As I’ll probably mention it in a lot of my posts, thought I’d better pop one up about the Tastecard in case you’ve not come across it before.
The tastecard scheme gives 50% off the food bill or 2 for 1 across all courses at a wide variety of UK restaurants. They have a bolt on extra too called Tastecard + which offers hundreds of discount offers on everything from discounted hotels; theatre offers; special dining discounts at Michelin Star and AA Rosette restaurants, to reduced price days out and discounted cinema tickets.
There’s always offers on trial periods, at the moment you can try it for 90 days for just £1 using voucher code 1TASTE (valid at time of writing).
It’s normally £79.99 for the Tastecard membership and an extra £24.99 for the Tastecard + but phone them and haggle, I pay £35 for mine as they matched the price I was paying for the Hi-Life Card (I’ve have moved away from the Hi-Life scheme as restaurants in my area seemed to be dropping out of it meaning there was very limited choice).
The Gourmet Society is a similar scheme (that one is priced at £69.95 for annual membership). I took a free trial on this one, but at the time, found there weren’t many restaurants included in the North Wales/North West area, but it’s member restaurants list is expanding so it’s worth checking out which of the three scheme has best coverage in the areas you dine out in most.
So the nuts and bolts of the Tastecard is that you phone ahead and book your table, mentioning that you have one of these cards, and you are then able to take advantage of the special offer for that restaurant which could be 50% of your food bill or 2 for 1 (buy one get one free) on all courses (some restaurants in the Hi Life scheme limit it to main courses).
As a general rule, the offers are available Mon-Thurs (as it’s a scheme designed to get bums on seats on quieter nights for the restaurants), but some will accept on Fridays (I’ve even had Pizza Express accept on a Saturday….always worth asking!), but check on their website for confirmation on any particular restaurants.
If we’re ever eating out spontaneously or just can’t be bothered cooking that night (then Prezzo’s is our go to choice), then I always do a quick search on my phone to see if there’s a restaurant that’s part of the scheme close by.
Even if you pay full price for the card, it can pay for itself in the first meal. It’s an absolute must have if you eat out with any regularity, we’ve saved £££’s.
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