Restaurant.com

Didn't know you had to be a lawyer to use this site. While it will CLEARLY displays the mimimal amount of Purchase from the restaurant, it DOESN'T CLEARLY inform you that you can only use a segment of a certificate. For THAT you have to thoroughly read & understand the lengthy terms and conditions. Imagine my surprise, disappointment & dismay when, after ordering food for my family - I was only able to use $10 of a $50 certificate. Not only was it embarrassing - the money spent could have been used at the supermarket & I would have prepared the meal myself!

Do not, do not, do not, do not, DO NOT purchase anything from restaurant.com. In the city where I live (Denton TX) there are only 5 restaurants that are listed as "participating restaurants". But when you call them up and ask them about it, they either never heard of it, no longer participating, or account not active. But the website still shows them as active. This website needs to shut down immediately. The customer service lady I talked to was quick to refund the money that was spent on gift certificates but what's the point if you have a $100 gift card that can't be used? It looks like sure-fire scam to me. I'm hesitant on trying these in other nearby cities. I couldn't find a recent "bad review" video on YouTube. (Check for one soon - I might provide that one). All of the good review videos are from 5-10 years ago. If there was something below zero stars, it wouldn't be good enough for this website. STAY AWAY! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! Footnote: this website would not allow me to submit a zero star rating, so I'll give it one, but believe me: it's WAY below that...

Bummed.
I first bought some certificates in April, 2010 and could honestly say that I've only "used" them twice. Each time, worked great. But, I missed the fine print on some purchases, so I contacted them back in 2010 and they "gladly" gave me a credit, which they said would never expire. Yes, I have the emails as proof.

My $175 credit has been on their books for the last 5 years because I just can't find anything I want to use it on. There are tons of limitations on many of the restaurants that are listed.

One restaurant told me that they kept telling restaurants.com that they wanted to cancel their offer, (but it still appears) so they wouldn't/couldn't honor my certificate.

I emailed them three times to try to receive my $175 back. After all, they've had it for 5 years! But... no response to date. So I'm giving it one more try to get a response from them and mailing them a copy of my email to their US mailing address.

Then, I Googled "is restaurants.com legit"... and got here. Boo. Guess that was an expensive dinner we had back in 2010. Not happy.

Like everyone else I work hard for the money! Like to save when can to go out to dinner and save a few bucks if I can, perhaps going out a little more often. NOT ALWAYS THE CASE WITH RESTURANT DOT COM! I personally think you should be sued! I bought a number of these coupons that turned out useless. You don't return messages, emails and I would like my MONEY BACK! MY MONEY not another useless certificate or coupon. Either give us our money back or weed out the resturants that don't accept the coupons; probably because they never agreed to accept your DEALS in the first place! I will give you credit: some do accept your coupons but a NUMBER DO NOT! So we are taking a chance and then throwing hard earned money away if they do not accept! Who are you to take my money?

Never had a problem personally. Some of the "restaurants" on there, though, are dive bars, sleazy night clubs and bowling alleys. Ugh. Couldn't pay me to eat there, probably safer not to. Not the web site's fault, I guess, as far as who wants to participate, BUT when you're browsing for a date night place or decent dinner you may mistakenly think that some of the places on here are appropriate for that when they aren't. I wouldn't set foot in some of these places for fear of my safety, let alone order food. Just know or research the place you're buying a certificate for before purchasing. Also, disappointingly a lot of the decent places don't accept promo codes (the ones where u get them for $2) so the deals they email you all the time, and I mean ALL THE TIME (annoyingly often), are basically unusable since the places I'd actually go don't accept them. You can still buy them discounted, but not 98% off or whatever the promo code discount is. This is the experience in my area, at least.

