Restaurant.com. Review

In July I received a Simple Thanks award. It came as an on-line gift certificate from Restaurant.com. It was a lovely surprise and a welcome treat. It allowed us a $25.00 discount on a meal. It was available from several restaurants in our area. We chose Pasta Cucina and we were thrilled with the choice.

You, too, can gift someone tthrough Restaurant.com. Just go to their web site, pick an amount you wish to give, and ask them to send an email to the person of choice. For a $25.00 gift certificate your credit card will be charged $10.00. The recipient simply goes to the link provided in their email, selects a restaurant that will accept the gift certificate, and prints out a coupon. Presenting it to the restaurant when you are seated is recommended so they can call and confirm the coupon's validity. If you see a restaurant in your area you would like to try, gift yourself. We have done that with a $10.00 gift certificate (cost $3.00) to a local place we had not yet tried.

There are a few limiting factors. There is usually a minimum charge for a meal using the coupon. For our $25.00 coupon there was a minimum meal charge of $35.00. For the $10.00 one there was a minimum charge of $25.00. The choices of restaurants can be pretty limited depending on where in the country your friend (or you) live. In major cities this should not be a problem, but in rural areas and small towns some travel might be required for use.

We found using the certificate to be easy and buying one to be nearly painless.