Restaurant.comReviews 866

Too many restrictions to be able to use. Got a $50 "gift certificate", have to spend a minimum of $100? Went the other day, had a $10 "gift certificate" that I had to spend $25 on. Ended up costing us $20 to save $10. Plus we had to pay a 18% gratuity to a "go up the counter, order your food, pick it up once your name is called" restaurant. Um, 18% gratuity for what service? Taking my order? Fuzzy math, horrible deal for consumers and restaurants.

I don't see why people are so upset with these coupons. The restrictions are listed and you need to read them, check out the menu and see if its worth it. As for tipping 18 % on the pre discounted price, you are ALWAYS suppose to do that when you use a coupon. Its like any other bargin you find, you have to check it out to make sure its worth it to you. 25 dollars off a min of 35 dollar food order is great for a family of four! Especially when you get that 25 dollar off coupon for only 3.50. Make sure you read the restrictions before purchase and you will be fine. I have never had anyone refuse one of the coupons. I seriously do not see why people are complaining. If you read what is clearly printed for you, you will be FINE! Enjoy the free money everyone.

I just bought a gift certificate for a friend that is unemployed. I know he likes to go out to eat but being out of a job he has given this up for the time being. Anyway, I carefully read the "restrictions" for the restaurants. Some of them are absurd. For example, if you buy a $75 gift certifcate which you only pay $30 for... The person has to eat a minimum of $150 worth of food. I FINALLY found a restaurant that required $35 and an 18% gratuity which is REASONABLE. I bought the gift certificate and immediately the link was e-mailed to me. To my surprise, AFTER I purchased it and went to print it I got a DIFFERENT restrcition. It said "this restaurant requires that there be a minimum order of $150." I was SO UPSET! Why would I give a gift certificate for $75 and then the person redeeming the gift has to spend $150? So much for a "free night out on me." I wrote to restaurant.com of what has JUST happened. I would NOT have bought this gift certificate with that restriction. Be careful with this website. EVEN READING the small print BEFORE purchase, does not mean the small print won't change AFTER you buy it. I feel SCREWED... to give them some credit... I have yet to hear their response...

With family and holidays, I thought I'd try to make dining out less stressful with discount coupons from Restaurant.com WRONG! The site's practices are deceitful! It lists minimum restrictions like $35 minimum order for $25 coupon and 18-20% gratuity added before final tally. Wait until you have paid for it and try to print your coupons. Then you find out all the the other bull$#*!! Like 1 coupon per month, per table, per party. And if you have a larger party and sit on different tables, even if you get separate bills, you can only apply one coupon. It works out, I guess, if you live in the area so you can use your other coupons eventually. The bottom line, you are not really saving as you think you will. Like for Lobstergram, your $25 coupon is good for $95 food order and only if you call directly as it is not honored online. Definitely not worth the aggravation but mostly, I'm turned off by Restaurant.com's underhandedness.

Fool me once shame on me but never again. I bought the Restaurant.com gift certificates on the recommendation of a friend. As another reviewer pointed out, these are NOT gift certificates. They are discount coupons. My first disappointment/frustration came when I began looking for restaurants where I could use them. If all you eat at are fast food/low-end chicken or mexican food joints then you're all set. When I did find a place I liked that was part of the program, I discovered you don't just take your cute little plastic gift card in to be swiped at the time of the meal. You have to go to the site and then print out a coupon to take with you. That's fine if I'm at Red Robin but I was a bit uncomfortable slapping a coupon down on the table of an upscale eatery. And yes, the exclusions on these coupons are OUT OF CONTROL! I have used only one of the three $100 cards I purchased. I just don't have the energy to jump through the hoops that Restaurant.com requires. On the bright side, I only paid $16 for them so I'm not out a significant amount of cash.

In my opinion, great for families with young kids trying to save a few bucks and are willing to do what they have to for the savings. Not for couples or individuals looking to save on a high-end dinner.

