Saving money on dining out is easy with Restaurant.com gift certificates. Find restaurants in your area and get $25 restaurant gift certificates for only $10! Start saving today.
Restaurant.com (restaurant.com) has 473 customer reviews on Five Star Index, with an average rating of 3.2 out of 5.
Website
restaurant.com
Category
General Restaurants
Listed on Five Star Index
2026
About these reviews
Replies
The company replied to 51% of reviews.
Latest
Most recent review: October 2026.
Edits
Reviews are shown as their authors wrote them. The company can reply, but cannot edit them.
Score
This company cannot pay to remove reviews or change its score.
Restaurant.com used to be decent maybe 15-20 years ago during the Groupon boom, but is now basically a scam, preying on low-end eateries. Restaurants that have stopped accepting these worthless coupons still populate their websites. If you got these "gift cards" free from some promo, just toss it away. Trying to take advantage of them will cost you more $$. Wish this company would just fold and disappear and save everyone from wasting their $$.
Response from Restaurant.comMay 20, 2025
We requested more information to assist with this, but did not receive a response.
If you still need help, you can contact our team anytime via restaurant.com/faq.
Hi Nick,
We appreciate you taking the time to share your opinion, though it’s disappointing to hear. We always welcome constructive feedback based on specific examples/experiences, as it helps us improve.
That said, millions of dining enthusiasts have used Restaurant.com successfully over the past 25+ years, saving money at thousands of restaurants across the country. Our network continues to evolve, and while availability can vary, we offer tools like point exchanges and non-expiring balances to ensure our customers have flexibility and choice.
If you’ve had a specific or particular issue, we’d genuinely like the opportunity to help—please visit restaurant.com/faq so we can look into it further.
BM
Brooke M.
ZERO stars. SCAM.
I would give zero stars if possible. I received a $50 giftcard from Active Advantage, and redeemed it for 5,000 points. Not only did I drive to two separate restaurants only to find out they were permanently closed a YEAR ago, but the other restaurant I did go to didn't accept the certificate as it was only for drinks (although listed simply as an amount off the order).
Upon looking into other restaurants after already wasting time and gas driving to those two, I found that nearly all of them are permanently closed and are still showing on the app.
Also, not to mention, I redeemed two $25 off $50 deals and apparently with a giftcard, you pay exactly the amount that you're receiving off - I "spent" $50 to "earn" $50 off. They showed as costing $10 a piece, but upon speaking with a very unhelpful customer service team, giftcards don't work the same way. This app/website should be shut down for their false advertisement and sketchy practices. Total scam - don't waste your money!
Update: I’ve communicated with their customer service team and unfortunately they were unable to help me. I don’t want to waste my team checking their active deals and then having to check if the restaurants are open or permanently closed. So far only one restaurant that shows in their active deals is open for business in the St Pete/Tampa Bay Area and the deal was incorrectly listed by restaurant.com. I stand by my previous review!
Response from Restaurant.comMay 20, 2025
Update: We reached out to the reviewer for more information so we could investigate and resolve this, but unfortunately, we did not receive a response within Trustpilot's 3-day window.
We’re always happy to help if someone has a specific issue they’d like us to review. To get support or find answers to common questions, please visit restaurant.com/faq.
Hi Brooke,
We’re really sorry to hear about your experience, and we appreciate the chance to clarify a few things.
First, our website and app serve as both a restaurant directory and a way to find active dining deals. To see only restaurants currently offering Restaurant.com certificates, we recommend clicking the “Show Deals Only” filter at the top of the page. We also rely on restaurants to notify us when they close or leave the program. While we work hard to keep our listings up to date, we know there’s room for improvement and are actively streamlining that process.
As for how the dining rewards work—when you redeem your card, you receive points that can be used to claim dining certificates. These offer up to 50% off at participating restaurants. You're not being charged again to use your card—you're simply using your points to unlock great deals. And to give you peace of mind, your points never expire, and you can exchange any certificate at any time if a restaurant doesn’t work out.
We understand this wasn’t the experience you were hoping for, and we’d love the opportunity to help make it right. Feel free to visit restaurant.com/faq—we’re here to help.
