Confessions of a Consumer: Dining Out for Less

As someone who loves good food but is lacking in both skills and motivation when it comes to cooking, I tend to go out to eat probably more than I should. Alas, I have found at least one way to lessen the blow to my wallet. Restaurant.com is a website I’ve come to love, offering gift certificates to various restaurants around the city at a discounted price. In my opinion, it has way better deals than LivingSocial or Groupon and, as its name would indicate, focuses specifically on restaurant deals.  

What’s great about restaurant.com is that they have ‘sales’ all the time, promoted by email, which often offer as much as 80 percent off your entire order. You can expect the opportunity to purchase certificates valued at $25 for only $2 every couple of weeks. A while back, I bought about five different certificates and have been taking them out of the vault every so often for both casual and fancier outings. That’s the other thing—they don’t expire.    Most recently, I redeemed a certificate at Rue 127, an upscale but quaint new American bistro located in a shotgun house in Mid City. For a large appetizer, two entrees and a coffee, my boyfriend and I paid $50 on top of the gift certificate (this was already including tax and tip). For an upscale restaurant, $26 a person isn’t too bad—the certificate made it affordable for a special occasion.  

On the more casual end, restaurant.com’s options include (amongst many others): Sukho Thai (both the Uptown and Marigny locations), Lola’s in Mid City, Hoshun in the Lower Garden District, and Tulane haunts such as Fresco Café and Café Freret. Most of the certificates require a minimum spending amount (usually $35 with a $25 certificate), but chances are if you are going out to dinner with a few people, you can get away with spending about $5-10 on a full meal. Not too shabby.   The only cons I can think of are that: 1) Some restaurants only make their certificates valid Sunday-Thursday. Luckily, this is clearly printed in the restaurant information before you buy the certificate. 2) The website design leaves something to be desired, but for a medium-sized city like New Orleans, it’s not too difficult to navigate the page (now, trying to find a good restaurant to eat at in New York… yeesh, that’s another story).  

If you haven’t tried out yet, I highly recommend giving it a shot!