I don’t know about you, but looking for good food deals is something I’d do from time to time. And I do have more than one neat online reservation app up my sleeve for this 🙂

Though strictly speaking, booking apps are meant for reserving tables at restaurants and eateries. They help you avoid the hassle of calling the eating places and can give you an idea of available time slots up to one month down the road.

More often than not, it’s possible to enjoy discounts on meals via these apps. Direct deals, for example 1-for-1’s, may be offered by participating member restaurants.

In addition, such reservation platforms can have loyalty programs. Rewards earned here are usually tangible; indirectly, they can help offset dining expenses.

In this post, I’ll go into details by reviewing 2 apps which I’ve used: Quandoo and Chope. But first, a quick recap to make sure you aren’t missing out big time…

eatigo Reservation App — Enjoy Your Meal with 50% Discount

The benefit of using the eatigo app is so good that it bears repeating. Yes, you can get to eat nice food at up to 50% off!

Last week’s post was all about eatigo, as I began my piece about online dining and its perks. eatigo has become my go-to reservation app for a foodie quick fix 🙂 If you missed that article, click here to read it.

Quandoo Reservation App — Online Dining Reservations Made Easy

Quandoo is almost strictly for booking restaurant tables, instead of finding discounted meal offers like eatigo.

Quandoo splash page

Though they do have dining promotions with certain eating establishments from time to time, in the form of Smart Offers.

Notwithstanding this, the Quandoo reservation app is a nice tool which makes online dining reservations quick and fuss-free. Simply browse their collection of places to eat; decide on the place, date, time and party size; and you’re done.

Bookings are validated real-time, so you’ll get a confirmed reservation immediately if there is availability.

Unlike eatigo, there are more upmarket places to dine at with Quandoo. So if fine dining is your thing, use Quandoo to secure your table at your favourite restaurant, be it for a romantic date or an important business meeting.

Or just having a great dining experience with friends and family.

Quandoo Perks — Cashback is King!

Quandoo comes with a loyalty program.

When a new user sign ups. a welcome bonus of 400 loyalty points will be awarded. And when an online reservation is made and attended, 100 points will be added to the user’s account. With that, the user is already half-way to getting a cashback of S$15.

Yes, Quandoo rewards your loyalty with cash. You can claim your cashback reward as soon as you hit 1000 points. Or wait till you get to 5000 points for a S$75 “pay day”; or 10k points for double that cash amount 🙂

This money will be deposited into the bank account you specify during reward redemption.

And once a month — at least it has been like that for the past months — Quandoo gives out a promo code for users to score a cool thousand points with just a single reservation! That’s 10x the usual number of points for booking, mind you.

Plus a sure S$15 cashback reward to be had without even trying too hard.

There are other ways to earn Quandoo loyalty points. Check in to the app when you arrive at the eating place to earn 1 point. Snap and upload a photo of the nice food you’re having and get 5 points for each share*.

And write a review after your restaurant visit to earn 25 more points.

(Recently, Quandoo ran a promo giving out 250 points for each review! This special ends this coming Monday.)

All in, you can’t quarrel with this generous loyalty program in my opinion.

*I’ve no luck with those photo uploads yet. Seems like those pics I’d shared are all pending review…

BONUS

You can try the following promo codes to see if they are still valid:

  • QUANDOOMOMENT — get 1000 loyalty points for your reservation
  • SUNNYQ — another thousand points here, possibly
  • GRABDOO — more points, courtesy of Grab and Quandoo joint-promo

If these codes have already expired by the time you read this post, search online for current valid promo codes.

Favourite Dining Locations on Quandoo

I’ve come across some neat eating places with Quandoo.

A good one is Siam Village at Midpoint Orchard. Although this eatery is located in the basement foodcourt, there is delightful and wallet-friendly Thai food to be had.

On my visit, the tummy was well rewarded — I ate green curry with sliced beef, alongside basil pork with rice.

Really shiok 🙂

Siam Village Green Curry with Beef
Siam Village Basil Pork with Rice

Another eating venue worth checking out is The Workbench Bistro at Ang Mo Kio Ave 1. I’ll be doing just that some time this month. They have quite a few must-try dishes, so I’ll leave you to drool over them at this page.

Eat at Tapei is not bad if you like Chinese Food. I’ve tried their outlet at Kallang Wave Mall and was quite satisfied with their food. On my visit, they had a nice promo going on; so I ended up paying less.

But don’t just stop here. Discover other nice eating venues with Quandoo and share with me your finds by commenting on this post. Thank you in advance, as that will help me zoom in on more delectable eats 🙂

Chope — The Reservation App Rivalling Quandoo

And then there’s Chope, a reservation app which gives Quandoo a good run for their money.

If you’ve read one of my earlier posts, you’d learned that “chope” is a local word meaning to reserve. The word does carry some negative connotation, if you take the perspective of the ugly kiasu behaviour prevalent in Singapore.

Nevertheless, Chope is a decent online table booking app and its good collection of restaurants and ease of use drive home the point. If you need to reserve a table at a restaurant, simply chope it 🙂

On the Chope platform, there are dining deals to be enjoyed. Sometimes, these would be outright offers. Oftentimes, Chope vouchers* can be bought at a discount but used at face value.