AC
Amy C.
A scam, some restaurants were out of business , but it is still in the listing
A scam. Some restaurants were out of business , but it is still in the listing. Some restaurants would not take certificates. Only 3 active restaurants in my area. False advertising. Buyer beware.
Response from Restaurant.comMay 20, 2025
Update: We followed up with this user to get more details about their particular situation and to assist this customer with their issue.
Hi Amy,
Thanks for sharing your feedback. We’re always open to hearing about user experiences—but without specific details, it’s hard for us to look into what may have gone wrong or try to make it right. If you have a particular situation you'd like us to review, we’re happy to help.
That said, we do want to clarify: while we work hard to keep our listings updated, we rely on restaurants to notify us when they leave the program. If that doesn’t happen in a timely way, we understand how frustrating it can be—and we’re actively streamlining our process to address that.
Also, your points never expire, and you can exchange any certificate at any time. To make things easier, we recommend using the “Show Deals Only” filter on our site or app to view restaurants that are currently offering deals.
If you’d like help or want to share more about your experience, our team is happy to assist—just visit restaurant.com/faq.
TM
Trenia M.
I was left with WOW
I was left with WOW! That is not wow in a good way. I went on a discount site and bought a discounted gift card for restaurants.com. I felt like it was a good deal because I had been on the site and it pulls up lots of restaurants in your area. I had $100 to spend at a restaurant I thought. I am in a college town of over 150,000 people. I thought I was safe in getting this. Please don’t fall for it. You can only trade this card in for points, which you can then use on their site for a discount off of food at a restaurant. You have to use what you spend on the card it’s not refundable and you don’t get the balance. That’s the first catch the second catch is that all of those restaurants that pull up are not restaurants you can use, as you only can use the ones that come under (deals). I would estimate we have nearly 500 restaurants in our area, at least. I did say we are college town right? I found two that were in other towns about an hour away and a couple in towns that were two hours away. I guess I’ll be saving these points until I have a trip and hopefully find someway to use them. The only reason I bothered to give it one star is because you can’t give them a zero. If there is any positive thing in this review, it’s that the points do not expire. Let’s just hope they don’t go out of business before I get these points spent. I might add that I called their 800 number which does exist. You can look it up. They are extremely rude and not very helpful. The answer was there is nowhere for you to use your points in your area. They have been around a long time but this economy who knows. Don’t fall for this stuff if it looks too good to be true it probably is!
Response from Restaurant.comMay 13, 2025
Hi Trenia,
We’re genuinely sorry to hear about your experience and appreciate you taking the time to share it.
Since 1999, food lovers across the country have used Restaurant.com deals to enjoy discounted dining at thousands of participating restaurants. While millions of diners have had great experiences using our certificates, we understand that availability can vary by location, and that can be frustrating—especially when options in your immediate area are limited.
Restaurants join our program voluntarily and can turn deals on or off at any time, which is why we encourage checking our online directory right before you plan to dine. To make that easier, we offer a filter that displays only restaurants with current deals in your area.
To clarify how our deals work: A $25 Restaurant.com certificate typically requires a $50 minimum purchase at the restaurant, giving you 50% off your meal. The same goes for larger denominations. It’s a fantastic value, but it’s a different model than a cash-value gift card. The good news is that your points never expire, so you can use them anytime a participating location works for you—even while traveling. You can even exchange your certificate for a new restaurant in various denominations - points give you flexibility to use your deal to fit your dining situation.
We're also disappointed to hear about your customer service experience—that’s not the standard we aim to uphold, and we’ll be following up with our team.
If you're open to giving us another try, we’d be happy to personally help you find a restaurant where you can use your points. Feel free to reach out - you can find our contact information at restaurant.com/FAQ
Thanks again for your feedback—we’re always working to improve.
BO
Bonnie
They sell certificates for restaurants…
They sell certificates for restaurants that do not honor them. Just happened to me in April 2025. This is not the first time that has happened. The most recent restaurant said Restaurant.com will not remove them from the web site and they are STILL selling certificates for that restaurant. I’ve had some success with only a fraction of certificates I’ve purchased. Don’t waste your money.
