Hi-Life Dining Card - any feedback?

B

Bazoo

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Got a leaflet with Sunday Independent yesterday to apply for one of these cards. There's a special offer on at the moment of €69.95 instead of €99.95. For that you get a membership card with a 300 page directory of restaurants where you can save 50% each time you dine out at listed restaurants for 1 year.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of this card. It seems like a good offer and there's a comprehensive range of restaurants included in the Dublin area. I've checked the website [broken link removed] and while it would be my assumption that wine is NOT included with the meal price, this isn't specifically stated anywhere. I'd be more concerned about whether there are any restrictions with the card such as for example when you are booking the table for say a Saturday night and have to mention the card when booking you might be told there's no available tables?? The impression from the few FAQ's on the website is that there are no restrictions on its use. If this were the case I think the card would pay for itself with one or two uses. I'd be interested in feedback from anyone. Thanks
 
I heard about this offer recently but decided against it because the choice of restaurants is quite limited. There are an awful lot of apache pizzas and milanos in the list for Dublin. the choice outside Dublin is even poorer. From what I remember there are no restrictions as to use and you just produce the card when asking for the bill. On the face of it though you could recoup the cost at somewhere like Shanahans on the Green in one sitting.
 
I signed up for this at the Taste of Dublin and it arrived last week but I haven't used it yet. There are a good few restaurants in Dublin that I'd be happy to go to.

On the back of the card is a list of numbers and if you've used the card at a restaurant they can mark off their number and so you can't use the card there again. This wasn't mentioned on the website or by the bloke at the Taste of Dublin when I asked him if there were any restrictions. The book that comes with the card says that most places don't mark off their number allowing you to use the card again.
 

That's not particularly satisfactory really. My impression would have been that the card gave (and ought to give) unlimited use for a year in whichever restaurants you chose to visit. There's a few restaurants on the list that I would prefer to visit 3 times in a year rather than going to the likes of Milano 10 times. I'd like this clarified before we decide whether to go with the card. You can be sure that if it's a one use only jobbie, that Shanahans will be marking their number off. Other half said it would be worth getting for Shanahan's alone so we'll see!
 
Well I used my hi life card for the first time yesterday. I was in a restaurant and only noticed after we ordered that they had leaflets for the card at the front desk. When the starters arrived I asked if I could use the card and the waiter said he'd check. He never got back to me.

At the end of the meal I asked for the bill and gave my card. They hadn't a clue what to do as nobody had used one before so they went off to check the terms and conditions and we ended up getting the cost of one starter and one main course taken away (we didn't have dessert). So the card has almost paid for itself now.

They didn't mark off the back of the card so I'll be able to use it there again.
 
I hate to say but I've been to Shanahan's twice (with work and it's really quite poor - great service but very sub-par steak
 
There is a similar card and booklet available that I have used in the past-can't think of the name-where there is a card for the 20 'premium' restaurants and vouchers for the rest. Our 'card was marked' whenever we used it. At around €50/€60 it was very good value, with a wide choice of restaurants in Dublin and surrounding counties. We went to a lot of places we wouldn't have thought of going to before because we had 2 for 1 meals, and have been back to many of them since.
 
According to the book "Hugos is taking Dublin by storm" - Hugos hasn't even opened yet!
 
Tarquin said:
I noticed though that a lot of the restaurants won't let you use the card on Friday and/or Saturday nights and/or special dates such as Valentines night or Mother's day.
Click to expand...


No Fridays or Saturdays is fairly poor form-the card I mentioned earlier didn't have such restrictions (I'll find out the name later).
 
That's it and that's what I thought it was, but was searching for 'Ez-Living' which is what not good to eat!
 
Hi there,
I used my Hi life card in Odessa last week. They accepted it no problem but did mark the back of it so I won't be able to go back there.
I had actually emailed the hi life people before and they reckoned almost no restaurant marks the back.....

M.
 
Just to flag some issues with this card as the advertising is somewhat misleading:

- The main issue is that in most places you can only use it once. They mark your card so they know you have been before. This is buried in the small print in the booklet you get. The advertising wording is carefully chosen to give the impression you can use it over and over again.... you can so long as you keep going to different restaurants!!

- Shanahans has been withdrawn from the list (presumably every who got the card rushed there first!)

- You have to ring ahead and say you are using the card, and it's at the restaurant's discretion to accept your booking or not.

- It is usually not valid on Fridays or Saturdays (or indeed Thursdays in some places).

So, is it worth it? Well maybe if you eat out a lot mid-week (in different restaurants) then you could probably recoup the cost fairly quickly. For most people however, I doubt that is the case. I assume the whole scheme depends on a high number of people just not getting to use it.

There is a 'no quibble' money-back guarantee if you don't like it after you bought it.
 
Banking2006 said:
Ezyliving is probably the other card referred to

think [broken link removed] or www.ezyliving.com
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Checked the above links and received the following

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] a) www.ezyliving.ie[/FONT] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We've just hosted our site with ...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]... but we haven't moved in yet.[/FONT]
-----------------------------

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]b) www.ezyliving.com[/FONT]
This domain name was recently registered\purchased.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]-----------------------------[/FONT]


Any other suggestions?



[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/FONT]
[/FONT]
 
Has anyone used this card recently? Pigsback are doing a deal where you can buy membership for €25 at the moment. Just wondering if people had any issues using the card? Is it true you can't use it Fri/Sat nights?
 
Hi test123. It may be a little late as Pigsback is not doing that deal anymore but I did get my Hi-Life card through Pigsback, used some of my Piggypoints so technically it did not cost me anything really.
I came across that card a few years back and never got around to getting it. We would eat out quite a lot and if you are willing to eat out mid week then this is for you. There are a lot, but not all, of restaurants that do not accept bookings for a Frid/Sat night.
I, myself, was not aware of the a)Frid/Sat restrictions and b)restauirant crossing at the back meaning you can not go back there. I was a bit annoyed about that as they should be straightforward about this.
Otherwise, I am very happy with my card:my partner and I have been trying new restaurants and by now (although it has not been that long) I got my money back! well, my Piggypoints!
 
I've seen the Hi-life card come up on a few deal sites over the last couple of months. It's currently on eurdeal, with 1 day, 6 hours left. If you miss that then keep an eye on mad4deals . com for it, I'm sure it will come up again.

That's a site I set up as a hobby, it lists most of the daily deals available in Ireland. Don't want to mention it without saying that I am associated with it.
 
There's a Hi-Life "€22.50 instead of €49.95 for a Hi-Life Diners Card 12 month membership" deal available today.... I came across it under the "Food and Drink" section of mad4deals . com
 
This deal often comes back on pigsback.com, dealrush.ie and todaydeals.ie. There is no reason to pay full price for that card. See previous post in this thread: we are still getting great use out of that card and I got it for a few friends (when on offer on those deals websites).
 
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