Dining Date Night - 30% Off Some of Toronto's Top Restaurants

If you've been following my blog, you should know by now that I'm all about restaurant deals; with the number of times I eat out each week, any sort of discount helps my poor wallet O_o So when I came across Dining Date Night (Twitter: @DiningDateNight, Facebook: Dining Date Night) a month or so ago on Twitter, I thought it was just another site similar to Groupon, Fabfind, dealfind, and gazillion others out there. Nothing against those sites as I have bought and used many many vouchers myself; but honestly, I do believe that there are just way too many daily deal sites out there and I simply can't keep up sometimes (my inbox is constantly overflowing with emails every morning). Thinking that Dining Date Night is another daily deal site, I registered as a member and was ready to check out what their daily deal was until I found out it wasn't a daily deal site at all.


What differentiates Dining Date Night with other daily deal sites is that there are no coupons, no fine print, and no condition; once you become a member (membership is free) and reserve a table through Dining Date Night for $10, a 30% discount is taken off your bill automatically (including alcohol). No ugly vouchers to print out =P


What really impressed me though is Dining Date Night's list of participating restaurants, it includes some of Toronto's top restaurants such as Splendido, L'Unita, Malena (which I've blogged about here), Chiado, Simple Bistro, Crush Wine Bar, etc., most of which I'm sure won't be participating in any daily deal sites any time soon.

Curious about how all this works, I took a look at Union Restaurant's (@UnionResto) offer at Dining Date Night (as they have been on my "On My Radar" list for awhile). For August, the dates highlighted are the dates available for reservations through Dining Date Night:

I quickly looked at the other participating restaurants and it seems like each restaurant's calendar is a bit different. I'm thinking Dining Date Night works with these restaurants to allow the 30% discount for non-peak hours.

I think Dining Date Night is a great idea, especially for me because I go out for dinner on week nights a lot. It is also perfect for couples who want to try higher end restaurants without breaking their bank. I know the only downside may be the $10 reservation fee, but really, in the grand scheme of things, $10 is really peanuts! Especially when you consider the fact that without Dining Date Night, you will probably never get ANY discount at some of these restaurants. Check out this "before" and "after" bills I found on Dining Date Night's blog:

Sweet, right? =)


Anyway, it seems like they will be adding more and more restaurants soon, with Zucca Trattoria (which I've blogged about here) and Mildred's Temple Kitchen (which I've also blogged about here) indicated on their site as "coming soon". I'm definitely going to keep my eyes peeled on Dining Date Night as I'm excited to see what other restaurants they will add in the future~


Dining Date Night is also running a contest right now where if you become a member, you'll be automatically entered into a weekly draw to win a $100 gift card to one of these participating restaurants:


August 11-17: Splendido
August 18-24: Union Restaurant
August 25-31: L'Unita
September 1-7: Chiado

Sign up now and get entered into all four draws! They will be giving away a $100 gift certificate each week starting tomorrow ^_^