Coupons anyone?

For date night last week, I proposed to Steve that we get a coupon off http://www.restaurant.com/ to use that night.  A friend of mine is the President of the company and I love to support friends' businesses.  Steve found a restaurant named Chatter's off Washington and bought the $50 coupon for $20, and after the source code only paid $4.  He almost bought the $75 one but after looking at the online menu and seeing that the most expensive item on it was the filet for about $25, I convinced him that we didn't need that much.  Thank goodness for my wisdom...well, almost.  After printing the coupon, I noticed the not-so-fine print that said "$100 minimum purchase" the $75 probably required a $150 purchase.  How the heck were the 2 of us going to spend $100 at this dinner?  Our game plan was this:

1. Get at least 1 bottle of wine
2. Order an appetizer
3. Each of us will get the filet
4. We will order at least one dessert

That should cover it.

When we got to the restaurant, the hostess immediately told us, with great excitement, that tonight was 1/2 price bottles of wine.  Doh!  There was still hope, we would just order the most expensive bottles on the menu...unfortunately for us, this place's wine selection stinks and the most expensive bottle was about $37.  We ordered one of those and then took a gander at the menu to find our filet and an appetizer we wanted.  Problem was, they changed the menu and the filet was no longer there.  Instead, the most expensive thing on the menu was about $17 and the special was only like $18.  This was beginning to get tricky. 

We ordered an appetizer and another bottle of wine because the first one was SOOOO bad we couldn't even choke down 1/2 a glass.  Most restaurants would have taken the bottle off the bill, but we were OK with paying for this one.  I ordered the short ribs that were just okay and Steve ordered the special which was the rib eye.  This "rib eye" was the worst cut of meat I have ever seen.  It was about 1/4" thick!  Aren't we in Texas!?!?  I have seriously seen better cuts of meat at the Waffle House.  Steve ordered it medium-rare and this thing was extremely well-done.  When our waitress came by to check on us, we weren't planning to complain, but I couldn't lie, I told her everything was just OK.  She saw how over-cooked Steve's steak was and insisted on replacing it.  She said it would only be a minute since it shouldn't take long to cook.  About 10 minutes later the manager came by to apologize and offer us a free dessert.  NO!  We want to pay for it!  About 5 minutes later, Steve's new steak showed up and I was sure they had burnt it in that amount of time.  It was actually cooked to order this time so things were looking up. 

We did a quick calculation in our heads of where we were $$$-wise and decided we needed more wine.  I was beginning to wonder if they would tack cab fare onto our bill if we were going to have another bottle.  Not to worry though, because this third bottle was just as bad as the first one.  The second one wasn't great but it was at least drinkable.  We ordered 2 desserts and the creme brulle cheesecake was the best thing to come out of this place all night.

The waitress brought the bill and they hadn't given us the free dessert, but that was okay with us because after all of this food and drink, our bill was...wait for it...$98.40.  I felt like this was a challenge on The Amazing Race and we were losing.  I went ahead and gave them the coupon and she informed me that we had to spend the $100.  Seriously?!?  I told her to ring in a coke or something to make it work.  After all of his wine, Steve said he would actually like an iced tea so she could bring us that.  They ran the bill for us and we left without ever getting Steve's tea. 

Moral of this story:

http://www.restaurant.com/ is great and everyone should try it...just be sure to read the minimum purchase amount.  Chatter's is far from great...don't go there.  (Did I forget to mention the upset stomach I had for 2 days after this meal?)  Don't let your husband pick the restaurant...If you want something done right, do it yourself.