Is That the Best Deal?

Each morning I eagerly check my e-mail for the day's restaurant deals from Groupon, Yelp, Livingsocial, Townhog and others. Most of the time, the promotion is the best I've seen, but a few times, I know other deals can be had at Restaurant.com.

Take, for example, today's sold-out Yelp Deal for Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe in Emeryville. $20 will get you $35 worth of food and drinks at the late-night spot for a 43% discount. But, doing some research on Restaurant.com, you could save 72% and get a $25 credit for $7 using this week's code MENU, good til the end of today.

From a percentage savings, Restaurant.com wins. The trade-off is that there are more restrictions. While the Yelp deal only has to be used within one visit by 2/18/2012, Restaurant.com can be used only for a dine-in dinner with a minimum purchase of $45 and an automatic 18% gratuity will be added to the bill.

So, depending on your dining preferences, one discount may be better than the other. Just be sure to check the fine print.

To find the latest Restaurant.com code (and they come out almost every week), go to the deal site Fatwallet.com and search for Restaurant.com. On top of the code discount, if you become a free Fatwallet.com member, you earn cash back. Current cash back for Restaurant.com is 24%, which brings the certificate cost down to $5.32.

A few sites also offer cash back on Groupon purchases. If you are a Discover credit card holder, you can earn cash back by shopping on discovercard.com. Last time I checked, cash back was a decent 15%. Or, make your Groupon purchases through Fatwallet for 6% cash back, or Ebates for 3% cashback.

Photo: wellheeledblog.com