Question about Restaurant.com coupons

[TheLittleRoo]

I saw there's a new code out for 80% off (LUCKY) and was just about to order when I noticed my restaurants both had this wording on their offer:

$25 gift certificate valid on orders of $50 or more

Now, I was going to buy 4 x $25 certs b/c the average cost is around $60 for my family. I assumed I was buying the equivalent of gift cards toward food totals, but now it reads almost more like 50% off instead.

If my order is $50, can I use (2) $25 certs? Or does the above wording mean that I have to hit $50 each time I want to use a $25 cert?

Is this typical or are there restaurants that don't have this restriction? Meaning, I could pay for a $50 meal with a $50 cert?

Thanks! I've never done business with restaurants.com and have been wary up to this point, but at 80% off, what the heck!

 

[QT Pooh]

Think of these as coupons rather than gift certificates. I have not seen a restuarant.com coupon that didn't have a price restriction on it. You would only be able to use (1) coupon for your $50 purchase. The 80% off is what you would pay for the coupon - it's not 80% off your meal. For example, sometimes there are $25 coupons that cost $10 regularly on restaurants.com. With the promotional code you have, you would take $8 off from $10...so you'd only pay $2 to save $25...still a very good value...and the cost of your meal would be $25 + the $2 spent on the coupon...

You may want to check for other restrictions as well...sometimes they are only valid on the food & beverage and not on alcohol, gratuities, tax, etc. Sometimes they are only valid on Sunday through Thursday.

 

[ambgoph]

Restaurants only allow one certificate per party (even if you want separate checks). If your meal is $60, then you would use your certificate on that amount. As the pp said, make sure to check any other restrictions for each individual restaurant.

 

[TheLittleRoo]

<laughing at self> Ohhhhhh... that makes more sense. I was wondering how the restaurants were getting paid back for that steep of a discount!! Now I feel silly, but I'm glad I asked here instead of trying to figure that out at the table!

Thanks for the quick answers!

 

[srdipert]

It is still a good deal though if you normally eat there anyway. Say your bill is 50$ and you use your 25$ certificate that you paid 2$ for. You still saved 23$.

Most of the ones that we use are 25$ off of a 35$ purchase and we try to hit it right at the 35$ mark. So we paid 2$ for the certificate, 10$ for the meal and 5$ for the tip. So that is about half of what we would have paid to eat out.