restaurant.com what does this mean?

[chriscree]

Valid with a minimum of a $35 purchase. Dinner dine-in only. Excludes alcohol. 18% gratuity added before discount.

Ok so I know there is alot of talk about buying these but is it really a good deal if you have to buy so much and then they add on 18%?

Or am I reading this wrong?

Please explain this to me...:shrug7:

[bugface711]

I just started buying these. I think even with the restrictions, it is a great deal. Each one has different restrictions so make sure to check them all.

Last week my friend and I went to dinner at a rest. that I had a $25 certificate for. I paid $2 for the certificate when they had an 80% off sale.
My meal was $19 and hers was $14 she got a $2 soda so we met the $35 requirement without a problem. I had water. The bill came and it was $11.90 before tip.
For under $20 after tip she and I each had a very nice meal at a nice place. Even a trip to a pizza place costs that much when you are done. Id prefer to sit in the nicer place, and have a yummy seafood dinner and have a bill thats on par with a large cheese pizza, some fries and soda.

[mama22qts]

I drool every time I see a post for restaurant.com. We only have one participating restaurant here and it's 30 miles away, so I can't use them. I loved them a while back when we had another restaurant though!

[1tricky1]

I bought one about a week ago. Still waiting for it to come in the mail. Bought it for $2.00. The one big problem is there was only one restaurant within 30 miles that participates.

[mama22qts]

They must have changed, because I always printed mine.

[kktl32]

I too have always printed mine.I have been using them for some at one time there weren't so many stipulations.I try to find the ones that say a min. purchase of 35.00. I like those better than than ones that have all the extras.Buy them at 80% it always make me meal tatse better knowing I paid the bare min.

[oceanbreeze]

Still a great deal. Adding 18% is the tip, so you don't have to worry about adding it on, and 18% is pretty decent for tipping.

There are restaurants that participate that make it easy, but there are ones that make it hard too...just got to give it a try and see if you like it.

We love the GC's here, there are more than enough restaurants to try- but we are near philly so that helps a tad.

[druidessemily]

Our town has always had a pretty crummy selection of restaurants, but lately it's been expanding. But now all of the gift certificates say an 18% gratuity is added on. I really hate that. Just because I'm using a gift cert doesn't mean that they should automatically charge me a tip. I tip based on QUALITY OF SERVICE and don't like being forced to pay. Veeery rarely do we not leave a tip, and usually we'll leave 20-25% or more, but it still irritates me that you no longer have the choice to leave less than 18% if you use one of these certs.

[momo4]

We only have one rest. here that takes them, and the only certificates that are available are for 10 min purchase of 20. It's a sandwich deli so that seems to work out fine. Especially since they make pies, cakes, pints and quarts of potato salad. I'll have no problem meeting the 20 min. Saving half price. I paid 1.20 for two ten dollar certificates. Its worth it to me!

[Lurkergirl]

I looked into this ,but even though our city is pretty big ,I saw none participating anywhere close .So its a no go for me .