Well - i have to say i have used restaurant.com for many years - recently - however - i was given the opportunity to understand how this works - bottom line - restaurants HATE RESTAURANT.COM -? Very strange - but they hate the process - the certs etc - DO NOT BUY CERTS FROM RESTAURANT.COM - someone has to take responsibility for the issues going on - BUT BEWARE - 60 - 80 % off is still a 40-20% ripoff - go ahead and buy the certificates - they are WORTHLESS - and only contribute to the owners of RESTAURANTS.COM - wherever they are Caymens I wonder? Call me - I will talk to anyone - *******618 - anyone else ready to post a working number - I guess not

I bought an restaurant.com card hoping to use it to host it for a party. What I did not realize is that i cannot pay the entire bill with the card. And they are one of those organization that has fine prints that aren't obvious and will later come bite your $#*!. ANY BUSINESS THAT HAS A NON REFUNDABLE POLICY IS UNRELIABLE. and Restaurant.com is the same way. I did not realise that this is non refundable, all it has is sucky gift certificates with wierd minimum order policies (min order $75, $150 from places that serves $10 pizzas - so basically useless will you want to dine by yourself or even with a few friends). STAY AWAY AND NEVER BUY.

WOW! I am a 51 yr old fairly well educated Male who learned to read by the age of 6. I have run restaurants and was a corporate Chef for almost 20 years. That being said. I have used the certificates for over 7 years. I never have paid more than $2 or $3 for a certificate. I have found many wonderful restaurants using this method. I have always ordered big and had a bar bill equal to the food bill. (I like to drink). Generally we were a party of 2 who spent around $70 for an appetizer, 2 entrees, a couple of Irish coffees after dinner etc. I never once expected to get something for free. I did however expect to have the coupon honored because I KNEW THE TERMS before going for dinner! So we spent $70, therefore the tip is approx., $13.00. $70 minus $25 is $45 plus the tip of $13.00 = $58.00! All this for a few drinks, an appetizer or salad, an expensive (NOT chicken fingers) couple of entrees to sample the chefs wares, dessert and or an after dinner drink... Whats the problem people? Get real. I have NEVER had a certificate denied or refused, in 7 years. Sorry I don't get the problem.

If youre going to use restaurant.com, which I highly suggest you don't, make sure you read every single policy they have before they try to scam you out of money. I received a gift card as a reward from a company I am a member of. I tried to apply it to restaurant.com only to be told that the value is not enough and that I had to add credit to my account. However, once I added the credit to my account the two gift cards appeared separately with no way to combine the two values. Therefore I could not use either giftcard and was given no option to pay the difference with a credit card. After spending 45 minutes on the phone with customer service and speaking to two different people, I was left with no solution. I was simply told that my gift certificates have no cash value (duh!) and that I would not be able to use them for the purchase I wanted. I think the biggest issue with restaurant.com is that they have so many hidden policies that are not shown anywhere when trying to make a purchase. Just remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. I can guarantee I will never be using this site again.

My wife purchased $300 worth of restaurant.com certificated for a trip we took last year. The ONLY places we found that were still in business and willing to take them were the in-hotel restaurants in Holiday Inn Express locations. Every other restaraunt listed was closed/OOB. Also, when we could use the coupons they always had a minimum, purchase amount of 2x the redeemable value. If you have a $25 certificate you must spend a minimum of $50 to use it. And it can't be used for alcohol and/or certain specials.And, of course, tips and taxes are not included in that $50 minimum required purchase.

The end result is we wound up primarily using cash and had $200 worth of certificates left. So we traded them for other potential restaurants.

One was Cheeseburger in Paradise in Virginia Beach. We printed the certificates and went as a family to enjoy dinner. When we arrived the store's General Manager advised they have never made any arrangements with restaurant.com to provide certificates through them. Furthermore they said they confronted restaurant.com telling them they will not participate or honor any of their certificates and they still are providing certificates!

I will NEVER do business with restaurant.com again. Total scam. TOTAL!

