Anyone ever used restaurant.com?
 

I ask this because my husband came home from work the other day and had printed out (7) gift certificates from this site. You can get these discounted, but I am wondering about the fact that you print them out yourself on regular paper. They are not like a gift card and they have many stipulations.

I was wondering if anyone ever used these gift certificates and if you ever had any problems with them?

yes and no :)

It's a great deal when they have their 70% off sale...$3 for a $25 certificate! The only thing is that they come with restrictions (typically, you have to spend double the value of the certificate and it only works Sun-Thur, but the restrictions vary based on restaurant)

Yes we got them all 70% off and were going to give them as gifts.

Most of the certificates say spend $35 get $25 off. That is a pretty decent deal. I just wanted to make sure that no one got hassled using these at restaurants before I gave them out.

Yes, a friend here uses them all the time. I don't at all for some reason, mostly because the restaurants I want to go to aren't listed.

I've used them multiple times -

The best ones are when you get the discounted ones;

75% of the ones I've purchased were $1.50 for $10 certificate

Works perfectly, just ask the waiter/waitress up front to make sure they still accept them (we haven't been turned down once yet)

ONE MAJOR DISCLAIMER: SecretMethod already mentioned it, but it's very important: check the restrictions on minimum purchase.

We went to this one restaurant where it was "$25 off a $35 purchase"

Well, my wife and I went and it turns out the restaurant was very inexpensive - great food, but cheap. We had to bloat/glutton/overstuff/pig out in order to eat $35 worth of stuff - then, after tax, the total was like $37 - then a tip made it like $43.00 -

Take the $25 certificate away from $43 and you get $18. Factor in the coupon cost (I think we paid $5 for that one) and the total is back up to $23. My point?

We could have eaten there for $12 quite easily. So the coupon made us worse off.


I guess the moral of the story is: if you purchase the coupons that have a $35 (or higher) minimum purchase requirement, make sure you take 4 people to the restaurant :)

Otherwise, a great deal. The $1.50 for $10 credit is an amazing deal.

Yeah, the places I've used it at tend to be more expensive...our way of eating at a more expensive restaurant for a little less :) Definitely something to keep in mind.

I never heard of it before this post, so I just checked out my area (which has a hell of a lot of restaurants) and there is only a couple on a very long list I've heard of, I only ate at 2 of them and both are not very good.

I think its still a great deal, but my guess is that if you need to be on a coupon site, there is a reason. My guess is it would be good to find a new restaurant looking for exposure, but if they have been around a long time, be careful. 10 bucks off a bad meal is still a bad meal.

I've used it 3 times now. Works like a charm. Be wary of the minimum purchase requirements though...you'll end up spending the same amount as you usually would just trying to get to the minimum.

The other day TechBargains.com had 60% coupons on ALL Restaurant.com coupons. I went and found a restaurant near here that had $15 coupons. The grand total was $1.00 per $15.00. So I bought 3 of them for $3.00. We went to the restaurant and ordered a regular meal which came out to be $15.60. My total was $.60, plus the dollar I paid so $1.60. Plus tip was $4.60. A philly cheesesteak plus a calzone plus fries and 2 drinks for $4.60 including tip is a steal if you ask me. :thumbsup:

Just make sure when using the coupon that you don't spend over the minimum amount and that if it has a huge minimum amount, bring 3-4 people with you.

I too had never heard of them before this thread.

I do have a question for those that have used them. According to the terms, you are only supposed to use 1 certificate at a time, but it sounds like some have used multiples at one. Is this the case? And has there ever been an issue doing so?

I've never used more than one coupon at once. The Techbargains.com is an internet coupon, meaning when you check out at restaurant.com you put in the coupon code, then it's 60% off, then you print out the actual restaurant.com coupon.

I've used them a few times. As long as you're aware of the restrictions printed on the ticket, and that you give the ticket to the waiter/waitress BEFORE ordering, it's all good! Like Lasereth, I remember seeing at times discounted coupons from them on techbargains.com, which made for a better discount.

Nothing in Denver is expensive enough to need a coupon. And if it is... the food is horrible.