Right now there are a lot of deals out there giving away restaurant.com gift certificates. Motherhood is giving away a $50 gift certificate to Restaurant.com if you spend $75 at their store. And trust me it’s easy to spend $75 on maternity clothes. Some how it’s ridiculously expensive.
But why I don’t like or use restaurant.com. I used them once and then stopped a few years ago. Mostly at the time it was because the restaurants on there were very few and far away. So it seemed more of a hassle than a savings.
But now they have tons of places to eat. Sounds like a great deal. Pay $3 for a $25 gift certificate to a restaurant if you wait and get a 70% off code. Right now type in present and get 70% off your entire order. Awesome right? Sounds like a great deal? Trust me I was pretty impressed at first.
Until I read the fine print. It says you can’t use the $25 gift certificate unless you spend $50. So basically you are paying at least double to eat that restaurant. Which is okay if you’ve eaten there before and like it. But otherwise you are forced to spend $50 on food before Tax and Tip. You cannot just spend $25 and see what happens.
Also many of these places have days and time restrictions. You can’t use it on Friday or Saturday night. And you can’t use it for lunch only dinner. This ends up I think making it more difficult to use your $3 certificate.
I mean I know it’s a savings of nearly 50% the price of a meal. But honestly at $50 for a dinner, I’d better be going to a restaurant I really like and enjoy! For that price I can go to my favorite chinese place and get take out on Friday for $45 and have it last 6-7 meals. Not one meal at a fancier place.
So to me restaurant.com isn’t really worth the value. Although it might be a nice gift. Do you like restaurant.com?
8 responses so far ↓
1 sarah // Dec 8, 2009 at 11:33 am
There are a few restaurants around here that are worth it. A local jazz restaurant lets you get $25 and use it on orders of $35 or more. So for about $20, DH and I get to eat out at a much nicer place than we usually do for $20, and the atmosphere is great!
I dont do the ones that are $25 on $50 orders. Usually the better ones ($25 off $25 orders) go really fast, so check at the beginning of the month if you want those.
2 Eric @ thriftyvillage // Dec 8, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Yes, there are restrictions, but my experiences with using restaurant.com certificates has been very positive. Not all of the restaurants have the restriction that excludes Friday and Saturday night, and I find that it’s generally pretty easy to exceed the minimum spending requirement to use the certificate. I look at them more as super-coupons rather than gift certificates, because it’s very true that you can’t use them on their own, but I’ll take a super coupon any day over not having one at all.
3 Rachel // Dec 8, 2009 at 3:17 pm
I use restaurant.com when they come out with the 90% off savings and then I load up on a handful of certificates for a local place my fiancé and I love. I don’t use the “$25 off $50 purchase” ones–I favor the “$10 off a $20 purchase” ones because where we tend to eat, that’s like getting two entreés for the price of one. We try to watch our money as much as possible, but I’m glad we’ve realized that when we don’t plan for the occasional meal out, they still happen and then we feel guilty later. This way, they’re half covered already and planned for, so it’s fun to go out and nowhere near as pricey in the end.
4 QL girl // Dec 9, 2009 at 9:13 am
I don’t really use it anymore exactly because of those restrictions. When I first started using it, they weren’t as restricting, but as time has gone by (and I guess more people are aware of it) they’ve gotten more ridiculous, and my favorite restaurants have dropped out. I’m not paying $25 bucks after the discount to eat at a restaurant I could care less about….I’d probably spend less than that for a normal meal at a restaurant I like more!
5 Thinkingaboutit // Dec 10, 2009 at 12:00 pm
I look at the offerings on restaurant.com every now and then but find the same problems you mention. Many closeby restaurants, but more than I want to spend in the first place.
6 LAL // Dec 13, 2009 at 10:24 am
I haven’t seen too many without the $25 off $50 restrictions in my area.
Eric, plus I notice we like to go out on Fri/Sat because we’re tired otherwise or my DH has class 3 nights a week until 9 pm, so that’s pretty much out.
Rachel, I actually prefer the entertainment book if i’m going to unplan meals.
QL Girl, got it precisely. Even with 90% off coupons, usually the $25+ tax and tip not included right? So it works out to $25 + $3 restaruant.com + Tax and Tip ($10) = $40 for a meal out? Ouch, the place better be darn good.
Thinkingaboutit, I do better with the enterainment book or something.
7 sfordinarygirl // Dec 14, 2009 at 1:51 am
Finally glad a blogger wrote about Restaurant.com being unfrugal. You hit the mark. In California, tax has gone up to 9.5%, not including SF where they tack on this extra fee to cover health insurance for workers, which means an extra 15% not including the tip and I hate that the minimum is higher than before. Most restaurants require you to spend at least $35, if not a minimum of $50.
I liked it better when the minimums were $20-25. Three of us went out to eat and after the coupon, the bill was $10. And we had leftovers! Also some of the restaurants don’t list their menu prices online leaving a lot of guessing and unknowns. We spent way over the minimum because we were trying to tally while ordering. And the food was so-s0.
8 LAL // Dec 14, 2009 at 9:41 am
For those prices I’m going somewhere that I like! Not trying somewhere I “might” like. Or I’m spending it on a couple of different cheaper restaurants.
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