Mystery dining

[UK Accountant]

Not sure if this was discussed already but in case it wasn't:

I am a member of a mystery dining website for over a year now and it's been such an awesome experience, in 15 months I've eaten out more than 150 times and had more than £4k reimbursed.

Some of the dines were quick lunches near work and some were dinners or weekend dines which made an excellent "excuse" to meet friends.

Advantages: "free" food, a great reason to meet friends and try new places.
Disadvantages: I think it's not too frugal, the reports you have to write can be long (so you're paying with your time) and it gets you used to eating out.

Would be interesting to hear your opinions about it.

[daverobev]

Interesting - sign up link? How does it work - does only one person get reimbursed or do you have to go with a group of so many people?

Presumably you keep credit card points, so that's an extra plus!

[RWD]

[...] in 15 months I've eaten out more than 150 times [...]

That would be my personal hell.

[UK Accountant]

@daverobev

Www.mysterydining.net
Some visits are for 1 person, some for 2 etc.
You get a budget for each visit that usualy covers me and my guest.

@RWD
Care to explain? I want to hear different opinions

[RWD]

@RWD
Care to explain? I want to hear different opinions

I hate going out to eat. It takes time to drive there, then you might have trouble finding parking, then you have to wait to be seated, wait for your order to be taken, wait for your food to come out, be interrupted by your waiter while eating, wait for the bill, then finally travel home. It drives me nuts. And that's when everything goes well. Add in the times there have been mistakes with food or the food just outright sucks and now I just avoid eating out whenever possible.

[KathrinS]

Sounds interesting, I might try it sometime! I've just started something similar, but with books (onlinebookclub) where you get books for free, and then you write a review about them. Sometimes you also get paid for it, but I'm still on my first one.

[vand]

Sounds interesting.

Personally we've started using the rather less sexy HelloFresh service (and very pleased with it, too). A bit less mysterious, but probably cheaper :)