Gourmet card or Tast Card?

holidaysforme

My gourmet card expires at the end of February.:( We have made good use of it, and made huge savings on restaurants especially when we have been to London on weekends away/short breaks.
I had the free trial of the taste card last year when it was Taste London,- although i now hear it has gone nationwide, which is why i'm more interested in it now.
I'm trying to decide whether to renew my Gourmet card, or give the taste card a try?
There are no special offers on for either at the moment, and i got my Gourmet card as a present last year,- so i guess i'll be paying full price, unless anyone knows if there are any other offers due to start!
Has anyone got any thoughts either way about which is best. Cant really remember much about the Taste card as we only used it twice. Are the offers/restaurants similar, and are there lots of restaurants which exclude weekends and December (my one bugbear about the gourmet card)
Love to hear your thoughts:)

Yinster

Taste has an one month trial period http://www. tastecard.co.uk /trial/web (take away the spaces) so you can try before you buy. They did offer a three month trial not so long ago on MSE.

As for which card to get, it all depends on which restaurants you use the most on each list. Some are duplicates like pizza express (Has anyone ever ate at Pizza express without using any of the offers available) but then there are individual restaurants which are one or the other. So guess it is down to personal choice

donquine

Never used Gourmet Card. I have however used Taste London (as it was previously) and Tastecard.

Tastecard obviously has the most restaurants in London, being more established down there and London being huge, but their marketing guys are making good progress and signing up more restaurants nationally. Some cities have quite a good selection of restaurants - others are getting there more slowly. I would recommend going to the Tastecard website and plugging in your postcode to see what the coverage is near you. It can be a little hit and miss in some parts of the country.

There are restaurants that exclude December, Fridays and Saturdays, but we're happy to eat out midweek for 50% off! Plus, there are lots of restaurants without such restrictions. Never had a real problem using my Tastecard either - although when some restaurants are new to the scheme, the staff initially don't know what to do with it.

Don't know what Gourmet Card is like, but I'd definitely recommend Tastecard assuming you don't live in the back end of nowhere. FYI, the full price is £70, but there are regularly offers for between £30 and £50. You can make back your card fee quite quickly, but if you can get it for less... well, why wouldn't you? Happy eating!

holidaysforme

Thanks for the info. Not sure i'll get the taste trial again , as i had a free one last year, and it doesn't let you sign up again.
I've looked up the Taste website, and unlike the gourmet one it allows you to to search for restaurants, and see what the deal available is,- ie 241 or 50% off food, without being an existing member.
This is great as it gives you a flavour of what's available, and you can compare and contrast.
Yes, all the usual suspects are in there,- Pizza Express etc,- and no I dont know anyone who ever eats in here withouth some kind of deal or other. I certainly would never pay full price:D
One of my favourite indian restaurants which is not in the gourmet guide is in taste,- 50% off bill, but excludes Weekends,- whereas another favourite indian which is in the gourmet guide includes weekends but offeres 242,- so i guess it's swings and roundabouts really.
Gourmet card is 50% off food in cafe rouge, but again excludes weekends, but taste is 241 but if i remember correctly includes Fridays. Again swings and roundabouts.
Might just do a straight price comparisan, and allow the price to be the decider;)

susan2010

You could always ask one of your family members to take the trial out. Like your mum or hubby. or whoever it is you are planning to go with.

susan2010

just noticed redjesters post do know how to link it...but it reads:

12month taste card for £10

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A tastecard membership gives you 50% off the total food bill or 2 meals for the price of 1 at all 4,500+ participating restaurants. What's more; you can always order from the full a la carte menu, so your choice will not be restricted in any way.


There is a way to get the card for £10 (usually £69).


All you will need to do is either call up or the Carphone 0870 087 0870 and take out the Talk Mobile sim only 30 day rolling contract and quote free taste card offer.


The cheapest plan they have is £5.11 pcm.


You will be sent your sim and taste card voucher (requires you to claim online before 28th Feb 2011).
Once the Taste card enjoy getting 50% or 241 meals.



As this is a 30day rolling contract all you will have to do is call them up after the first month and cancel your contract,

holidaysforme

Thanks all. I have ordered a gourmet card through Tesco deals. Had no idea they were on it. It was only when i was browsing on their website a few days ago that i came across it.
It cost 10 in vouchers,- which is exactly what i had left:j
Also, hubby managed to order a taste card, for a three month free trial, so i have the best of both worlds. Looking forward to using both when we are away for half term in London:D

holidaysforme

Was looking at the list of restaurants in detail last night on the Taste website. Very didsapointed to see that there are practically none available for weekend nights.
While we do go during the week sometimes, i really like to do the majority of my dining out at the weekend, as i suspect most people do.
The gourmet card while having restrictions also for weekends, have many others which are available particularly on Fridays.
Glad i went for the gourmet card now as i feel there are less restrictions than with taste.
Will use my free taste card though, as one of my local indian restaurants is in it offering 50% off food:)

holidaysforme

Meant to ask if anyone else found the restrictions at the weekend put them off buying Taste, or they were happy to eat out during the week for the discount.

donquine

holidaysforme wrote: »

Was looking at the list of restaurants in detail last night on the Taste website. Very didsapointed to see that there are practically none available for weekend nights.
While we do go during the week sometimes, i really like to do the majority of my dining out at the weekend, as i suspect most people do.

To be honest, we're both usually exhausted from full-time work by Friday night and OH sometimes works on a Saturday too, so eating out on a Sunday when we're both more rested works out quite nicely for us. The exclusions tend to be Friday and Saturday only, which leaves Sunday for cheap eats.

If we want to not cook on a Friday, well, there's usually a good deal on delivery with Pizza Hut or Dominos (50% off at our local ones at the moment, I think). Not quite as swish as eating out at some of the places with Tastecard, but still a treat!

Hope you have a great half term. There are some fantastic restaurants in London signed up to Tastecard. I know we've eaten at some places before there that we wouldn't have known about, or thought to try if we did, purely because they've offered us 50% off. We've had some great discounted meals down south.

holidaysforme

Yes good point. I suppose i'm thinking mainly of holidays/weekends away when you need availability for fridays and Saturday nights, as in when we are away next weekend for half term.
when we're at home we're quite happy to go out Thursday night, and to eat out as a family on Sunday.
Can take advantage of lots of restaurants both on taste and gourmet that way so not complaining really.
We dont do plush that often, and our favourite is indian and pizza,- so fairly easily pleased.:)
Anyway, have booked an indian restaurant for Saturday night near our hotel on Gourmet card, and pizza express with our tesco clubcard vouchers for Friday.
Will leave Sunday open, and hopefully our free taste card will have arrived by then and we can have a look at what's available for Sunday.
Hoping it will be a fairly inexpensive weekend, - well as inexpensive as London ever is:p