s/o date night: LivingSocial

[mbcdefg]

I'm surprised at how many people here said they regularly use LS/Groupons to go out for dinner ... because all the coupons for my area are for very blah (or even bad) restaurants. And I live in a pretty decent-sized metro area, not East Bumblefuck with limited choices.

Do you find coupons for restaurants that you already love, or do you just buy one and figure that you'll try it? How often do you get a really good meal out of it?

Ditto for restaurant.com, there's hardly anything worth it on there for us. We got one as a Christmas gift and wound up spending $50 OOP on top of that for a very mediocre meal.

[hamster]

We typically stick to buying coupons for places we like, but have branched out before too. I always look at the menu and reviews before buying if it's a new place.

[Deleted]

I think that 90% of the restaurants on LS/groupon aren't very good but I always check the reviews if a new place looks interesting. The best deals are on travelzoo local deals imo...pretty fancy places in my area have specials there.

[mrssavy42112]

We’ve gotten at least 4-5 LS or Groupon restaurant deals & we had never previously been to any of them. That’s kind of the fun for us. We like trying new places. I’ve never seen a deal for a place I knew anyway. We just pick what looks good & is in our price range. We haven’t had a bad experience yet. I live in NNJ and split between Jersey & NYC restaurants.

[jaylea]

The ones I've seen here include some very good, but small places. YOu have to read them closely though - they are often for lunch of brunch - times of day they are trying to increase business.

[pugz]

we often buy for ones we know we like or ones that we have heard good things about, but 90% of the time the restaurants featured do not fall into either of those categories.

[chessie]

I have tried them in the passed, I have not found them that good either. THe other issue is many of them are not even in my area, making it completely out scope for an option.

[mrssavy42112]

Oct 10, 2012 12:42:13 GMT -5 @missy1 said:

I think that 90% of the restaurants on LS/groupon aren't very good but I always check the reviews if a new place looks interesting. The best deals are on travelzoo local deals imo...pretty fancy places in my area have specials there.

Never heard of them. I just checked for NNJ and like 50% is already sold out. Grrr

[Deleted]

I'm with you MB, but I think it varies by region. Here, it seems to be mostly restaurants that are bad and/or on the verge of going out of business.

I find that Gilt City has better offers overall than Living Social or Groupon. Living Social and Groupon seem to be where the shady restaurants and spas are, while Gilt City gets some big names. I have a Forcella Gilt City voucher for brunch (I'm guessing they're slower at brunch but it is one of my favorite places) and I've gotten vouchers for Exhale and Bliss recently. Though the downside of Gilt City is that some of the bigger names offer kind of strange packages -- like a very specific prix fixe menu or something rather than $20 off of $40.

Restaurant.com is a joke here.

I'll also put it out there -- Restaurant Week is for the most part a waste too because so many restaurants have crappy offerings and their service suffers. So I avoid it as much as I can

After getting burned a few times, my policy is that I'll only buy a groupon etc. for an establishment that I've been to before and liked, or that I wanted to try before I saw that a groupon was available.

[LoveTrains]

I use Gilt city, travelzoo local, living social and groupon. I normally only buy them for places that I a) already am a customer, ie, I have been there before and its delicious or
b) have been wanting to try them.

I live in a medium/small city, though, so maybe my options are better. I only buy them for restaurants right in the city - we get a lot of stuff that comes up in the suburbs and I don't buy that crap. I don't go to the suburbs, really.

[Pilsy]

Oct 10, 2012 12:50:58 GMT -5 v said:

I'll also put it out there -- Restaurant Week is for the most part a waste too because so many restaurants have crappy offerings and their service suffers.

Ditto. I never do Restaurant Week.

We stick to Groupons and the like for places we already know and love and places we've been meaning to try. I guess we have branched out to a couple that weren't on our radar, but we had heard good things about even those, and they were close. We really don't take many risks.

