Living right outside of a major city, we spend a lot of time dipping in to try out new foods and places to eat. We love eating out, but often when trying to find a new place to eat, you never know how busy they are going to be on the day that you want to eat. This is where booking comes into play – booking ahead of time ensures you have a table ready for you at the time you want to eat at. Calling in to book a table can feel awkward, but with the power of the internet, there are a number of ways to actually book online and save that awkward phone call. Many of these websites also have additional benefits, which are worth considering when picking what to use. Many of these websites also provide a bunch of restaurants and ratings, which means that you are getting opinions and options to go along with your booking.
ResDiary
ResDiary allows you to pick a general location, number of people, date and time before showing a bunch of different options as to where you can book. Once you have your list, you can sort options by price, cuisine and exact location to book where you want to go. Once you find a slot you are interested in, the interface lets you know what type of booking and if it requires a card to be entered into the system. Some restaurants have been set up to allow you to pick if you want an upstairs or downstairs booking while others are more straight forward with no options and just need you to fill out your information. ResDiary is a very simple and clean website with a few options, giving you the basics that you need to find and book a restaurant.
Square Meal
Square Meal works much like the previous website, in the way that you can search for a location – or a direct name of a place you want to eat at, and then get a list of restaurants to choose from there, however there are far more options when it comes to sorting on Square Meal. You can pick by distance to the area you have selected, price, cuisine, restaurant type, food occasions, ambiance, award received, special features like being dog friendly or having a chef’s table, and more. There are so many different filters – you can end up with the perfect place to eat for the specific time that you want to go out. It’s a really neat way to find exactly what you’re looking for. Square Meal also do restaurant gift vouchers, which allow you to purchase a set amount of money in the form of a gift voucher, which can then be used at a large number of restaurants that are currently working with Square Meal. It’s a nice little gift and you can pick the various designs you’d like the card to have too.
Yelp
I feel like everyone has heard of Yelp as a restaurant review website, but you can also book online using their site if you want to try out one of the many restaurants that they may or may not have reviews for. Unlike the previous two options, Yelp does also allow you to order take out from their website, meaning you can look for places to go in and eat at, or for something to be delivered to your home. There are less options when it comes to sorting; price, distance from the location you put in, the neighborhood the restaurant is in, and if it’s takeout or open are the main ones, but there are some other tabs like Hot and New, which provide some variety. I quite like the Hot and New section because it means that if you are eating in the same general area, you won’t be looking at the exact same list each time.
Open Table
Open Table is apart of Booking.com, and as such, has some sort of points system where you get discounts to magazine subscriptions and hotel bookings if you book tables through the website. This means that you can end up saving on other items, which is always a plus. Open Table also has a different option where you can book restaurants based on discounts or offers that they currently have listed. Like previous booking sites, they also allow you to filter via area, cuisine, rating, time of day, and seating options, but the most interesting thing for me is the offers, which include set menu prices, percentages off and even if you get a complimentary item. If you’re a more thrifty or spending conscientious person, these options are for you.
When it comes to getting out to new places, taking the time to use a website to book can not only end up giving helping you know more about the restaurant you are going too, but can also make sure that you are going to eat there at the time you want to book. It’s always worth taking the extra time to take a look online first!