A couple of days ago, I had a nice Sunday lunch out at an eatery found and booked via an online dining reservation app.
This was what I ate…

That’s a neat piece of rib eye roast beef, accompanied by corn kernel, sauteed mushrooms and carrots. In the middle was a nicely done wobbly onsen egg.
Simply heavenly!
And underneath all that — hard to tell from the photo, though — was a good serving of mixed Japanese white and brown rice.
What a filling and totally satisfying meal this was. And it tasted healthy too 🙂
Now, where did I go?
That’s Ninja Cut at Seah Street. And I had ordered their “What’s Your Beef?” item with “Ninja Rice” to go along.
This hearty meal set me back S$21.40, but essentially I paid only slightly more than 50%. That’s because I earned a S$10 credit for this visit, courtesy of the online dining app’s loyalty program.
Good deal, right?
Food is On My Mind…
Yup, food is the topic of this week’s post.
Specifically, I will be talking about how to enjoy fabulous eats without blowing a hole in the pocket. All by way of using online dining apps to find great dining deals.
Sometimes we can find outright discounts, as much as 50% off. This may look similar to credit card 1-for-1 offers, but you can’t dine alone with those.
(Yeah, I do enjoy eating solo occasionally.)
Other times, we would need to get creative by leveraging loyalty programs and special promo codes to save money. It’s not that hard, by the way.
To start off, let’s look at how to find meal deals with straight discounts.
eatigo App — (Off-Peak) Dining with (As Much As) 50% Discount
You may be familiar with Groupon (now called Fave) where deeply-discounted meal deals could be had. In fact, some of these offers were so hot that thousands upon thousands of users had paid Groupon money upfront to secure the deals.
As such, these favoured eating places would have business lined up for months on end. But there was a real problem: reserving a table can be trying and subject to daily quota. And your Groupons have expiry dates.
In short, you would have paid for a service which is yet to be rendered. Certainly not the best way as your funds are being tied up!
Enter eatigo, with a new twist of a solution.

With eatigo, one can enjoy as much as 50% off a meal, during time slots determined by the restaurant or food outlet. This model is much like hotel booking, where off-peak periods (seeing less demand) are priced much lower to attract customers.
I believe they call this approach “yield management” in the industry.
Which means that with some careful planning, an eatigo user can have a nice meal much cheaper. Meanwhile, the eating place gets more tables filled (during lull periods) and eatigo earns commissions (and possibly other marketing fees).
Everyone wins with this model 🙂
Do note that drinks and in-house promotional items like set lunch are excluded from discount considerations. And there may be service charge and GST to pay on top of the good-deal meal offer. Always read the T&Cs to avoid surprises.
eatigo Perks — Occasional Shopping Vouchers & Surprises
There isn’t a loyalty program with eatigo. Doesn’t really make sense as their users already enjoy deep discounts from food deals.
So there is no such thing as a sign-up bonus or any referral program of sorts. Anyone can sign up for an eatigo account without missing out on new-member deals.
This Just In: Sept 9, 2017
With the latest app update (version 3.2.3 on iOS), eatigo now has a referral program. Existing users can refer and earn points to exchange for $5 Grab ride discounts or Shopee vouchers.
New sign-ups via this member-get-member system earn points too and qualify for similar rewards, after fulfilling their first reservation on eatigo.
If you are new to eatigo and would like to earn a reward quickly, click my referral link to sign up (on your mobile browser) 🙂 Or if you’ve just downloaded the app, enter “markheng” as the referral code when registering.
However, once in a while, eatigo dangles limited-time carrots to tease users into using their app to make more bookings. I’m sure they won’t want customers to go elsewhere, as in use another service or app.

Typically, the reward will be in the form of shopping vouchers — I’ve seen $5 vouchers from Lazada, CapitalLand Mall and Shopee being given away.
Lately, they dished out Golden Village cinema passes. Even opportunities to participate in a lucky draw to win a staycation at One Farrer Hotel & Spa.
All one has to do is key in the appropriate valid promo code when making an online restaurant reservation.
And because the codes are usually valid for only a day, an eatigo user must be quick to decide where he or she wants to dine at. Luckily, the reservation date can be up to a month in advance.
As long as no cancellation is done and the booking has been attended, the extra reward can be redeemed afterwards.
Not too shabby, I’d say of this eatigo perk.
Favourite Online Dining Bookings with eatigo
One of my favourite food is shabu-shabu, that Japanese hotpot meal.
To me, this is nice comfort food. And if there is a buffet option, that’s an even better way to reward myself for getting things done.
On eatigo, a popular eating place to enjoy a shabu buffet is Suki-ya. They have a few outlets in Singapore — the one at Kovan’s Heartland Mall is both good and convenient.
A 40% discount is the norm, though there are 50%-off slots nearer the end of their lunch and dinner periods. With such a fantastic offer, it’s no surprise eatigo users are quick to snap it up — the restaurant often sees a steady flow of customers throughout the day.

More into seafood? If you like fish and chips or grilled seafood, you can use eatigo to dine at Manhattan Fish Market and go easy on your pocket. Try other places, too.
And if you are adventurous and want fine dining, head to Royale @ Mecure Singapore Bugis — this hotel is on Middle Road — and savour their delectable beef steaks. Book a 5pm early dinner and pay only half 🙂
Anyway, as you browse the various meal offers on the eatigo app, let your eyes guide you to deals which make you salivate; and let that tummy be satisfied. Yeah!
Online Dining Apps Are Definitely Red Hot!
As you can see, online dining apps like eatigo are the way to go when it comes to enjoying nice food without spending a bundle.
Plus you get the no-fuss way to reserve your table, any time you like. No more calling restaurants and speaking with sometimes unfriendly staff; or being put on hold and wasting time.
Simply launch the eatigo app and get busy hunting down a nice place to eat at. By picking time slots on days which offer deeper discounts, your pocket will definitely thank you for saving big.
Remember, you can easily reserve a table up to 30 days into the future. Or even book one last-minute, if that need arises.
And don’t forget to cash in on promo codes for those extra rewards.
Serving Up More Reservation Apps… Next Week
In the next post, I’ll let you in on 2 more dining reservations apps to whet your appetite. With these and eatigo, soon you’ll be treating yourself to free meals.
Yes, you heard that right. If you do your sums right, you can indeed enjoy a free lunch with online dining reservations.
So, look out for next week’s discussion. In the meantime, have fun eating out with the eatigo app and saving money on good eats.
And if you’ve been to a terrific restaurant or had yummy food by way of eatigo, please comment below so that I can go eat too 🙂
Recent Comments