Comments on: Get a $25 restaurant gift certificate for $3

Browse Restaurant.com's list of local eateries, then scoop up gift certificates on the cheap.

[lowthgs]

This always sounds good, until I recall that there are only three participating "restaurants" within 30 miles of me -- none in parts of town I'd like to venture and with the types of menus that would make it hard to spend as much as $25.

[rickbroida]

Bummer! I'm lucky in that there are dozens of restaurants within 15 miles -- some of which I actually like! :)

[superstu321]

Awesome Rick thank you so much! I love the blog read it every day. This maybe one of my favorite thing so far!

[rickbroida]

I'm happy you're happy! If you'd please tell 50,000 of your closest friends about the blog, that'd be great. :)

[hightechnh]

I use these coupons all the time.....with no problems.

Just be careful and read everything during the purchasing process. Restaurant.com used to have shopping essentials ad that offered a free certificate if you clicked on it. It was a major pain in the butt and caused a lot of bad publicity for Restaurant.com.

If you're careful....read everything...and understand what you are buying....their certificates are a great deal!

[xenoxero]

I can't find a single $25 certificate for $3, they are all $10. Lame.

[rickbroida]

As noted in the post, you need to enter the coupon code at checkout in order to get the $3 price. :)

[brianzajac]

I've used Restaurant.com gift certificates and they've worked out quite well. I've also found that they do an 80% off ($2 GC) a few times a year.

[jamesmartingorman]

I just purchased 4 @ $25 (all the same restaurant) and the grand total was $12 so thats pretty awesome! The restaurant I chose had these special instructions: min purchase at least $35, 18% gratuity. I thought those were good terms because other places had higher minimums and no alcohol. Here is my gripe, after you make the purchase and print out the certificate, there is another LONG list of T&C's on the certificate itself that the customer is not made aware of until after the purchase. So for all you readers here is what else you might want to know before purchasing...

- Limit 1 redemption per party, per month, per restaurant
- Limit 1 gift certificate per redemption. Only one gift certificate can be used per party, even if the party is seated at separate tables and/or receives more than one check
- Use of gift certificates for alcoholic beverages is at the sole discretion of the merchant
- Gift certificates can not be combined
- Can not be used for tax, tip or prior balance
- Valid for parties of two or more unless otherwise stated
- The issuing of restaurant credit is at the sole discretion of the merchant
- Valid for dine in only unless otherwise stated

There are about 10 more but I don't feel like typing them out. I listed the major ones. Just an FYI before you buy.

[Magicland]

Restaurant.com gift certificates are great, especially when they're discounted. One of the nice things is you can (usually) check out the place's menu before deciding whether to buy.

[dyre42]

I've bought three of them so far and had no problems whatsoever. They definitely get you more bang for your buck.

[she_loves_the_tech]

please stop posting this!

[traveler2530]

These coupons are a good value ONLY if you want to go to the restaurant anyway, and can work within the constraints of the coupon. Different restaurants have different rules for usage. This is what I've seen as common for several restaurants in my area:

Example: To use a $35 coupon must spend $50 not including drinks & tax, good only Mon-Thurs, full priced entrees at dinner time 5:00-9:00 PM, server tip of 20% automatically added to full menu price, including drinks and desserts. We had two entrees and two salads, one soup and one dessert for $55, plus 20% is $66 plus 6% tax on $55 = $69.30, minus $35 is $34.30. Plus the 10% we paid for the $35 coupon the REAL total for our two dinners is about $34.30 + $3.50 =~~ $38.

Well, wifey and me usually have dinner specials and we eat sparingly. Typical is splitting one entree, salad, and dessert. We usually get EXACTLY what we want at the restaurant I'm talking about for this example. Including tax and tip we've never spent over $30 inc tax/tip when we get what we want when we want it.

It's the same at the three restaurants we've visited with the $120 in coupons we bought last December for $12.

Repeating myself, these coupons are good ONLY IF you would go to the restaurant anyway, and follow the rules that cost more than people would often spend. If you think you can try a good restaurant at a great price that you normally wouldn't visit, and get what you want at a GREAT PRICE, think again.

To us, they are not a good deal. We won't buy any more of these from restaurant.com again.

[Slooze]

Evidently there are no participating restaurants in my <i>entire state</i>! How lame is that, Restaurant.com?!

[kastmaster]

Darnit, it looks like I am too late. This coupon for discounted gift certificates has already expired :( :( :(

I am so sad! It has a lot of restaurants that I liked. Oh well, maybe another time.
Keep us posted on this one, Rick!

Just found out about your blog today. I love it! ;-)

[lordsong]

Hey Rick -

There were DOZENS of restaurants we would frequent in our area! Our daughter's birthday is Saturday, and she wanted to go to a restaurant that participates with restaurant.com. This would save us a bundle! However, I just tried to utilize it and restaurant.com's site said, "The discount code you used has expired". Do you have a currently valid code?

Thanks for being the Cheapkate!