Not bad really, as the alternative to Quandoo.

*Terms and conditions do apply, so read the fine print before buying vouchers.

Chope Perks — Vouchers and More…

Like Quandoo, Chope has a loyalty scheme for its users.

Chope-Dollars program

Known as “The Chope-Dollars Program”, it’s an easy way to earn dining perks with your restaurant bookings.

Unlike Quandoo, Chope’s loyalty program doesn’t award cashback. Restaurant vouchers are the mainstay, though recently new items have started to appear.

For a start, new sign-ups to Chope earn 200 Chope-Dollars if a current user refers them. You can click on my referral link if you’d like to collect your first 200C$.

Special note: If you have a Chope promo code for new users, use it first by making a reservation on your PC (with a desk-top web browser). Don’t use the mobile app yet…

Make your (first, but preferably subsequent) booking via Chope’s reservation app, using promo code “TRYAPPGL”, and net another 400 Chope-Dollars after fulfilling the reservation. That’s the same as S$10 in dining vouchers — it’s that easy!

(Once you’ve attended your first booking, Chope will reward me with 300C$ if you had used my link… Much thanks.)

As you get more Chope-Dollars, it’ll “cost” you less to trade in for high-value restaurant vouchers. You need only 700C$ for a S$20 voucher and just 1000 for S$30. Good deals here for saving up your loyalty dollars.

If you can’t decide, you can always exchange your Chope-Dollars for a Chope Shop Gift Card. Use the card to offset purchases at the Chope Shop or gift a friend a nice meal at selected restaurants.

New: You can now redeem 500C$ for a S$9.90 Shopee promo code, valid till end 2017.

There are also special promo codes you can use to enjoy Chope Exclusives: 1-for-1 meals and other dining discounts; or gain extra C$ for bookings. Searching online can help you get an idea of codes still valid for your use.

BONUS

Here are some Chope promo codes you can apply to see if still valid:

  • CHOPEGRAB — new users can earn 300 Chope-Dollars for their first booking**
  • CHOPESL — get 400 Chope-Dollars with any future reservation
  • nnnnnnVISACHOPE — 400C$ to be had when booking selected restaurants and paying with a VISA credit card; simply replace “nnnnnn” with the first 6 digits of your card

**For best mileage, only use the “TRYAPPGL” code (on the mobile app) after you’ve made a first reservation on your PC!

Favourite Places to Eat At with Chope

As shared in my eatigo post earlier, Ninja Cut was where I had a delectable rib eye roast beef with healthy sides. You may want to give them a shot and earn at least 100 Chope-Dollars with your booking 🙂

If you’re a thin-crust pizza lover like I am, head over to Spizza for this exquisite delight prepared in their wood-fired ovens. Both the Balmoral and Jalan Kayu outlets are good. Can never get enough of this special kinda of pizza, really!

Another great place to dine at with Chope is MEET Casual Dining located at City Square Mall.

Here, you can expect mid-priced Western food, like S$20 Wagyu beef burger and S$5 mushroom soup.

Quite nice, these.

MEET Casual Dining Wagyu Beef Burger
MEET Casual Dining Mushroom Soup

Chope actually hosts many high-end dining places, so you’d be spoiled for choice; and your wallet might hurt a little, lol. Don’t forget to check out the Chope Exclusives to save money, especially if you aren’t eating alone. Bon appetit.

What Are You Waiting For? Get ‘Em Dining Reservation Apps!

Now you know about the 3 online reservation apps I have on my mobile phone and how useful they can be. Are you tempted to try them? I bet you are; it’ll be less likely for anyone to say no to saving money while eating well 🙂

So, go download those apps and sign up for your new accounts. If you’d like to thank me for sharing these finds, you can always sign up using my referral links — eatigo sign-up / Chope sign-up. You win some, I win some too.

After this, whenever you crave good food or just wanna try something different, simply launch your reservation app of choice — eatigo, Quandoo or Chope — and get busy hunting down a nice place to eat at.

Better yet, have all 3 apps installed and make some comparisons before you decide.

And while you are at it, earn as much as you can from the loyalty programs.

There’s Such a Thing as Free Lunch, Almost

Yup, with online dining reservation perks, there are opportunities to score free lunches.

For example, a 50% off deal with eatigo essentially means you got a one-for-one deal. In a way, that’s a free meal for your partner or friend. Ok, we know drinks are excluded from the discount, but you can get creative, can’t you?

With Quandoo’s generous promo codes that are given out regularly, it’s not difficult at all to win a free lunch. If you are fortunate to land the 1000-point booking promo, that’s S$15 for you to buy a decent meal. And your points keep accumulating with written reviews and more reservations.

Chope is also good here. Their recent Visa card promo, for example, awarded a one-time 400 points for an online reservation. Attend the booking, pay with Visa and you’d won the equivalent of a S$10 dining voucher.

So, enjoy your gastronomic explorations with the help of your favourite online dining reservation app. And keep your eyes open to opportunities to score free meals.

Do share with me your food adventure by leaving your comments on this post.

The eating just doesn’t stop… 🙂