[Awkward]

Groupon typically doesn't have much for my area. LivingSocial never seems to have restaurant deals. There is a local company on the same idea, they have good stuff on occassion but it tends to be more 'event' type stuff.

The best one I've ever done was a half price 2 hour train ride during foliage season. Best $14 I spent in a long time!

[mrshabious]

I've gotten several deals on great restaurants, some of which were on Washingtonian's Top 100 list. Others are places I have wanted to try.

There are two restaurants on restaurants.com that we like, so when they get to 80& off we buy a g/c

[bunch]

We actually get a lot of good ones. There are also a lot of activities here that I would have never known about if not for lz/groupon. Just yesterday I paid 12 to rent two bikes for 4 hrs on a local railroad converted to a 20 mile paved path. It's something we 've been meaning to do, but now we'll actually do it.

I think my only flop was a cupcake deal that I didn't check reviews for first.

[LoveTrains]

Oct 10, 2012 13:10:26 GMT -5 Awkward said:

The best one I've ever done was a half price 2 hour train ride during foliage season. Best $14 I spent in a long time!

this sounds amazing!!!!!

[Deleted]

Oct 10, 2012 13:00:28 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

we get a lot of stuff that comes up in the suburbs and I don't buy that crap. I don't go to the suburbs, really.

Hahaha... I'm the same way (particularly because the food in the suburbs is for the most part so much less yummy than the food here! and you have to drive in the suburbs and who wants to drive!?!)

[sporky]

Restaurant.com sucks for our area, but about once a month or so we can find decent local restaurant deals using Groupon/LivingSocial/or a couple of localized deal providers. Come to think of it, most of our restaurant deals come from our local newspaper's daily deal.

[dexteroni]

The same holds true in our area too - Groupon, LS, and restaurant.com are usually for crappy and/or weird-sounding restaurants. And we avoid restaurant week too - I would rather order what I want and go when I want, even if it costs more.

We are lucky to have an independent restaurant coalition here that sells discounted gift certificates a few times a year. You have to get them fast because they sell out super quickly, but it's where the good ones are.

[cilantro]

I buy them for bars in my hometown, usually ones that I know. Cheap but good places. Often there are 4 drinks and an app ones. I don't buy them for places trying to be upscale.

[mbcdefg]

Oct 10, 2012 12:50:54 GMT -5 mrssavy42112 said:

Oct 10, 2012 12:42:13 GMT -5 @missy1 said:

I think that 90% of the restaurants on LS/groupon aren't very good but I always check the reviews if a new place looks interesting. The best deals are on travelzoo local deals imo...pretty fancy places in my area have specials there.

Never heard of them. I just checked for NNJ and like 50% is already sold out. Grrr

I just found one on travelzoo for my area that looked pretty good, but I checked Yelp and their reviews are terrible :@

[ladygrey]

Most of the restaurants on Groupon, Living Social, Crowd Cut, etc. are super sketchy and poorly reviewed in my area. I can sometimes find a good spa deal, but I haven't bought a restaurant deal in years.

[mrssavy42112]

Oct 10, 2012 13:33:45 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

Oct 10, 2012 12:50:54 GMT -5 mrssavy42112 said:

Never heard of them. I just checked for NNJ and like 50% is already sold out. Grrr

I just found one on travelzoo for my area that looked pretty good, but I checked Yelp and their reviews are terrible

What a bummer. I'm sad to see so many people having bad experiences or finding places with bad reviews. Guess we've been lucky.

[womet]

We occasionally use LS or Groupons. I only buy from restaurant.com if it's a place I normally go to. We mostly use ScoutMob. It's not in every city, but you get 50% off the listed places for up to a certain $$ amount. And since you don't have to buy anything ahead of time, there is no risk of forgetting to use it.

[definitelyO]

Groupon has had them for some good restaurants in our area that we like. so I've bought a few. they aren't for the 5 star places though - but there are always groupons for Indian food that we love!

[iheartbanjos]

They pretty much only seem to offer good brunch locations here, so that's what we buy them for. Never for dinners out.