FRAUD! RESTAURANT.COM is a FRAUD! I have bought a few certificates from them and none of the restaurants seem to honor them. I found out that the resturants are tricked into long term contracts with the compnay when they are told that they may cancel at any time. The restaurants do not receive any compensation for the coupons sold. The restaurants are just promised that they will receive loyal costumers by signing a month- to- month contract. W

When the restaurants call the fraudulent company to cancel, the. Com tells them that they need to pay the. Com a couple thousand in cancellation fees and that they need to continue valuing the coupons or they will be sued.

RESTAURANT.COM is FRAUD!

I've had mixed experiences. Though I thoroughly read the terms and conditions, my last experience was bad. After emailing and phoning restaurant.com to double-check that this specific restaurant participated in their program, I bought a certificate, only to find out after the meal that the restaurant would not accept the certificate. It turns out that the establishment's owner was in a lawsuit with restaurant.com. Not only was it embarrassing, I ended up spending unexpected extra money.

I believe that Restaurant.com should take down any restaurant with which it is legally wrangling. The consumer ends up being the one hurt. And the restaurant gets in a pickle, too. As far as I'm concerned, since I adhered to all the terms and double-checked with restaurant.com on the restaurant's participation and since they did not remove the restaurant from their site after complaints and a lawsuit began, the management at restaurant.com is at fault…especially if they refuse to reimburse my out-of-pocket meal costs (from what I've heard, that won't happen).

If I were to ever buy a certificate from them again, I'd certainly phone the restaurant beforehand. However, in my location, most of the restaurants appear to be on the low end, so that is not likely to happen. The restaurant in the lawsuit is more upscale.

BE VERY, VERY CAREFUL IN BUYING FROM THIS SITE. There is a slight possibility it may save you money if you are buying $100 or more in food from a restaurant. But see the minimum purchase bait and switch described below. Chances are that whenever you see a minimum purchase less than $100 in the description of a restaurant, your certificate will be printed with a minimum purchase of $100. Then add 18% tip and that it may not apply to anything but food and you may need a good calculator to see if it is saving you money.

Frequently a restaurant is advertised on its website with one minimum purchase but after you buy the certificate the minimum purchase increases to $100. Example on 10/24/10 Japanese Blossom in Chico CA is advertised with a "Minimum purchase of $35" but the certificate you buy has "Minimum purchase $100"

AWFUL! There is no mention that you or the unlucky recipient of your gift will be required to compete for a limited number of redemption certificates. Which means the restaurants that you intended to use the certificates for (the good ones) are untouchable, although the customer service rep gave me a good tip after refusing to refund my money. Attempt to redeem certificates@ beginning of the month between 1am and 7am. Also the very limiting exclusions and requirements of each restaurant are not provided when purchasing. DON'T DO IT!

It is a ripoff! Most of the restaurants on the site do not honor the certificates. Some restaurants have even offered me a discount just for my inconvenience, but still would not honor the coupons. After some "words" with the managers, I come to find out that Restaurant.com scams most of these restaurants into an free ad deal where the restaurant would be able to control the terms of the coupons, then Restaurant.com does not allow the restaurant to make any changes thereby voiding the contract terms. The restaurants drop out of the program but Restaurant.com will continue to sell the coupons knowing the restaurant will not honor them. My strategy is to call the restaurant first and ask if they still honor the coupons, some say no, most say yes. Buy only the coupons from restaurants that will say yes without hesitation! Restaurant.com will not give you a refund! I learned that the hard way. Don't blame the restaurants from dropping out, seems like this company is alittle shaddy!

MAKE SURE YOU READ THE SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS WITH EACH GIFT CERTIFICATE! & MAKE SURE TO CALCULATE WHAT YOUR SAVINGS WOULD BE!

This site is great as long as you make sure to read the conditions for each certificate, and if you're able to do the math on how much you're really saving.

Here's the gist of this site:
You're buying coupons to use when you dine at a particular restaurant. The caveat is that the coupon can't be used unless the special instructions are met.

