Every restaurant discount app advertises the same thing: eat out, pay less. The differences are underneath, in how the discount is funded, what it applies to and what it costs you to use — and those differences decide whether you actually end up better off.
Rather than ranking specific apps, which changes by country and by month, here is the checklist to run any of them through. It takes about two minutes per app and it is the difference between a tool and a distraction.
1. What exactly is discounted?
The single most important question, and the one most often answered vaguely. A discount on the whole food bill is a very different product from a discount on a fixed two-course menu, which is different again from a percentage off a specific dish the kitchen wants to shift.
Look for the words. Fifty per cent off food, ordering freely from the standard menu, is the strongest form. Anything that restricts what you can order is worth less than its headline number suggests, because you are being sold the kitchen's surplus rather than its cooking.
- Whole food bill, standard menu: the strongest offer.
- Fixed set menu: weaker, and often built from the cheapest dishes.
- Single discounted dish or category: marketing rather than a discount.
2. Who pays for it?
Discounts are funded either by the restaurant paying commission, by you paying a booking fee, or by a subscription. This is not an accounting detail — it determines whether the offer survives.
Commission-funded discounts squeeze the kitchen exactly when it is already cutting its margin, so they tend to shrink, get restricted to bad tables or quietly disappear. Fee-funded models leave the restaurant's economics intact, which is why the discount tends to stay put. Filotimo uses the fee model, with a service charge starting at six euros for one person and no commission taken out of the restaurant's bill.
Read nextHow dining discount apps work, from the restaurant's side
3. What does it cost you per meal?
Work the arithmetic on a meal you would realistically have. A fee of six euros against a saving of ten on a solo dinner is not compelling. The same fee against a saving of forty on dinner for two is.
Then check the membership option. Any subscription is worth exactly the annual price divided by the per-booking fee it removes, expressed as a number of meals. If that number is larger than the number of times you eat out in a year, do not subscribe. Filotimo Pro removes the fee entirely and adds peak-hour access, which is a clear win for regulars and a waste of money for a fortnight's holiday.
| Question | Good answer | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| What is discounted? | Food, from the normal menu | A separate short menu |
| Who pays? | A stated fee or membership | "Free", with no explanation |
| What per meal? | A fee you can add up in advance | Charges revealed at the table |
| Booking or voucher? | A real reservation the kitchen sees | A code to argue about on arrival |
| Which restaurants? | Places that are busy at other hours | Places that are empty at every hour |
4. Is it a booking or a voucher?
A real reservation means the restaurant holds a table in your name and knows the discount applies before you arrive. A voucher means you turn up hoping, and negotiate at the door.
The difference shows up precisely when it matters — a full Friday, a small restaurant, a group of six. Ask whether the restaurant confirms, and what happens if it cannot seat you. Any platform that will not answer that clearly is selling vouchers with better graphic design.
5. Which restaurants are actually on it?
Open the app and look at the list before you judge the offer. If half the restaurants are places you would never eat at full price, the discount is not saving you money — it is buying you meals you did not want.
The right test is your own shortlist. Think of four restaurants you like in your city, and see how many are on the platform. Two out of four is a genuinely useful app. Zero out of four, with a hundred names you have never heard of, is a directory of restaurants that need help filling seats.
Compare the mechanics, not the marketing: what is discounted, who funds it, what it costs per meal, whether the table is really held, and whether the restaurants are ones you would choose anyway. Everything else is a logo.
How this guide is kept honest
Written in Athens by the team behind Filotimo, from the menus, prices and bookings we see across our partner restaurants. Prices move with the season and the street, so every figure here is a working range rather than a quote.