iDine - Only 3 restaurants in my city
 

Do most people use iDine restaurants when in their home city or when traveling? I currently live in Omaha. We are constantly told through local media that Omaha has more restaurants per capita than any other U.S. city, so I was surprised to find that only 3 area restaurants participate in iDine.

You'd be astounded at how many different cities have the most restaurants per capita.

http://www.donnycheung.com/features/restaurant.html

I do both.

Your situation is unfortunate; however, be glad many restaurants now allow unlimited visits (up to $600/mo.) Here in Seattle the weekend blackout thing is more common than not - tougher to get together with friends and rack up the miles.

[This message has been edited by Points Scrounger (edited 08-11-2003).]

3 restaurants for a city the size of Omaha is very, very low.

I was looking for one there about a month ago for a trip. Instead, about 12 of us (family reunion) went to the Upstream Brewery in Old Market and I put the entire bill on my Delta SkyMiles Amer. Express and all my relatives just reimbursed me with cash.

Great place, by the way. I believe it's in Omaha's first firehouse. The waiter told us they used to have the stables for the horses (horses carried the wagons full o' water I guess) in part of the dining area. Interesting place, great service, good food. Old Market is a neat part of town.

Well that is 3 more than I have.

We have to drive an hour and a half to Cape Giradeau. MO to get our nearest location and unfortunately it is not worht the miles to eat there as we don't like the food. It would be nice if they could at least have one national chain to make it easier on us.

I noticed something weird with idine now. There used to have abundant high quality restaurants participating the idine program. Now, all those high quality restaurants gone, idine is adding many cheap sandwich stores (with really ugly decor) to the list. In my area, the choice of restaurant is getting very limited. I am wondering what's happening with idine recently.

There are still many great choices in SAT. Some of the restaurants have participated for years. It does bother me when one of my favorites drops off. Then I find I eat at those favorites less often.

I make a point to carry a list with me when out of town. It doesn't always work out that I can eat at out of town Idines due to convenience. I just try to use it as a guide when I am clueless as to good eateries in a strange place.

PointsScrounger: I thought you had it down pat to buy gift certificates ahead of time so that you can earn miles during blackouts. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Must be a city-to-city thing as I've found that some quite decent places participate. One place that I have tried recently, and liked, is once-a-month-only (my luck natch). In many areas, there are some very nice places (often cost a bit more, but you get a nicer experience), but they are often the ones with some sort of limitations (including, but not limited to, the dreaded 5 miles/dollar ... grrrrrrrr).

Paradocs: I learned the gift cert thing here @ Flyertalk :-)

I spoke with idine today concerning another matter then asked why there were so few restaurants in my immediate area. I was told, if I wanted to, I could write a list of the restaurants with phone numbers and contact names(ie, do some of their work) and fax them so their sales agents could call them and try to sell them on the program. The fax number given to me was 305-892-3317.

Happy Travels

I've found a mixed bag with Idine restaurants, but none that I truly regret having visited.

In Savannah, if you want to eat a fantastic meal in a great setting, go to a place called "1790" -- but expect to pay about $50 per person.

For much, much, less you can head to the Moon River Brewery and have a truly excellent sandwich or filet gumbo.

Then you can eat a meal at little more than McDonald's prices (but much better quality) in a crowded, noisy, unattractive place called "Clary's" -- which was made famous in the book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."

I've had similar experiences in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando -- a wide range of prices and quality but no restaurants which I considered to be dives. One hint: If they offer 20 miles per dollar, the odds are that they are going to be in the lowest range both in price and quality.

Dear Mr. Omaha,

Do you have a Denny's? They suddenly popped up in my area.

Agreed. In Oklahoma, for instace, the dusty capitol city (OKC) has a zillion IDine restaurants.

Meanwhile, the more sophisticated city, which is Oklahoma's cultural and commercial center (Tulsa) has about a third the number.

I bet the differences between cities may come down to just one or two salespeople. OKC's IDine rep is obviously much more aggressive than the one in Tulsa (Or IDine has only one rep based in OKC who has managed to get a handful of Tulsa restaurants as well).

If anyone is really anal about iDine in the DC area, email me and I'll send over a list I've compiled of iDines that allow unlimited visits per month. [email protected].

When I visited Washington, DC in April, I found a TON of good restaurants participated (at least at that time) in idine.

I ate at six of them and they ranged from good to excellent.

Of course, the roster of idine participants is constantly changing, so I don't know what the current situation is there, just four months after my visit!


Kathy

Dovster - I can't agree with you - it may vary from city to city. Sometimes the price is a little higher but the extra miles, or using diners club where you get 40% off makes up for it. Went to an african restaurant in wrigleville called Bolat that was really good, reasonably priced to begin with and 20 miles per $1. I think it is restaurants that want to bring in more business, and maybe once they do will go back to 10 miles per $1. I certainly want to try those that are doing 20 miles, or 40% is they accept diners club - it's worth a try. I am always very disappointed when favorite restaurants leave the program. Belonging to the program is not always seen as a good deal for restaurants and that is why they leave.

