Pay up front restaurant clubs

Anyone know of any groups where you pay money upfront to eat at a restaurant(s) and then do some type of review on the restaurant? Afterwards, you get your money back. So you end up eating for free.

A friend of mine mentioned this to me, but I haven't been able to find any information on my own. Does something like this really exist? If so, how do I get involved?

Good lord, if those existed, we'd all be out thousands and thousands of dollars...

Sounds like the secret shoppers most large chain retailers use, in which case your dining will probably be confined to TGIFs et al. Wouldn't eat there for free, myself...

Yes, my parents somehow got into this with Domino's pizza (I think it was Domino's). They had to fill out a survey, call in to do a survey, something like that.

I participate in them.... check out Mystery Guest Inc.

http://www.mysteryguestinc.com/MGI/

I do the mystery shopping routine 6-8 times a year for several clients. In many cases, it is a lot more work than it is worth. My dining companions love to go along as they get the free food and do not have to do all of the reporting.

There are several websites that can be Googled that are looking for new people. Make sure that you understand all of the requirements BEFORE signing up.

I posted some time back about my mother's experience as a secret rater for Red Lobster.

Foodie1, I'd love to hear whether your experience has been better.

Ann, the surveys required by MG is nothing like that of your mothers! Its all very easy and I finish in no more than 10-15 minutes. Notes I must comment on include service, timeliness, cleanliness of bathrooms, how servers answer questions and offer specials of the day, just overall service from the host/hostess to the time I leave the establishment.

The restaurants are always large chains, but also places I don't mind dining.

jlawrence01 wrote: Make sure that you understand all of the requirements BEFORE signing up.

Could you elaborate on what type of requirement you are referring to?

Darren72 wrote:

jlawrence01 wrote: Make sure that you understand all of the requirements BEFORE signing up.

Could you elaborate on what type of requirement you are referring to?

Some places have some significant requirements:

1) Long 2 page essays.
2) Extensive questionnaires requiring very extensive details.
3) Repeated follow-up calls.

Also, at least one of the mystery shopper positions that I was interviewed for was actually a private investigator type position where the company wanted the shopper to sit in the bar for several hours at a time to see if the bartenders were 1) pouring the proper amounts and 2) providing free drinks to individuals. If you saw anything improper, you had to be willing to appear in court. I declined on that one.

What I am trying to say is that a lot of these things aren't the deal they appear to be. If you get a free $15 meal, that's great. However, it is no great deal if it takes 2-3 hours of writing and multiple follow-ups.

Oh, and by the way, most of these folks make you wait 45 days before payment.

foodie1 wrote:The restaurants are always large chains, but also places I don't mind dining.

Could you elaborate? I'm wondering if I'm missing something, here...I read your posts and have visited your blog occasionally, and I have to admit I'm having a tough time picturing you willingly eating at Chili's.

* note, not shaming anyone for eating at Chili's or its ilk, just that in my experience, a free meal doesn't make the food better in an analogous manner to "you can't put a bag over her personality..."

jlawrence01 wrote:Some places have some significant requirements:

Thanks for the follow-up information about the restaurant review deals. Very interesting. I thought this might be fun to try if it was along the lines of "get a free meal and tell us about it." Alas, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Mhays wrote:

foodie1 wrote:The restaurants are always large chains, but also places I don't mind dining.

Could you elaborate? I'm wondering if I'm missing something, here...I read your posts and have visited your blog occasionally, and I have to admit I'm having a tough time picturing you willingly eating at Chili's.

* note, not shaming anyone for eating at Chili's or its ilk, just that in my experience, a free meal doesn't make the food better in an analogous manner to "you can't put a bag over her personality..."

I've done secret dining assignments at the following establishments:

Cheesecake Factory
Grand Luxe Cafe
Mad River Bar & Grille

The surveys (if memory serves me right) are in four steps:

LOGISTICS
- indicate host name or description
- indicate server name or description
- receipt details: store number, total cost, items ordered

RESTAURANT IMPRESSION
- was I greeted upon entering
- was the restaurant clean
- was the bathrooms clean
etc

SERVICE IMPRESSION
- was I informed of specials
- was my order correct
- was my order to my satifaction
etc

LASTING/OVERALL IMPRESSION
- was I thanked for my business
- would I return again
etc

The survey was structured with blank fields for me to write a short description or indicating my experience on a scale of 1-5. Definitely no essays involved.

I suggest signing up to check it out yourself and you're welcome to remove yourself from it if you find its not for you.

wow. thanks for all the responses. from my understanding, it didn't sound like a mystery shopper situation. seemed like it was more laid back, where you went with a group of people or something. who knows, maybe my friend just made it sound more appealing/fun rather than work. thanks for all your help!

For a couple of years, Mrs. JiLS did a lot of mystery shopping (mostly cell phone stores). As a reward for doing good work, they would give their best shoppers an occasional fine-dining job. These were always national chain steakhouses; we went to two or three dinners this way. The problem with the whole premise was that you were specifically required NOT to order a bottle of wine -- this at a steakhouse, where pricey wine is the one factor that will usually make a HUGE difference in the level of service you receive. Fair or not, the waitron who knows he/she is getting a $20 to $50 larger tip for almost zero extra service (i.e., the tip for the cost of the $100 plus bottle of wine), somehow finds a way to provide more accommodating service to the table providing said tip. Versus the pikers who order only one glass of wine each (the limit imposed by the mystery shopping company sponsor). And by the way, I don't believe that ordering a single glass of wine makes you a piker in any objective sense of the word; it's just how you compete with the typical expense account diner who keeps steakhouses afloat by buying trophy bottles of wine to impress his/her clients. But the fact is, by not sponsoring a realistic steakhouse dinner, these mystery shopping companies were undoubtedly receiving lots of skewed reports on service ("I could not believe how much time he spent chatting to that other table full of businessmen with three bottles of first-growth Bordeaux on the table! I couldn't even get a clean fork from him!")

palmo21 wrote:Anyone know of any groups where you pay money upfront to eat at a restaurant(s) and then do some type of review on the restaurant? Afterwards, you get your money back. So you end up eating for free.

A friend of mine mentioned this to me, but I haven't been able to find any information on my own. Does something like this really exist? If so, how do I get involved?

If this isn't mystery shopping, it sounds more like paid reviews meant to game sites like Metromix, Citysearch, and Yelp.

Some restaurants have put on free dinners for Yelp members. As you might guess, many of the guests then put up glowing reviews on Yelp. Some disclosed the meal, some didn't.

This just sounds like more of the same.

JimInLoganSquare wrote:The problem with the whole premise was that you were specifically required NOT to order a bottle of wine -- this at a steakhouse, where pricey wine is the one factor that will usually make a HUGE difference in the level of service you receive.

I dunno - If I were a CEO, I'd assume bigger-check clients were treated better than the average joe: I'd want to know how well an average joe is treated. I bet big spenders may make or break the individual place, but won't keep a national chain in the red.