<p>I bought some Coupons on restaurant.com. I paid about $20 for $500 worth of coupons. I thought I had a good deal because those coupons are 2 for 1. For every x dolloar worth of coupons, you can order twice as much from the menu. Well, I have been visting some of the listed and did not find the food is as expected, its not the price, but the queality.</p>
<p>For example, we ate at a Thai restaurant using the coupon last night, the rule is that you have to order $45 to use that $25 coupon. The food came and the portin was small and the quality is mediocre. Here is how the bill came out, based on the restaurant.com rule.</p>
<p>Total bill $45+ 20% tip(fixed rate) =$54
Less $25 coupond=$29
plus %8.5% tax = $31.46</p>
<p>We ate at the Cheesecake Factory Today and the total bill is about $50(I did not pay the full 20% tip), but the quality and quantity of food is much higher. </p>
<p>Suppose the restaurants on the restaurant.com did not pad their food on the menu, my Thai restaurunt experience is over priced by a huge margin.</p>
<p>What are your experiences?</p>
<p>We have used restaurant.com coupons. It’s no different than trying a new restaurant without the gift certificate… Some are great and some are so so. we are happy to try new places with a bit of a savings.</p>
<p>what I am seeing is that the web site has no control of the quality, they just take everyone into the arms.</p>
<p>Why would you expect a web site that sell coupons to have control over the food at hundreds of restaurants? That is absurd. You are making a financial transaction with them nothing more. </p>
<p>Research restaurants before you buy a coupon or go. Yelp.com, tripadvisor.com, etc</p>
<p>I have considered using Restaurant.com coupons quite a few times in the past, but have always been leary because the restaurants are generally not well known and oftentimes appear to be hurting for business. </p>
<p>They also tend to have a lot of rules. Sunday through Thursday only, no alcoholic beverages, must spend xxx total, one coupon per table, etc, etc. It really amounts to a 20% discount, which isn’t great in my opinion. Not worth buying.</p>
<p>I think you just have to be choosy in terms of making restaurant.com “cheaper”. Of course the objective is/might be to try out new to you restaurants. But when I buy one of the important things I look for is the total you must spend AND to buy when it’s a “$1” day. If I buy a $25 gift certificate for $1 and the minimum I must spend is $35 then at the very least I am spending $11 for a $35 meal. That sounds pretty good to me. And when I go to that restaurant I’m going to aim to have our total not exceed much more than $40. We love to eat, but don’t overeat anywhere and we don’t drink so that helps keep our expenses down.</p>
<p>Actually, some of restaurant.com certificates I have purchased have been for well known, and established places.</p>
<p>You could choose a restaurant out of the yellow pages…and have good or bad results. You could get a recommendation from your best friend…and HATE the place yourselves. Restaurant.com does not do quality control because quite frankly, while YOU may not like a place, others may think its great.</p>
<p>Folks have different tastes…just saying</p>
<p>LOVE restaurant.com.</p>
<p>I’ve used them for years. We live in a suburban area with zillions of participating restaurants. Some small mom and pop places , and some large more formal ones.
LOTS of great ethnic places.</p>
<p>I wait for the $1 or $2 coupon days and buy several. Yeah the rules are annoying but it’s worth the savings. DH and I can have a terrific meal on an uncrowded weeknight for about $22 or so.</p>
<p>I bought coupons on the ground that some of the area restaurants known be good were on the web site. But when I try to buy coupons from them after a while, they all disappeared.</p>
<p>I have had great luck with restaurant dot com over the years. My only real complaint is that my favorite restaurants tend to sell out quickly, or to stop participating.</p>