I have had my account since 2013 and still have around $200 worth of certificates that I can't seem to use. When I first got them, although it wasn't easy, I could use $50 worth of certificate in a place. Now you're lucky if you can find a place that will let you use $10 or $15. And then you'll probably find out the place is closed. If it's open then they no longer accept the certs or don't even know who the company is! In the last month I have tried over and over and run into these problems. Just tonight an owner said she never put her place with them and has tried desperately to get off the site but people keep coming in. The owner said last time she called to complain and get off the site, the customer service rep said, "but look at all the paying business we bring to you". Yeah, paying for her but not for the person trying to use the coupon who ends up paying full price. Like I ended up doing in Philadelphia and totally embarrassed in front of 8 family members that I wanted to treat out. Or last night when I spent an hour looking for a restaurant that shut down. And this was after I check it out on the web AND after checking out 3 other places where the interned said they were closed. I have spoken to them constantly and they just keep telling me to let them know if a place is closed. Tonight I told them it is THEIR responsibility, not mine and that since Covid they should contact all the restaurants and get a site that doesn't have 2 out of every 3 place shut down. DO NOT PURCHASE.

I agree that calling them gift certificates is a little misleading - they are more like buying coupons. You can buy a $25 coupon (for $10) and it is good towards the purchase of $37.50 or more.

The site makes it very clear that there is a minimum purchase required, and they have for years.

I wouldn't give one of the coupons as a gift -- that's just tacky. For those of you who give it one star based on getting a certificate as a gift from someone -- maybe you should direct your anger towards them for being a cheapskate and giving you a coupon instead of a real gift certificate.

I have never paid full price for a certificate/coupon. They used to have promo codes for 50%-90% off all the time, but not so much anymore. Now I just buy codes from reputable sellers on ebay. I have gotten $100 worth of coupons for like $6 and 10 of the $100 codes for $35 or so. I used a $100 one at a bar the other day on $22 worth of food and about $190 worth of booze. Coupon cost me like $3.50 and saved me $100 -- I already got my money back from the $1000 worth of codes I bought!

Only used them twice. One for restaurant $25 coupon I got for free as a RCI Platinum member. I read the $37.50 minimum and was sure to exceed that and whola they deducted $25 from the bill. All as advertised. After reading reviews here I will confirm with restaurant that the honor the certs in advance. The second use was stellar. I searched through their special tab and found a offer the half case of wine. Normal price was $36 bottle. Restaurant.com offer was for $8. Bought the coupon for $48 which allowed me to buy $216 half case. I had to pay the taxes and Shipping extra - $44 dollars. That is legit. So it was an amazing deal. The website for the wine did not work properly for the certificate but I call them and in few minutes the deal was done for the price of the coupon $48 and $44 shipping and handling. They charged me nothing extra for the wine itself. I was shocked to see their normal price was $36 a bottle. Not an inflated retail an actual retain value. So for me the experience was quite valuable. The best price on the net I found for the wine was $20/ bottle. I paid $8 thanks to Restaurant.com.

I thought I was getting a good deal when they advertised 1/2 off on tickets to a Cirque Du Soleil Toruk show. I purchased 2 $150 ticket to be close to the arena area. 1 week before the show they call me to say that Toyota Center bumped them out of the system for the Sat show which I had purchased, but that they had Fri and Sun available. I asked if the seats would be the same and:"Kenan" said yes, therefore I chose Fri. I had to call several times, because here it was, Friday show night and I had not received any tickets or email. They finally called me back and said the tickets would be at Call at the office box. We get to the box office and the seats they gave us were up in the 400 nosebleed section. I told them that I purchased different seats. At that time I tried calling Restaurant.com and they did not answer. Funny that they actually called me on a Friday night the week prior to tell me of the change, but could not answer my call then. I left several messages and never received a response. Toyota Center was nice enough to get me seats closer to the area, but not worth the $150 I paid for. They also warned us about using these 3rd party jokes to purchase tickets.

Do not buy tickets from these people. They are a fraud. The BBB should investigate them.