Using Restaurant.com – my tips

I’m sure you’ve heard of Restaurant.com – you can purchase $25 gift certificates to local restaurants for $10.   Well, that’s what they advertise, but if you’ve been around for awhile, you know that you can ALWAYS find a coupon code to get them for even less!

Here’s how it works: you pay for the certificate online and they’ll send you an email with the certificate.   You just print it and take it to the restaurant!   It’s simple, but you have to know there’s some strategy about using them, so here’s a couple of tips:

The gift certificate value is $25, but most restaurants have a minimum purchase requirement of $35, so you will have to pay at least $10 at the restaurant plus whatever you spent on the certificate – in this care $3, so $13 total, a savings of 37%.

To get the best deal, you want to get your total as close to $35 as possible or your savings percentage starts to go down.   At restaurants with $15 entrees, this isn’t too hard, but I’ve used certificate at restaurants where the entrees were $7 and it was HARD to get a total up to the minimum for just two people.   I’d suggest looking at the restaurant’s menu online if they have it posted, and kind of strategizing what you’re going to order to (1), make sure you can actually order $35 worth of food without having to order two entrees per person and (2) to see if you can map out exactly what you’re going to order to see if you can get it right at the minimum amount.

Restaurants can set a limit to how many certificates they want to sell in the month, so sometimes popular restaurants sell out fast.   If you’re looking at the list now and see one that you want that’s sold out, try checking back early next month.   Of course, the coupon codes get better as the month goes on, so you might have to use a code for 50% off instead of one for 70% in order to buy it before it sells out.

As a former server, I urge you to tip based on the amount of the meal before the certificate – it takes just as much effort to serve you even if you’re paying less!

Here’s a list of the Colorado Springs area restaurants that participate in Restaurant.com‘s program:

Briarhurst Manor Estate
Dale Street Bistro Cafe
Edelweiss Restaurant
Fine Asian Cuisine
Hatch Cover
Jake and Telly’s Greek Cuisine and Wine Bar
Joseph’s Fine Dining
Little Nepal
Mona Lisa Fondue
Mozaic Restaurant
Nosh 121
Pizzeria Rustica
Steaksmith
Ted’s Montana Grill
The Airplane Restaurant
Tina’s Place
Tomo Sushi
Walter’s Bistro

We don’t each out much at all, but I’d love to try Nosh and Pizzeria Rustica soon – I’ve heard good things about both of them! We’ve been to Jake and Telly’s and it was quite good.