Things to know: 1) They don't expire, ever. 2) You can give out the gift certificates you purchase as gifts to others or keep them for yourself, at which point you or your gift recipient can choose what eatery (or eateries, if they decide split it up) they want to use the gift certificate at. 3) It seems that most places exclude alcohol. Some don't say that on their offers, but I imagine they do, some say "DINNER ONLY", I assume that means food only. 4) If you get a $100 gift card, you can use that to get ten $10 credits, or four $25 credits, etc to any restaurant on their list (or put them all on the same restaurant) 5) You have to buy X amount of food at each place to use Y coupon. For example, $10 means you have to buy $20 worth of food, $50 coupon means you typically have to buy $100 worth of food. $100 coupon means you have to buy $200 worth of food. Etc etc. 6) You can only use them once a month at per restaurant
What's the difference really? You still have to spend at least their value out of pocket at the diner to use them.
You buy the gift certificate to restaurants.com, then redeem that from them for a coupon to the restaurant you want. You are buying credits from restaurant.com to spend on coupons to places to eat, basically.
With LOTS of terms. For example, if you want to use a $25 certificate, many restaurants will require you to spend $35 before tax/tip, they will add a mandatory 18% tip and will only allow the coupons to be used for dinner. Drinks don't count towards the total. Just be aware of the terms before you go to the restaurant and you will be fine. One problem I've run into is that some listed restaurants won't accept the certs. Calling in ahead to make sure the certs are accepted is a good idea, particularly if you are going somewhere far from home. With that said, I love the site and use it ALL the time. I'd recommend India's/Shehnai. They probably provide one of the best bang for the buck of all the restaurants out there.
For those of you who bought the $1000 cert, I'd recommend you break it into $25 increments to check out as many restaurants as possible. I'd maybe use the $100 only if I'm going as a repeat customer and as a large group. One other thing, these certs are usually NEVER valid for take-out. Never.
If you buy a $100 gift certificate to restaurant.com, you can use that to purchase smaller coupons to multiple restaurants. You could use it to buy 10 $25 coupons (those typically cost $10 on restaurants.com) to 10 different restaurants (or the same restaurant 10 times). However, if you wanted to give it as a gift, you could only give them the entire gift certificate at once, where they would be free to break it up how they want afterwards.
This almost seems too good to be true. $25 gift certificate to Mark's will only cost me $3? Can you use more than one at a time? Seems like there has to be a catch here that I'm missing. I see for Mark's it says you have to spend a minimum of $35. Does that mean I could have a $40 bill and only have to pay $15 of it?
So, did I do good, or no? I guess I'm going to have to get a little more familiar with restaurant.com.
A $25 coupon to mark's would cost you $15 credit @ restaurant.com, if you buy $100 credit to restaurant.com with the 80% off code, you are essentially paying $3 for that $25 coupon. (80% off the cost of that $15 you paid for the $25 coupon) Minimum 2 entrees. 18% Gratuity added prior to discount. Valid for Dinner, Dine In ONLY. Excludes: Other Offers/Promotions. So lets say you spend $40 at Mark's. $47.20 with tip. Minus $25 is $22.20, plus the $3 you spend on the coupon itself, is a $40 dinner for $25.20. *edit; crap, didn't factor in tax. oh well.
Pretty much. This is pretty much the minimum you would pay. Bill: $35 Tax: $2.89 (8.25%) Tip: $6.82 (18%) Total: $44.71 Coupon: -$23 (since it costs 2 bucks) Final: $21.71
LOL(I've never used that meme before in my life), I'll get you tomorrow. edit: I mean, i'll rep you tom., i'm on a 24 hour hiatus. Edit again: that picture is priceless, story of my life staring Keaton, funny.
When I hit view participating restaurants, most of them are in town and aren't very common. It would be hard to spend $1000 in coupons unless you live in the Heights, Galleria, or close to Westheimer. Is that the way you understand it?
There are tons of restaurants to choose from. You can easily spend $1000 over the course of a year with 3 other buddies. $250 per is more than doable. But yeah, most of the good restaurants are inside (or right outside) the loop. The key here is to stay right at the minimum for your voucher. The restaurants want you to go way over the minimum, thats how they benefit. Don't take a $25 cert for a group of four people etc. Print out a $50 cert.
