor food that were full.

Keith

I noticed that many of the certificates had restrictions, like "for parties of 4 or more after 5pm", etc. So many of these offers may be more a way of filling all 4 seats at a table than that there's anything wrong or lacking with the company. Each empty seat is potential revenue lost, so discounting the bill a little to fill up each seat, rather than each table (often only parties of 2) is a good business move.

The best coupons I have used are 50% off the final food bill.
I always buy them on eBay.
The gift certificates were harder to use for me.
BUT, I have used restaurant.com certifs maybe 35 times and have only had a few bad experiences and they were in NYC and were unrelated to the food.
The restaurants either decided not to honor, or in one case I had to hear about people abusing the cerif by not buying enough... hello? the restaurant can set any rules they want.
Anyway, almost all my experiences have been great.

JJason - just wanted to thank you for the promotion code. I decided to try it out, found a place I visit often anyway, and used the first (of 4 I purchased) certificate today. Also got some for some places I've been thinking of going too. And some for places I know nothing about, but will seek them out in some upcoming trips.

Getting $21 off ($25 less the $4 cost to purchase the certificate) is a damn good deal.

The promotion code is entered on the very first screen ... it was about 1/2 way down on my browser.

Glad you liked them, RB. I have yet to use mine. do you present them before or after the meal?

JJason - of the 9 I purchased, 2 require the cert. to be presented before the meal. The restaurant that I already go to (I bought 4 of their certs.) does NOT require presenting it ahead of time, nor any other restrictions. 1 was valid only after 5pm Sun-Thurs, another only after 5pm anyday, and two were not valid on Saturdays and required the purchase of 2 or more entrees. One restriction on any of the certificates was that they could only be used once per month at any given location.

I decided to buy some more, but the promotion code is no longer valid! Where did you get the code? Of course one can always purchase them at $10, but $4 sounds so much better!

This is the first I heard of this site, and when I checked it out, it has many of the restaurants to which we have gone many times over the past 20 years. It sounds almost too good to be true.

Of course, some of the places need help because the food is sub-par. But then it is up to you to check out the places with other people or with guides, such as your newspaper or Zagat's. ((F))

Here's a promotion code for 30% off that should be good thru the end of August:

83500

www.restaurant.com

While not as great a discount as the 60% posted by JJason last May, it's still not a bad deal: usually $25 worth of food for $7 Some of the restaurants that participate we already went to, and we've found some new ones that we now go to withOUT a discount, but each dollars feel so much better in MY pocket!