A little secret...

>> Saturday, November 6, 2010

This may or may not be a secret, but it feels like a secret.... Ever heard of Restaurants.com?


This is a great way to try different dining establishments without breaking the bank. When you visit this website you will find a plethora of restaurants to choose from. You can search by state, city, or zip code. Once you have narrowed down your search, you choose a restaurant you would like to dine at and buy a certificate for a fraction of the price!

For example, on any given day you can buy a $25 gift card for $10.00. The only catch is, you have to spend at least $35.00 at the restaurant and they will add 18% gratuity. (Not a big deal). So you pay $10 for a $25.00 certificate, then you spend $35.oo at the restaurant. After your server deducts $25.00 from your total bill you only end up spending $20.00 total for a $35.00 meal. This includes what you spent on the certificate. Not bad.

However! Here is the best news! I never pay that price for my certificates. Somehow, I signed myself up for email updates from Coupon Mom and she sends me codes and notifications for 80% off restaurants.com periodically. So I stock up on $25.00 certificates for only $2.00 each! Sweet right?

Last night my husband and I used one of our certificates at Picazzo's Pizza in Tempe.

We used to eat at Picazzo's a lot when our daughter was on a Gluten Free diet. They offer a GF menu and have a separate kitchen. When you are on a GF diet pizza is something you would give your left arm for, so this was a sacred place for us. Our daughter was healed of her food allergies so we no longer had a need fo GF pizza and this place kind of fell of the radar for us.Until I saw them while browsing through local restaurants.

Picazzo's has added Organic to their menu vocabulary as well as hormone free and nitrate free meats. This restaurant has always been a fresh and healthy establishment but they have taken it to the next level!
Ken and I had a $25.00 certificate. We needed to spend $35.00 to use it so we started off with some baked wings. We went with 1/2 Buffalo and 1/2 BBQ Maple. They were as good as I remembered them to be. All the wings are baked and GF. Yum! Unfortunately we missed the happy hour by 10 minutes. They have 1/2 price appetizers and organic drinks. Oh well... next tme.


Ken and I have seriously different taste buds when it comes to pizza. I typically go for a no sauce pizza with lots of veggies and pungent toppings like feta, blue cheese and any kind of olive variety. Ken is definitely a meat lover and jalapeƱos make him happy, at least at the moment. So we ordered two small pizzas. He got something meaty and I got the California. It was a thin crust no sauce pizza with Nitrate free apple wood smoked bacon (shockingly I went with meat.) It had feta or blue cheese, caramelized onions and fresh spinach. I was so excited for it to come to the table, I thought the combo sounded so great. But, NO! The bacon tasted like smoked salmon! It was the weirdest thing. I wasn't sure if it was the way it was smoked or what the problem was. Ken said it was because it was natural. He is such an organic hater, seriously. I picked off all the bacon and the rest of the pizza was good.

Our total came to approximately $39.00 including the tip. After our $25.00 certificate was applied we only spent $14.00 for a really nice dinner out!

Right now Restaurants.com has a deal through November 8Th. You can purchase $25.00 certificates for only $3.00 the code is "meal."

Go! Hurry! Check it out!


2 comments:

Marcie November 7, 2010 at 3:05 AM  

We use rest.com all the time! If you like sushi, Siracha Lounge is on rest.com and they are soooo delicious! Downtown Chandler. Thanks for the tip on the pizza!

Away We Go, Clementine! November 7, 2010 at 7:27 AM  

LOVE sushi! I will definately give it a try! Thanks!