Restaurant.com Opinions?

[texinian]

Just discovered this site while searching today's groupon for The Carillon. They appear to have >60% off deals at many of the top-rated restaurants in Austin (Asti, Fino, Jeffrey's, Sazon, etc.). Anyone know anything about this site? It looks like they have some pretty strict guidelines for using the coupons, but it could be a cheap way to try many of the upmarket spots in town.

[dinaofdoom]

1. only buy restaurant.com when there is a 70% or 80% off promo, which is usually once a month if you sign up for the emails.

2. before buying, read the restrictions carefully, as some can only be used for dinner, they have varying food total requirements, etc.

3. i use groupons (and other promos) plus restaurant.com. i buy restaurant.com stuff for the places i go to w/ friends, as there are purchase requirements. groupon et al, i tend to buy the cheaper/more casual things like tacos, etc.

4. i had some restaurant.com certs that were expiring, and i gave some to a fellow CH.
if it happens again, i will do the same. i only paid like, $2-$4 for them.

[Madcap]

If you wait they usually have 80% off about once a month. I stocked up on them back in January and haven't had any trouble using the coupons...I think I've used 4 so far this year.

[verily]

I received $25 to Restaurant.com as a gift from a local business and had no problems using the $25 at the site or redeeming the resulting gift certificate. The difference between it and Groupon is that Restaurant.com offers usually have requirements, like "Must spend at least $35" on a $25 certificate. My certificate also seemed to have no expiration date, but I'm not sure if that's to the discretion of the restaurant or the website.

[archivalquality]

I use Restaurant.com regularly and have had few problems. Their website sucks and I have lost carts multiple times to mysterious cookie problems. If you can get past that, it's a great deal. There's almost always a discount of at least 50% to be found off the certificate price, so it's cheaper than Groupon. Waiters have been nice about receiving them discreetly. The only problem I had recently was Artz' Rib House, who decided not to honor their gift certificates, but I was able to exchange those certificates for a different restaurant.