Find & Book Restaurants Online

Going out to a restaurant is the perfect way to treat your family, loved ones or of course to impress potential partners or new work colleagues.  Finding restaurants and booking reservations is now easier than ever with apps and sites that can do just about everything you ask of them.

The simplest route is just to browse and find contact details, parking, reviews and of course the menus and wine lists. In fact most restaurants now provide this themselves, meaning you just need to be decisive!

Something Different?

Using the Internet for locating a restaurant is all well and good, but what if you fancy something a little different? The Ivy or a Heston Gastronomic Experience, through to fish and chips in a rural pub, the list is endless.  Smartphones now enable you to dissect and divulge a huge amount of information in minutes. From reviews through to comparisons, through to profiling your eating experiences to suggest new places to go.

There's a multitude of apps and websites that can help you along the way, so whether it's an Indian or a Fish and Chip shop you want, your phone and PC can unlock any number of quick and simple ways to get you that table you really want.

Booking Your Table

You've chosen your food and the place you want to go, managed to find a date and time that suits and now you need to book. But you can never get through when it's convenient for you to call.

The simplest way is to use any one of a number of different online booking systems. Some restaurants will have their own booking systems on their websites - so start there if you can. Alternatively, why not use sites like :

• www.bookatable.co.uk
• www.opentable.co.uk (was toptable back in the day!)

Simple and easy to add your details and book your table for the times you want. Not all restaurants are listed on these sites - but a huge number are, especially in the larger towns and cities.

Don't Forget Discount Vouchers

Ok so if you're thinking the Ivy or any number of top tier restaurants, you may want to skip this section - they don't do discount codes, 2 for 1 meals or happy hour cocktails! With a year or more waiting list for peak periods, there's absolutely no need to.

Recent trends have seen a huge rise in vouchers and deal codes for a range of eating places - especially to drum up business through the quieter periods of the week when filling tables is more of an issue. Always check your vouchers as they are pretty much exclusively for Mondays to Thursdays before a 7pm evening slot. Deals will vary, but saving up to 50% on your meals or getting a free bottle of wine up to £20 are popular and can save you a lot of money.

Your Choices

Eating out is one of the fastest growing areas that families and couples are spending money on - despite the economic downturn. This has also seen a huge explosion in the type and nature of places to eat out. From vegetarian fine dining to vegan bites, steak houses to sushi bars. The problem is that lots of chains and gourmet restaurants are sucking the life out of the real gems - the independent cafes and restaurants for Greek, Italian or French foods.

We're talking Jamie's, Nando's, 5 Guys, Pizza Express. Easy and quick to turn to, they use a lot of processed menu's to ensure same standard food every time - gone is the home cooking and hand made menu dishes that are the real eating out experience.

In Summary

Booking a table and finding places to eat out will not be an issue unless you live in a very rural part of the UK. Choosing the right eating venue for your tastes should also be fairly straight-forward. Finding quality - now that's down to your discretion and palette!