You might remember that my buddy Christy from Haphazardly Hobbying is a recent convert to Restaurant.com. She agreed to do a few posts here on I Heart Publix talking about her experiences using their gift certificates – and I must say this most recent dinner out looks delicious! Here’s what Christy has to say:
For the third of my four nights out on Restaurant.com, I took my husband to one of our favorite restaurants in town, Northwest Grille. I guess we’re not the only ones that love this place – I’ve gone online to get a gift certificate for them twice before (toward the middle/end of the month) and they’ve been sold out. After they were sold out for the second time, I wised up and wrote myself a note on my calendar to check the site on the first of the month. That did the trick – the certificates were available and I snatched one up quickly to save for later.
A couple weeks later, my husband and I wanted to go out to celebrate some great news we had just gotten, and Northwest Grille was just the place – especially with $25 off! Since we were celebrating, we splurged and got drinks (it was $5 martini night, yum!), an appetizer, our meals, and we even stayed for coffee and dessert.
Left to Right: Crabcake-Stuffed Shrimp, Ceasar Salad, Seafood Linguine, and Broiled Scallops. Not pictured: the Peanut Butter Pie we shared over coffee.
Everything was fantastic (as always – we heart you Northwest Grille!) and it was so nice to know that even though we were splurging, we were going to save that $25. Usually I would be worrying about the bill in the back of my mind, but with that gift certificate in my pocket I was confident that we wouldn’t blow the budget. After 20% tip, we paid just under $70 for a meal that otherwise would have cost us almost $100. More importantly, though, my husband and I got a great night out less expensively thanks to Restaurant.com!
You can splurge, too – right now Restaurant.com is offering 80% off their gift certificates when you use the code GIVE at checkout through 11/15!
This year we are giving gift bcertificates from this website. Our budget looks much better this year.
My one comment about Restaurant.com is to always, always, always check with the restaurant you are planning to buy the certificate for and make sure they will take them. I have been burned several times by ordering through Restaurant.com and then the restaurant not being willing to take the gift certificate. Just do your research before you buy….
@Christy ~ Northwest Grille in Florida, as in Gainesville’s Northwest Grill? I can never score those on restaurant.com, as I only buy at the 80% off price (going through upromise.com, so I get college savings for my son as well). But I have occasionally scored certificates to their sister restaurant, Joe’s Place. Not as extravagant as Northwest Grille, but not as pricy, either.
Have you tried buying the generic restaurant.com $25 gift certificate at 80% off and then redeeming the general GC for Northwest Grille prior to going? It is something I’ve considered trying, but haven’t done so yet.
I was worried at first about buying $50 GC’s thinking we could not spend that much but I came up with a solution – if we get 2 dinners we usually have enough to purchase a bottle of wine. Drink 1-2 glasses with the meal and take the rest of the bottle home (with the new laws they just seal the corked bottle or staple in a bag and hang your receipt so no open container laws would take affect) – wahlah! a nice treat for the next evening! Thanks.. Restaurant.com
Just scored $135 worth of cuisine for only $12. Holy bird! Thanks for this heads up! :^D