Giordano's Restaurant.com Cert ?

[sammielynn]

I actually used a Restaurant.com certificate for Garden Grove back in August,it was just two of us with a $25 certificate,after the tax and tip it came out to like $62 even with the certificate,so I see what you mean that it's still comes out pretty expensive,we basically just saved tax and tip,but I look at it as trying a restaurant I probably wouldn't have tried if it wasn't for the certificate,with that said Garden Grove is a restaurant I probably wouldn't go back to,the service was mediocre,the waitress was nice but she dissapeared a couple of times and even worse was that the items in the buffet weren't being replenished.We went about an hour and a half before they closed and the restaurant was pretty empty so the waitress was probably doing closing sidework and replenishing the skirt steak wasn't the highest priority,the rissotto made for you at your request was good though.

I had an experience like this. Had a $25 certificate to a steak house, four of us had lunch, only one meal was over $15, my bill after the certificate was over $60. I will never eat there again, and have not purchased a certificate since.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

I ended up purchasing 2 for Giordano's. When I ordered mine a few weeks back, they only had the $10 value ones left. I paid 80 cents for them. I must spend $20 ($10 cash & $10 cert) and the 18% tip. 18% is only $3.60 add the 80 cents to that and it comes to $4.40. I am still $5.60 ahead of the game. I usually go to Giordano's anyway. I usually do take out. Since this is for dine in only, I will do dine in. We are not drinkers, nor are we big soda drinkers, water suits us fine. I will go ahead and add the extra 2% to make the total tip 20% if my service is decent, if it is super, I will up it to 25%. If it is not good, oh, well, I guess I am out the $3.60 they had me leave. The server will get the hint. I normally just get their stuffed pizza. It will work for me. It may not be a big savings but I am not going out of my way to save it either.

 

[dioxide45]

The $10 certificate that we have clearly indicates for Dine In Only. It is on the certificate after you buy it, it may not be listed in the limited list of restrictions that are shown before buying.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

The $10 certificate that we have clearly indicates for Dine In Only. It is on the certificate after you buy it, it may not be listed in the limited list of restrictions that are shown before buying.

yes, I know it does.. which is why I stated this...and I actually thought it did state it before purchasing it with the restrictions...

"I usually do take out. Since this is for dine in only, I will do dine in."

 

[Purseval]

We went to Giordanos Monday night with our certificate, ordered a large pizza and a steak sandwich. The service was painfully slow even though the place wasn't crowded at all. I'd hate to go there on a busy night. We ordered a steak sandwich and a large pizza, which took about an hour to show up. We ate the steak sandwich while we were waiting then had them box up the pizza.

Another criticism that would most likely only pertain to British tourists (and they have a lot of them in Orlando) is that they have no mustard. My wife and lots of other Brits use mustard on steak so this was a big minus in her book. The pizza itself lasted us 3 days, a monster.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Not sure if you had the deep dish pizza or not, but it usually takes about 45 minutes for it to cook, so perhaps that was part of the delay.

 

[Purseval]

They told us 35-40 minutes for the pizza, which we expected. We didn't expect it to take so long for things as simple as asking for items to be brought to the table. At one point I actually got up and went to the counter where they prepare the food and asked if they had any mustard for my wife's sandwich (which they didn't).

 

[jms920]

Just a note for House of Blues, they allow you to include your alcoholic beverages in the $35. and we were able to use our certificate for lunch. We presented the certificate when we were placing our order and the service and the food was great! This was 2 weeks ago.

JoAnn

 

[Purseval]

I had an experience like this. Had a $25 certificate to a steak house, four of us had lunch, only one meal was over $15, my bill after the certificate was over $60. I will never eat there again, and have not purchased a certificate since.

I would love to see how you managed that, even better I would love to see how it was the fault of the restaurant. You're making it sound like you spent over $60 for a meal that was less than $60 even before your $25 discount. That doesn't add up.

 

[Luv2Roam]

We have used several of the restaurant.com certificates.
I bought one for each S/D restaurant they offered.
I have always wanted to eat at these places, but never got around to it. So this made sure we would. So far we have tried the Italian restaurant and Shula's.
Still spent quite a chunk of cash with the $25 certificate.
We enjoyed the restaurants. But not enough to return with or without a certificate.
I have also used them at HoB and BB King's, plus a few local restaurants.
I always like the 18% automatic tip. That way I don't have to calculate the amount to add on. And if I decide to leave more, still easy to do.

 

[Orlando Vic]

I have been hesitant to order some of these certificates, as I noticed they all say "18% gratuity added". I'm not sure how cost-effective they are with the gratuity added in automatically, especially if the total is $$$. I'm not in a large group, and I would rather decide how much gratuity to add myself. I've noticed terrible service when the tip is added in from the start. Has this been anyone's experience?

It's my understanding you can leave a smaller or no tip at all. Just explain to the restaurant manager what you want to do...and why. You may be asked what about the service was unsatisfactory. So..it may be a good idea to have some specifics handy.

Personally, we usually tip 20% (before taxes) so 18% is not a problem for us at all.

And yes, the Restaurant.com certificates usually are a good deal only if you buy during one of their sales. I never pay full price for one.