Is "Diner's Deck" a good deal?

[Garlic Guy]

I recently wandered into Bed, Bath, and Beyond and saw that they were selling various decks of cards that were actually gift cards to various bars and restaurants. The one that I'm most interested in costs $30 and gets you $10 gift cards to each of 52 Manhattan restaurants. There's some fine print (for example, you have to spend $30 or more to use the card, not including tax, tip, or alcohol; and all cards expire on December 31), but it still seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Having said that, I'm not familiar with the vast majority of restaurants on the list. Here's the website for the product; the restaurants are listed along the left. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether these are generally good restaurants? I only recently moved to Manhattan and don't know a lot of people here, so I would expect to try some of these places alone and some with a friend.

https://www.cityshuffle.com/index.asp...

(Just to be clear, I have no affiliation with the people who make the cards, or any of these restaurants. Or Bed, Bath, and Beyond, for that matter.

)

Thanks!

[foodwhisperer]

Thanks for the info, but Paradou is the only one i will go back to.

IN THIS DECK ( brooklyn and downtown) also the other list has some that ive been too, Great Jones,( years ago it was good) Bourbon Street ( terrible), Paradou ( good food in meat market), Penang ( fair)

ABIGAIL CAFE
AOC BISTRO - OK food
APPLEWOOD
BALADE
BARRIO
BELCOURT
BINO
BROKEN ENGLISH
BUBBLE LOUNGE- good for drinks not food
BUTTERMILK CHANNEL- very popular in redhook, food is good not amazing
CAFÉ LOUP- ok
CHAR NO. 4
CHIMU
CITY CRAB--- bad food
COMIDA MERCADO FRESCO
CREPES DU NORD
DOKEBI
DOMA
FADA
FLATBUSH FARM
FRAGOLE
GUSTORGANICS
I TRE MERLI BISTRO- the one on W10th is better than the original on W. Bway. OK pasta
IDEYA
JIMMY'S NO. 43 - OK
LA PALAPA
LA ZARZA
LILLA CAFÉ
LODGE
LOKAL
LOVELY DAY
LUNETTA
MADIBA
MELT
MERCAT
NEGRIL VILLAGE
NOLITA HOUSE
PAPATZUL
PASITA
PHILIP MARIE - looks good
PICCOLA STRADA
PRUNE - ok
PURE FOOD & WINE
QUEEN VIC
RYE
SCOTTADITO
SMORGAS CHEF - not great, service not too good either
SOCO
SOUTHS - burgers ok, fish and chips good and catfish good, better to go for beers
SUE PERETTE
WATTY & MEG
YUCA BAR

[uwsister]

Belcourt is not bad in a pinch.

Philip Marie is average at best. Menu needs a direction - it's all over the place, and execution is sloppy. With that said, service was excellent the couple times we were there and it can be rather warm and cozy inside on a winter night.

So Smorgas Chef isn't that great, huh? I was thinking about getting a OpenTable deal for them sibce I've never tried them and I love Scandinavian food.

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Belcourt
84 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003

Smorgas Chef
283 West 12th Street, New York, NY 10014

Philip Marie
569 Hudson St, New York, NY 10014

[RosalineS]

Buttermilk Channel is good for brunch; Flatbush Farm is terrible for brunch. Both our frittatas were burnt!

[Bob Martinez]

Char 4 is pretty good for southern inflected food.

Applewood is good new American.

We used to enjoy Belcourt for theri lamb burgers but they've recently had a chef change and there's a possibility of the menu being revamped. I'd lood for recent posts on it to see what they're doing now.

Papatzul is very good contemporary Mexican in a polished atmosphere. Highly recommended, deck or no deck.

I've heard very good things about Sue Perette from someone I trust a great deal.

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Belcourt
84 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003

Papatzul
55 Grand Street, New York, NY 10013

[tex.s.toast]

The brooklyn/downtown one seems to include a greater number of places we have enjoyed in park slope/carrol gardens and to a lesser extent downtown - im pretty certain we dont eat out enough for this to be a good deal - when we do decide to go out were a bit more purposeful than this would allow, but i mean, you only have to use 4 of them to do better than breaking even, right?

[Cheeryvisage]

Other than Txikito, I don't recognize any of the other restaurants on the list as being popular among Chowhounds.

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Txikito
240 9th Ave, New York, NY 10001