------------------
Ms.DtG

Hi all,

This is something that has disappointed me about iDine, too. There are only three restaurants in the entire STATE of Nebraska (all in Omaha). None west of Des Moines in Iowa. :-(

It seems that iDine hasn't really done much work to develop these regions.

My favorite restaurant in Des Moines is the Machine Shed. Favorite in Council Bluffs is Pizza King. From the name, it sounds like it would be a pizza-only place. However, it has a wide range of high quality options. It's been around for more than 30 years. I highly recommend it. If you talk to the owners, they will know who I am...and I live in Hollywood.

In Omaha, for Mexican food it's El Bee's. My mother loves to go to Old Chicago (chain restaurant) in the Old Market for the pizza. I think it's OK, but not the greatest. Gorat's has excellent steak, but the hash browns are terrible (contrary to Warren Buffett's opinion). Kobe Steakhouse is quite good, too. Caniglias, south of downtown Omaha used to be 60+ minute wait every weekend, but the quality has slipped over the past 10-15 years, IMO.

I'll probably eat at 2-3 of these restaurants in the next week. Maybe I'll see you there? :-)

Later,
Tim in Hollywood

3 restaurants in your TOWN? I move to the STATE of ND and wherever I search I get "No restaurants in your search area".

3 restaurants!

You are lucky

In beautiful El Paso, we used to have 5, now we have

0!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

So I only go when traveling http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

iDine makes money by helping restaurants drum up business, and they don't do this by offering rewards for people to go to restaurants they would eat at anyway. In the vast landscape of suburban America, where people like everything mass-produced, the big chains can drum up enough business by their very presence. ("Ooooh, we're getting an Applebee's!") In places like New York City, where there are plenty of excellent local eateries and the citizenry knows it, you will indeed find national chain restaurants that participate in iDine.

Riese's, operator of the TGIFridays there (as well as the similar chain, Houlihans) has recently dropped out.

I live in Omaha also...I used Nick and Tony's to get idine credits for NW's fff3 promotion. I don't care for the atmosphere at the Grillhouse and Backstreets is really just a little dive for lunch or breakfast.

They've doubled the number of participation restraunts in the state of arkansas in the last year. Now we have 2 in the state.

Well, I always use them when travelling, since they don't have any restaurants in Australia at all. :-)

When I visit the US, I usually find there are quite a few restaurants in most places I travel. There must be over 100 places in the Seattle region. ... and some of them are very nice while some are very good value.

Taco Del Mar used to be a member in the Seattle region, which was great for getting a large number of cheap visits for those bonus promotions. Shame they aren't in it any more.

We currently have one iDine restaurant here in Rochester, MN, which I found only by doing a zip code search because it's listed erroneously under Minneapolis - north suburbs (Rochester is about 85 miles southeast of Minneapolis). I really wish they had searches by state rather than metro area.

I guess it all depends on your area. I checked, and there are almost 300 in the Phoenix area. There are even some useable ones!

The restaurants in Broward County (FLL and western 'burbs) is eclectic (everything from IHOPs to sandwich places to a good Thai/Japanese in Weston (Moon Thai).

On a different note: What is the usual time by which a reward should show up online. I'm a relatively new member and all of my meals have shown up within 3-5 days except one, which has not shown at all (30 days ago). Is there any recourse with iDine? (the website doesn't have any specific info). BTW I checked a few minutes and the restaurant is still listed in the online directory. Thanks for your help.

5 days is about right for the miles to show up in your online idine program.

About the missing dining: call idine. A rep will give you the fax number. Then you fax the receipt to their attention. Go ahead and do that if it's been 30 days.

Oops - it's been a while since I checked. No matter - I wouldn't eat at Fridays in Manhattan whether or not they offered miles through iDine! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

FOr the most part I have been disappointed with iDine's offerings, esp in the DC area. But as one poster said, the restaurants with good reps and healthy business don't need to participate.

The restaurants in DC are a mixed lot, with only a handful that I would go out of my way to dine, even without the miles.

Interestingly, I did a quick count and Philly has 118 resaturants, DC only about 80. BOth great restaurant towns, but I would think DC would have at least as many as Philly.

But, since it costs nothing to join (the basic program)I can't complain. Now I had to pay a membership fee . . . .
DC 89

------------------
Da DOK

I wish McDonalds was IDINE now that they have WIFI there. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

A McRib with internet access. How can you beat that?

Like the country of Australia (I-dine is marketed as U.S. only) and the State of North Dakota, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (a U.S. territory in the Western Pacific north of Guam) has a grand total of zero participating restaurants.

So I always having fun trying to find good inexpensive ones when I travel the 6,000 miles to the mainland U.S.

just looked up and found my fav mexican restaurant is listed with idine!!
hmmm... lotsa miles, lotsa frejoles

------------------
miles desperato

don't know about McD's, but I know a few Burger King's in houston just signed onto idine..

The iDine program was initially designed as a marketing and advertising device restaurants could use to lure frequent travellers in. As with any program, it took on a life of it's own (more sales people called on more restaurants), that's why you see such a diverse group participating in the program today. If you travel a little or a lot you can usually find a participating iDine restaurant. Who knows, you might stumble on a few pearls.....I know I have.

If you're lucky enough to live in a city with high levels of participation the program can really add up.