Gift Cards to Multiple Restaurants?

Does anyone know of gift cards that are available that would be useable at multiple different restaurants in the area, particularly in the northern suburbs? I know that Lettuce Entertain You has gift cards that can be used at any of their locations, so I'm looking for other similar options that may have more north suburban locations. Thanks for any help.

The Francesca's chain has a program with numerous suburban locations.

Depends on how "chainy" you want to go. The Darden group has gift cards good for all their restaurants: Seasons 52, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, The Capital Grille, Eddie V's, and Yard House.

I think most of the restaurant groups offer these kinds of multi-restaurant cards. It just depends on how picky you are. I think Lettuce Entertain You is probably the high end of multi-restaurant groups.

A gift card from www.restaurant.com should work for you.

Cynthia wrote:Depends on how "chainy" you want to go. The Darden group has gift cards good for all their restaurants: Seasons 52, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, The Capital Grille, Eddie V's, and Yard House.

I think most of the restaurant groups offer these kinds of multi-restaurant cards. It just depends on how picky you are. I think Lettuce Entertain You is probably the high end of multi-restaurant groups.

Yup. Levy restaurants is another example. Their gift cards are good at their restaurants (local ones include Spiaggia, Cafe Spiaggia, Bar Toma, Fulton's, Jake Melnick's) as well as in certain restaurants at local sports venues. But they're not in the north suburbs.

Another option is pizza; you can buy gift cards for Lou Malnati's or Giordano's, each of which has numerous locations in the northern 'burbs. And if you like to go out for brunch, there's Walker Brothers. Dengeo's, for gyros/burgers/etc, has a couple of locations up north, as does Mia Francesca, mentioned above. But each of these just offers the same concept at multiple locations; they don't offer different concepts the way Lettuce Entertain You and Darden do.

An advantage of several of these restaurant groups is that, this time of year, for each $100 of gift cards you buy, you get $20-25 of lightly-restricted bonus gift cards for free. I know you get bonus gift cards this time of year at Lettuce Entertain You, Darden, Levy, Lou Malnati's, Walker Brothers, and Dengeo's. (Heck, I buy gift cards for myself at places that are part of my regular rotation, since the bonuses make it a good deal and I know I'll spend it.)

You can also buy gift cards through American Express that are good at any restaurant that accepts their credit card. No bonus gift cards that way, though, and I think they charge for shipping/handling on top of the gift card amount.

BTW, you may or may not be familiar with the options Lettuce Entertain You has in the northern suburbs; they include L. Woods in Lincolnwood, Di Pescara in Northbrook, Maggiano's in Skokie (technically not part of LEY but they honor their gift cards), and Wildfire in Glenview and Lincolnshire. They and Darden probably offer the greatest variety of concepts in the northern suburbs.

Dave148 wrote:A gift card from http://www.restaurant.com should work for you.

I'd suggest becoming familiar with what your gift card dollars can buy on that site, before deciding to give it as a gift. Most of what you can buy there consists of discounts on dinners, rather than a complete dinner; for example, for $25 (or using $25 of the gift card you give them), you can buy a gift card worth $50 off at a given restaurant where you're probably going to spend $100-200. I'm not saying it's not worth it, but if the objective is to give a friend or relative an "all-expenses-paid free dinner", this won't do it at most places.

You could always use something like a Visa Gift Card, that should be good aywhere credit cards are acepted.