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Do you feel cheap when using a coupon and have you ever tried to hide it from other customers?

Hells no! Why should one be ashamed to save money?

Most restaurants which accept coupons in MY opinion are rubbish.

Coupons are like gimmicks, good restaurants let their food speak for itself they don't to provide incentives.

on the border-worst of the worst mexican
tgi fridays-bar food and junk
applebees-bar food and junk
olive garden-sauce from ziploc bags enough said.
chilis-bar food and junk
hooters-mediocre wings with trashy white broads

If you like eating at chain restaurants, sure use coupons.

Plenty of non-chain places have coupons - they just don't often come in circulars in the newspaper. I've discovered some fairly good local places due to both things like Entertainment Book and local coupon mail delivery.

sauce from ziploc bags? Really?

I've never felt cheap when using a coupon and have used coupons at very high-end, non-chain restaurants. To me, it's similar to using a gift certificate.

BTW, there are plenty of nice restaurants listed on restaurant.com.

I used to feel cheap using coupons in high end restaurants, but now - since i've been doing this for years - it's a matter of course to check if there is a coupon before we go out to eat!

I have to disagree. Many restaurants have realized coupons (similar to food "specials") will get you first time customers that could turn into regulars.

A "good restaurant" can't let their food speak for itself if no one has bothered to eat there.

I'm just wondering about the restaurant week participants. Obviously that's a gimmick so I guess their food is rubbish. I'll just ignore their Michelen, Zagat, AAA ratings and the reviews.

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Michelen sells tires and AAA provides roadside assistance, what does driving have to do with this thread?

Michelin also publishes a well-regarded series of guidebooks - being awarded "Michelin Star" in one of the guidebooks is a relatively big deal for a restaurant (and two or three stars, an even bigger deal.)

AAA publishes similar guidebooks (although limited, AFAIK, to the US), although I've never known anyone to treat AAA ratings with the same respect that the Michelin ratings get.

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Are these top joints giving out coupons? Are coupon customers the target market for these restaurants?

Depends on what you mean by "coupons"; for the one Michelin starred restaurant I've been to, it was under a published promotion associated with a local "art and wine" festival.

For that matter, several very well regarded places locally - although not, as far as I know, any of the Michelin started ones - have coupons in entertainment book.

Restaurant week is where restaurants have a prefix type menu for both lunch and dinner which allows people with a limited budget to enjoy a meal at an establishment which they would normally not go to or have been wanting to try. Amex sponsors it and provides restaurants with more visibility. In essence you are still paying for the food.


Physically using coupons and promoting your restaurant like buy one entree get one free is a gimmick cause there is no reason to give food away for free if its damn good.

*shrug* It's not really free, though - it's 50% off, and only if you buy two.

No kidding but you catch my drift.

If I was going to a local pizza joint had to buy couple pies for Sunday night football and had coupon, that is totally different story.

Yeah, I catch your drift - although I'm not sure I agree with it. There are a few places that have such reputations they don't need to put any effort into getting new customers in - witness, for example, French Laundy in my neck of the woods - but for the most part, even very good places will occasionally put some effort into getting new people in the door. There's nothing inherently worse about coupons and discounting than any other form of promotion.

How is restaurant week any different than coupons?

There is usually a limited number of spots and limited food selection - similar to a limited number of coupons and coupon restrictions. Even the time restriction may not be that different - you have to go during restaurant week, but then some coupons are only valid during certain periods. The only difference is that you don't have to bring the coupon with you because its part of the menu.

To quote the above coupons allow "people with a limited budget to enjoy a meal at an establishment which they would normally not go to or have been wanting to try".

Of course if you have decided that only bad restaurants give out coupons then you're going to spend more than you need because you are stuck in the mentality that high quality food needs to be expensive.

I guess that's your loss.

I agree with you, for the most part, about the food quality at restaurants that offer coupons. But, the other person only wanted to know if we would be embarrassed using a coupon and would we try to hide it from other customers.

Mr b1513 and I eat out all the time. We rarely eat home and sometimes go to chains. If I've seen a coupon for a restaurant I'm going to I'll take the coupon with me if, I remember it and, yes, it does kind of embarrass me. I don't know why but it does.

Bobette

The one part you are forgetting is that for Restaurant Week you do not have a physical coupon to give the waiter or waitress.

Most restaurants all you have to do is make a reservation via Opentable or phone. When you sit down your waiter will say we have the Restaurant Week prefix menu which consists of these items on their normal menu if interested..

You choose from a menu. That is the whole point. There is no coupon

Conclusion there is no correlation between a prefix menu and coupons

I actually never find these restaurant week prix fixe "deals" to my liking. The menu is limited, It's never what I want to order and there is not enough food.

Bobette

You shouldn't feel bad about it. if you get funny looks, those are from people who are wondering how they can get the coupons. :)

I don't feel embarassed at all, especially at a mid range restaurant. It's just like points, miles, etc. All one form of marketing or another.

^ Props for bringing the analogy back to FT :)

As others have pointed out: not only chain restaurants provide coupons.

New restaurants often use coupons as a way to build clientele. One of my favorite locals, a Belgian restaurant, used coupons and similar marketing techniques to build clientele when they opened. They were in a good location geographically, but a difficult location structurally. Three restaurants had failed in the same location before this one opened.

Now that they are established, you are right, they no longer have coupons, because they don't need them. But they still do Monday night specials, because business is slow that night.

In essence, I think your complaint is with chain restaurants (which I share) rather than coupons, which can be used even by good restaurants to build business.

agreed^

I need to keep eating at those rubbish restaurants on the cheap as well as to be able to afford L2O this coming weekend (prices :eek:)