Using Restaurant.com to Try New Places

We frequent restaurants often (probably too often, but that’s for another post) so I am always looking the best deal when dining out. Through a “friend of a friend” sort of connection, I heard about www.restaurant.com/. At first, I was skeptical when I heard about $25 gift certificates for local restaurants sold for $10, $5 or even $3. It sounded too good to be true, and we all know how that goes.

I went to the website and while there were some good deals, like $15 for a $25 gift certificate, I didn’t see anything close to what I had been hearing about. For some mysterious reason, I signed up to get email updates from Restaurant.com--something I rarely do.

At first I ignored the emails that showed up in my inbox every week or so promising discounts of 60 percent and 70 percent off selected gift certificates if you entered in the “secret” promo code. When I got one advertising 80 percent off, I went into bargain hunter mode and decided to check into it a little further.

On the home page, entering in my zip code didn’t locate any restaurants in Gig Harbor. But there were quite a few for Port Orchard, Tacoma, Lakewood and so on. I selected four restaurants I was interested in and added them to my shopping cart. I entered in the promo code from my email, and it indicated which ones were available for the discount.

Of the four I initially chose, only one was discounted. I was offered a $25 gift certificate for $3.50 for the . I have been going to the two Casa Mia’s in Olympia for 20+ years and have been very happy with my experiences so I was excited to try the Lakewood location.

I proceeded through the checkout process carefully, waiting for an unexpected service charge or fee to pop up. It never did and my transaction was completed quickly. The printable certificates were to be emailed to me shortly.

I waited for the email, anticipating all the fine print and restrictions that were sure to apply. When it arrived I easily printed it out and read it carefully, sure there would be some catch.

There were some restrictions but they are clearly stated. Later, I discovered that you can review these before purchase  I found most certificates to have the following restrictions but they can vary so be sure to read them each time:

-          Minimum purchase of $35

-          For dine-in only

-          18 percent gratuity added prior to discount

-          Only one certificate may be redeemed per party, per month

-          Not valid for taxes, tips, merchandise or prior balances

-          Cannot be combined with other certificates or coupons

I was quite frankly surprised to see that there weren’t restrictions on the day of the week you could use them, at least on the ones I have purchased. It’s common for weekends or holidays to be excluded from special offers. Also, the certificates do not expire.

Our dinner at Casa Mia in Lakewood was great, and we found the food and service to be on par with our Olympia experiences. It turns out our server was the owner of the restaurant. She shared with us that she finds these certificates an effective tool to get new people to try the restaurant. That was certainly true for us. We drove to Lakewood specifically to have dinner there and probably wouldn’t have if not for the gift certificate.

In reading some reviews by others who have used these, I found several who felt that the automatic 18 percent gratuity was a problem. They thought that the server purposely provided poor service because they knew that the tip was guaranteed. In our case, we didn’t produce the certificate until it came time for the bill. There is no requirement I could find for notifying them at the beginning of your meal that you intend to use one. Problem solved!

These are a great way to try out some new dining establishments. We often find ourselves stuck in a rut of going to the same handful of restaurants. I just purchased three more $25 certificates for three different places--this time for a grand total of $7 after the discount. It takes a little time and effort to ferret out the good deals, but maybe we’ll find some new favorites to add to our restaurant rotation.