Example:
$25 Gift Certificate (purchased@ restaurant.com for $2)
Special Instructions: Minimum purchase of $50.18% Gratuity added prior to discount.

That minimum $50 purchase DOES NOT include your certificate. You must spend that $50 in the restaurant out of pocket.

So, let's do the math:
$50 minimum + $25 certificate = $75 bill
18% gratuity on bill= $13.50
$13.50 gratuity + $50 minimum = $63.50 you spend at the restaurant USING the certificate.
Total savings of about 15% off a $75 bill (note: i didn't even include the $2 spent to buy the certificate)

So... in reality, you're really only saving about 10%-15% with these coupons.

Most of the restaurants have a high minimum purchase, and the more the certificate is, the higher the minimum purchase. Most of them also require at least an 18% gratuity charge.

But sometimes if you're lucky, you can find a restaurant that only requires a $20 minimum purchase to use the gift certificate. Those are usually the ones I go for.

But if you're lucky, you can sometimes find restaurants that have don't have very complicated instructions

Same old story - I bought 4 certificates... two were refused by a restaurant, and one restaurant had gone out of business. When I could get through to restaurant.com on the phone (which was a huge challenge each time, logging at least a half an hour onto my phone bill with each try) they offered me a replacement certificate to another one of their restaurants.

I simply trashed them - it's not worth the effort for me to go out of my way to one of their listed restaurants and then be embarrassed that they don't accept the certificate. They know that those restaurants aren't involved in the program anymore and they're still selling them - that's not honorable. What ever happened to integrity?

Upon reading the existing reviews of Restaurant.com, I felt I had to chime in.

Restaurant.com offers great coupons that get you great discounts at some great restaurants. The single most important thing you need to know is that you need to read the all usage requirements of each coupon ahead of time since they are not all the same. If you do not follow the usage requirements, many restaurants will not accept your coupon but I would say each instance of that is because people are not fully aware of the conditions and usage requirements for the coupon. (Examples of usage requirements include which meal [lunch/dinner], how many entrees required, spending requirements, once a month per restaurant, etc.) Be sure also to mention to your server that you are going to be using a Restaurant.com coupon before you order.

Other thing to know about Restaurant.com coupons is that you should not be paying more than $2-$3 per $25 coupon. There are always sales and coupon codes that allow you to pay those prices. If you sign up for their mailing list they will constantly send you sale notifications (although the frequency of the Restaurant.com email mailings can border on spam so that's something to watch out for).

The times I have used Restaurant.com coupons at restaurants, they have all been excited about them and welcomed the business with open arms. My favorite place to use this coupon is at Strip Steak at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. One time, we booked 2 tables of 2 since we had 4 people and 2 coupons to use (requirement is $50 spent or 2 entrees ordered per $25 coupon, I forget). Strip Steak allowed us to just have a table for 4 and use 2 coupons together as long as we met the requirements for each coupon. It was awfully nice of them and allowed us to have a great meal for a good deal and enjoy everyone's company.

In summary, READ THE REQUIREMENTS and follow them. NEVER PAY TOO MUCH for the coupons. ENJOY THE SAVINGS.

I have mixed feelings about restaurant.com... I bought 800.00 for 64 dollars so it could have been worse. I think I'd be upset if I'd spent anymore money. I'm disapointed because these aren't really gift certificates but more like coupons. With 800.00 worth you learn really fast what you can and can't do... For exAmple, when you redeem the certificates, you find out that you can only use one per visit, so unlike a gift card, you aren't able to use it in any incraments. Also, the restuarants are not the best quality and you do have to spend more money than you normally would... so buyer beware and read the fine print... On one hand you'll support small businesses, but I find the whole site to be misleading.

I am surprised to read previous ratings. My experience at least at 10 different restaurants have been different and excellent!

I have enjoyed every single one of them, no hassle, no differentiation in product or service as they do not know you will be using the discounted certificate until much after food is digested! I love restaurant.com!

What a great way to try out different places, different cuisines, different entertainment...