Food Gift Certificates
Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:52:13 +0000
Hey there CincinnatiCoupons.net! We all like to eat and we all like to save money. I also think that eating LOCAL is very important as well – let’s help our friends and neighbors by going to local establishments
rather than chains!
Here are some of my great finds after a couple of years being Cincinnati’s Food Hussy!
Breakfast: Bluebird Restaurant, Norwood
- The service is fantastic, the menu is vast and the food is just great. While it’s not Ikea cheap (they have 99 cent breakfasts) – it tastes much better. It’s also cheaper than any of the chains (First Watch, IHOP) and
again – it tastes much better!
Lunch: Pilot Inn, Hyde Park
- hands down the best cheap lunch you’ll find in the tri-state. I highly recommend the Chicken Philly (photo above) – it’s more of a Chicken Philly Teriyaki loaded with teriyaki sauce, cheese, onions and mushrooms.
It’s just delicious and under $6. You won’t go away hungry – I can guarantee that!
Dinner: Suzie Wong’s on Madison, East Walnut Hills
- this is my latest find and I can’t wait to go back. It’s a NICE chinese/thai/korean restaurant with GREAT prices! Now this isn’t $5/person
- most entrees are $9-12 (same as you’d pay at Applebees/Fridays) yet the quality is 100X better! The restaurant itself is very hip and will make you feel like you’re spending a whole lot more. Plus it’s BYOB so you save there too!
Also – I’ve found quite a few ways to save money along the way – all this eating out gets expensive! Here are a few tidbits to get you started:
* Coupon Books – Keep those coupon books that get tossed on your step! There are always food coupons and you might find a new neighborhood gem. Baba India, El Rancho Grande and Izzy’s are just a few I regularly clip.
* Best of Cincinnati Card – City Beat offers this card and it gives you 40% off at a list of local restaurants. You choose $100 to put on the card and only pay $60. York St. Cafe in Newport is on the list – so it’s worth it with just that one!
* Restaurant.com – you can buy “gift certificates” to a load of local restaurants. Shop at the end of the month for the best deals (80% off most times). The gift certificates typically have a minimum (i.e. $25 gift certificate – minimum purchase of $35). Don’t go too crazy though because you’ll end up with a huge stack and then not use them all – just do 1 or 2 at a time – you can always go back and get more.
* OpenTable.com – if you’re going to go to a fancy restaurant – make your reservation on OpenTable.com. You’ll get points that you can pile up and get a $20 gift card. Plus they have a special list of 1000 point
restaurants – 2 of those and you’ve got a $20 gift card on the way!
I hope you’ve enjoyed all these Food Hussy (www.thefoodhussy.com) tips for great food and saving money!
- Heather aka “The Food Hussy”
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Just got an email today that Restaurant.com is again offering $25 restaurant gift certificates for only $2. I’m usually of the mindset that when something seems too good to be true, it is. So, when Restaurant.com had a similar offer back in December, I decided to test the waters and snatched up $25 gift certificates to each of Beacon Restaurant & Bar, 10 Downing Food & Wine, Aleo and Ethos. I was charged a grand total of $8 for $100 in gift certificates. But how would this play out when I tried to use them? To find out, my Mom and I headed over to Beacon Restaurant & Bar on a recent Sunday for brunch….
The first thing to look for when researching Restaurant.com gift certificates is a restaurant’s set of restrictions for coupon use. It varies by restaurant with some having ultra-restrictive provisions, while others are much more lenient. Typically, the more popular the restaurant, the more restrictive the provisions. The Beacon gift certificate came with the following special instructions:
Special Instructions: Valid with a minimum purchase of 2 entrees. Dine in only. 18% gratuity added. Cannot be combined with other offers/discounts/special Prix Fix offers.
We weren’t 100% sure that Beacon would honor the gift certificate for its Sunday Brunch. Despite what the restrictions say, at the end of the day it’s really in the restaurant’s sole discretion how these certificates can be applied. The hostess asked the manager, and they said it was no problem at all. We were in. They seated us in a nice-sized booth and it was brunch time.
Within a minute or two of being seated, our server brought by a large basket of freshly baked muffins and breads and asked whether we would prefer coffee or tea. It’s nice that both the breads and the coffee/tea come complimentary with your brunch. He then informed us that for just $10 a person we could enjoy our choice of “bottomless” bloody marys or mimosas. Without much hesitation, I opted for the bottomless bloody marys (extra spicy, of course) option while my Mom went with the bottomless mimosas.
Beacon’s brunch menu has several options with about half of the menu consisting of lunch items and half breakfast items. They range in price from $17-$24. My Mom choose the Fried Egg and Arugula Pizza made with five cheeses and truffle oil ($18) while I went with the Mint-Cured Smoked Salmon w/ H&H Bagel ($17).
We were well into brunch cocktail #2 when our meals arrived. My Mom’s pizza was beautifully presented on a nice wood slate.
While it didn’t have quite the truffle bang I was hoping for, it was a delicious pizza and easily large enough to serve 2-3 people.
My mint-cured salmon was also nicely presented and the flavor of the salmon with a little fresh mint was delicious.
As far as how long they will let you drink “bottomless-ly” for, our server actually encouraged us to each have our fourth brunch cocktail, even after we had been sitting for close to two hours.
All in all, my Mom and I had a fantastic leisurely, boozy brunch at a high end restaurant, and thanks to a gift certificate that I paid just $2 for on Restaurant.com, our bill came out to only….
The service was fantastic and in no way suffered because we were using a gift certificate. If you plan to use Restaurant.com gift certificates, or any gift certificates for that matter, please be sure to tip your server on the full value of the check!
Click here to search restaurants that offer gift certificates on Restaurant.com. From now through January 31st, you can get $25 gift certificates for just $2 if you enter the discount code BONUS at checkout and hit “apply.”
Lastly, please let us know if you have had any negative experiences using Restaurant.com so we can make sure to warn people of the restaurants that may not be certificate-friendly.