Response from Restaurant.comMay 5, 2025
Hi Bonne,
We’re really sorry that the restaurant you visited did not honor your certificate. We have tens of thousands of restaurants in our directory and while all restaurants in our program agree to participate, sometimes a location leaves and forgets to inform their staff or doesn't notify us in time to update our site. Please know that we’re actively working to improve this process.
Please know that your points never expire, and you can exchange any certificate at any time if a restaurant isn’t honoring it. We’d love the opportunity to help you find better options in your area.
You can visit restaurant.com/faq to connect with our team—we’re here to help and would appreciate the chance to make this right.
JK
John K.
$100 Gift card scam
Received a $100 gift card from a company and when trying to g to activate the Resturant.com gift card I had to enter a credit card. As soon as I did so I received a fraud alert from my card company as Resturant.calm tried to bill my cardc$39.95 for some movie discount card. WTF, thief’s, fraud from every angle with resturant.com.
I was able to access the card and now I can use it at some of the worst restaurants in Minneapolis. Lucky me…
Response from Restaurant.comApr 29, 2025
Hi John - We’re very sorry to hear about your experience—and we want to be clear: Restaurant.com never requires a credit card to redeem or use a gift card. What you described is not part of our redemption process, and it definitely does not align with how we operate.
Our team is actively trying to get in touch with you to learn more about what happened so we can understand where things may have gone wrong. We take claims like this seriously and would really appreciate the chance to speak with you directly.
As for our dining options, we partner with thousands of restaurants across the country, and our list changes regularly. Your points never expire, and you can use them at any participating restaurant—or exchange a certificate at any time if something’s not a fit.
We hope we get a chance to understand what happened here. Please visit restaurant.com/faq so we can connect.
NE
Neva
Disappointed
I have been using this company for over a decade now and had so many unused certificates where some ranging from $10 up to $100. A few months ago I noticed that all of my certificates were no longer available that they were turned into points. I never requested for this to happen and a lot of restaurants don’t even participate with Restaurants.com. I had reached out to Customer Support several times to see what has happened and why the changes when something I purchased was taken away from me and how can I get my certificate back. I kept hitting a wall with each rep. I’m not able to gift off any points or convert them into gift certificates etc. Is this legal for them to take paid certificates and convert them into points?
Response from Restaurant.comApr 29, 2025
First, thank you for being a loyal customer for more than a decade — we truly appreciate you! We know if you've been with us that long, you’ve had some good experiences along the way, and we’d love to continue making sure you do.
A few months ago, we transitioned older certificates into points to give customers more flexibility and choice. With points, you’re not locked into a single choice — you can redeem your points anytime for deals at thousands of restaurants nationwide, and your points never expire. So if you can't find a deal you like today, check back tomorrow to see what's new!
We’re sorry if this change caught you off guard. Our goal is to make it easier for you to dine where and when you want, even if your original restaurant isn’t currently offering a deal. You can use your points toward any restaurant listed on our site that’s offering a deal, as designated by the "exclusive deals" badge on the listing.
If you need help finding great options near you, we’d love to assist. You can visit restaurant.com/faq anytime for support. Thanks again for being such a longtime customer — your loyalty means a lot to us!
JK
John K.
Don't throw away your money!
I purchased a $50 gift card a few years ago when I lived in northern Michigan. The only place that even closely appealed to me was a sweets shop, so I redeemed $10. Now that I have moved to Ohio, I tried to redeem the balance on a nice restaurant today, only to learn that apparently the single redemption that I did years ago counted as the ONLY redemption that I was allowed. Don't waste your money, folks!
Response from Restaurant.comApr 7, 2025
Hi John, thanks for sharing your experience—and we’re really sorry for the confusion and frustration. Just to clarify: when you redeem a Restaurant.com deal, it converts into points that you can use however you’d like, in any amount, and they never expire. You’re absolutely not limited to just one use. Please reach out to us and we’ll take a look at your account and help make sure you are able to redeem for the whole value of your deal. We're here to help!
