A restaurant voucher is a voucher given out to let you get a discount when you shop at the restaurant. Normally these are provided by either the company who own the restaurant, or by the individual restaurant itself and it’s management.

The idea of vouchers of this sort are to encourage you to eat at that venue rather than an alternative eatery.

Sometimes these vouchers are given out to customers who’ve already eaten there, to encourage them to return on another occasion – these sort of vouchers normally are to try and get people to come in at times that maybe aren’t normally as busy for the restaurant for example. Another sort of voucher that’s sometimes given out is one to encourage you to bring more people another time.

An alternative way that vouchers are given out is by mail shot where they target a particular area in a town by delivering leaflets through the door. These are sometimes delivered with local free papers, or with your post by royal mail.

When you get a voucher, it will generally explain how and when it can be used. For example it might say valid any day between 11:30am and 5:30pm, or it might say not valid between the hours of 6pm and 8pm. This is so that you can’t use the voucher to get a cheap meal at their busiest times, but have to come in during slightly quieter periods.

In order to use your voucher, you will have to take it with you to the restaurant, and often you have to tell them when you order that you have a voucher to use. This is generally just so that they know in advance and can point out any special features of the voucher like which parts of the menu you can order from, or any excluded items. Then, when it’s time to pay, you hand over the voucher and they deduct the correct amount from your total bill depending on the type of voucher you are using. It’s a very simple process and nothing to be worried or embarrassed about.

Many companies these days also offer vouchers on the internet. Sometimes these appear on there own site, but more frequently they appear on specialised websites that are there to tell you all about discounts that are available in various different eateries and other establishments.

It’s very worthwhile to look out for vouchers if you’re planning a meal out somewhere as they can substantially reduce the cost of eating out which can be very helpful indeed. Getting yourself onto mailing lists for your favourite establishments is also worthwhile because then you might even find you’ll be sent details of special deals and vouchers by e-mail or through the post as well.