As a savvy consumer, I tend to choose where to eat based on what discounts or promotions are available there and then for me to lower my bill. One of the newest ways to do so can now be found in an app already in your phone – Grab – via its latest Dine-in feature. But is this any good, and what kind of cost savings can you expect? I tried it out for 2 weeks and here’s my verdict.
“Where should we eat later?” is one of the most often-asked questions in my family.
Quite often, my husband’s response is “Anything lor”, which means it almost always boils down to me to make a decision.
Unless we have a serious craving for a particular food or place, I’m not ashamed to say that most of the time, I tend to decide where to eat based on where we can get discounts – be it through an app, a credit card dining offer, or even an ongoing promotion. After all, who doesn’t like getting more bang for one’s buck?
As a savvy consumer, you’d want to always use dining discounts to reduce your bill wherever available. And if you’re already going to eat out, you might as well use the vouchers available – it is a no brainer, especially if you’re a budget babe like me!
So when Grab launched their latest Dine-in feature earlier this month, I was excited to find out if it could be another way for me to pay less and save whenever I eat out.
How to use GrabFood Dine-in to save money
If you didn’t already notice, GrabFood Dine-in has tons of dining vouchers that you can use to save money, with some merchants offering as much as up to 50% off. The feature also allows us to pre-purchase these discounted dine-in vouchers, view restaurant menus and consumer reviews, and even book rides to the restaurants if you need to.
I prefer to purchase the vouchers right before I head down to the restaurant, although if your plans change, you can always still use them at another time within 90 days.
Here’s a quick how-to guide:
- Check out the dining deals by tapping “More” > “Food” > “Dine-In” (or, you can also go via “Food” and “Dine-in”) in your Grab app
- Look for nearby restaurants or brands, or filter according to your preferences such as cuisine types or popularity
- View the dining vouchers available
- Still can’t decide? Browse the menu and read reviews to help you make a decision.
- Pre-purchase the vouchers you want, and you’re done!
Some of the vouchers are time-sensitive (e.g. before 5pm / 9pm on weekends) so do make sure you read the terms before buying.
My review and experience
As Budget Babe, I’m loving the new feature because it has saved me a ton of headaches in deciding where to eat, while helping me save money at the same time!For instance, I spotted a 20% off voucher on Sakae Sushi last week, so I quickly pre-purchased that and we headed down to the restaurant that very same day for our weekend dinner! When I posted about it on Instagram, I received tons of enquiries from followers wanting to know where the place was.
Having frequented Sakae Sushi as a teenager, it felt nostalgic to revisit the restaurant and see for myself how different their dining concept is now after the revamp. The cooked dishes were amazing, and I can totally foresee myself coming back here again.
If not for GrabFood Dine-in, I would probably not have rediscovered this place.
You can find your dining vouchers at the top right corner of your Food page. As you can see, we also managed to snag a 50% off voucher at A-One shortly after!
Claiming the vouchers was a breeze – all I had to do was to present the voucher at the cashier, where they deducted the amount off my bill. There were no payment restrictions either – you can choose to pay with Grab, or any other payment modes that you prefer.
Over the weekend, my eldest son requested to eat at a pasta place, so I opened up the app the night before and spotted a 25% dining voucher that I could use.
It has been a while since our last visit to PastaMania, but since there’s savings, why not?! So not only did my son get his pasta craving satisfied, but I only got to save money at the same time – that’s a win-win!
PastaMania has a $9.90 Kids Meal set which I find quite value-for-money, as it includes a pasta dish, a side and a drink. Everything you see on the tray in the photo above is from the kids meal set alone!
What I liked about GrabFood Dine-in
It is a no-brainer to look for discounts while eating out, and as someone who doesn’t eat out all the time, I appreciate that I now have another option to enjoy more savings without having to download a separate app.
Right now, you can already get 20% deals at Little Caesars (pizza), Chong Qing Grilled Fish and Monster Curry, to name a few. There are currently 40 brands in the beta phase, and I can imagine more merchants will be willing to come onboard as more consumers like us continue to use and show support for the deals.
I also spotted 20% off one of our favourite K-BBQ places – 8 Korean BBQ – so we purchased that for a family celebratory meal. Check out what we ate!
There’s free flow of banchan (side dishes), and we topped up the bean sprouts at least thrice?! At 8 Korean BBQ, the staff grills the meat for you, and I highly recommend getting the Wild Mushrooms set because it soaks up all the grilled oil goodness from your meat, resulting in incredibly flavourful mushrooms!
For those of you who like cafe food, you might appreciate the deals for Keong Saik Bakery, Flipper’s and more. Having just eaten pancakes at Flipper’s last month, I’m a little disappointed I didn’t find this deal sooner!
And if you’re working in the CBD, Sarnies is quite well-known for their coffee as well as an after-work date:
Within just the last 2 weeks of using the feature, I’ve already seen new merchants pop up on the app, so kudos to the Grab team for working hard to increase the variety and bring onboard more partners!
Save up to 50% when you eat out
If you’re always on the lookout for discounts and vouchers (like me), you’re gonna love the GrabFood Dine-in feature for the savings it offers. The next time before you head out for a meal, pause and check first to see if there’s a discount you can get on Grab!
This is also more convenient, now that we don’t have to download the restaurant’s menu separately (simply click to view in-app), nor do we need to search Google reviews for what other consumers are saying about the food.
Getting 20% to 30% off is a pretty easy feat, considering that describes the majority of the dining offers on the app right now *wink*
TLDR: If you’re always on the lookout for discounts and vouchers (like me), check out GrabFood Dine-in to save more when you eat out!
Sponsored Message by Grab
Planning to eat out?
Get up to 50% off GrabFood Dine-in vouchers from your favourite brands here today!
Disclosure: This is a sponsored review of Grab Dine-In, the latest feature to be available on the Singapore app. All the choices of food and restaurants reviewed were of my own.
