Eatigo Is The Future

I was so happy with our dinner from Shi Lin last month that I decided to make a blog post about Eatigo.

. . .  congee with century egg - one of the many food items we ordered from shi lin

By the way, this is not a sponsored post. Just paying it forward because I was very satisfied with the app. Well, I’ve been a long time satisfied customer however I only get to realize that now. I am thankful because it made dining out possible for us with a tight budget.

I’d  like to share my thoughts about it and why I think this is our future - in dining out. 

I joined Eatigo last year upon seeing their ad on Instagram. What caught my eye was the 50% discount for my favorite restaurants like Ramen Nagi, Providore, some 5-Star hotel buffets, etc.

Another thing that enticed me to join is because it's free.

You might think this is too good to be true, right? So what’s the catch? Of course, there is a catch. The 50% discount offerings are available only during off peak hours. It means having meals at 3pm in the afternoon. Too early for dinner, too late for lunch. It is still possible to make reservations during peak hours but you will not be able to maximize the discounts. 

There were times though when they offered a 50% discount for the entire day which includes select partnered restaurants. However, that only happens every once in a while so you have to watch out and be updated on Eatigo’s promos.

So anyway, I gave Eatigo a try. I was curious on how it works and what it’s like. My first booking was at a restaurant called Smoking Joint. Thirty percent (30%) off for an early lunch at 11am. Our experience was pretty awesome. Tapioca loves barbecue and he loved everything we ordered. We enjoyed our meal and had a good time. There was no fee whatsoever collected and the promised discount was granted. 

the fambam at smoking joint . . . 

After that, I did not try to make another reservation. Don't get me wrong. It's not because I wasn’t satisfied. It’s just that some of the restaurants of our choice, those that were on our radar and been wanting to try so bad were not listed in the app. 

Our family loves going out to eat. We would like to go to different restaurants whenever our budget and time permit. Some people go on vacation to de-stress. Eating out is our way of relaxing and a family bonding time. We don’t mind paying full price for as long as the food is awesome, service is good and price is reasonable. 

The dining scene in Manila has gotten so huge there’s always new restaurants to try. So eventually, I have forgotten about Eatigo.

Now that our scenario has changed, so did our eating out habits. Before it was just me and Tapioca. Then it was me, Tapioca and the Munchkin. Later on, we started to bring with us Munchkin's nanny. Munchkin now orders her own food. And the most recent addition to the family is none other than the little Pumpkin who joins us along with his nanny. In short, our family got bigger and it means a bigger food bill when dining out.

You can just imagine how important it is for us to score a discount. It is such a big help. It minimizes our dining out budget and we get to save A LOT. Fifty percent is pretty much A BIG DEAL. 

Another thing that I only realized now is that it is also possible to try new restaurants through Eatigo. Trying new restaurants does not necessarily mean the hottest or more popular places. Would you believe that some of the restaurants we tried in Eatigo were like so off radar we didn’t know they existed? I mean, if it wasn’t for Eatigo, we wouldn’t know how good they truly are! I would love to blog about those restaurants if I get to it.

You may think everything about these would only benefit the consumers or the diners. What about the establishments, the restaurants, what do they get in return? 

Eatigo aims to help not just the consumers but food establishments as well. Restaurants get full during peak hours yet less people are dining in during off peak. The thing is, even if there are no diners, restaurant owners still have to pay their employees. They still have to pay rent, electricity and so on and so forth. They also keep perishable items that need to be consumed before they go bad.

Anyway, the point here is that Eatigo is encouraging diners to take advantage of the discounts and make adjustments and plan ahead when dining out. This would help them regain their losses during off-peak hours.

Not only that but as you know, peak hours are the most stressful. Too many diners fighting to get a table. Servers busily running around to serve food. Sometimes food gets switched or quality gets compromised. I have lost count of the number of times I've been to a restaurant packed full of people where the stress level is high. Everyone is stressed. The servers, the staff in the kitchen and diners bitchin' around because they're tired, hungry and their food is taking too long to be served.

Of course, this is just my opinion. I know every restaurant would love to serve as many customers as they can. More customers means more profit. I get that. But as a consumer, I really hate fighting for my table or for my server's attention.

I am aware that this will take some getting used to. I know that there are times when you just want to have an impromptu lunch or dinner. Again this is a matter of planning ahead and getting used to a new dining habit.

This in my opinion works better for me and my family. As a diner, I often get turned off when I have to fall in line for my food. It's just not fun anymore. Maybe when I was younger, I would never think twice and wait patiently for the next hottest table in the city. But that has changed. Instead of lining up, I will move on to the next restaurant with tables readily available. People with young children will understand this. Kids don't have patience, therefore we do not have the patience as well.

To be honest, I'm quite surprised that we're actually able to enjoy dining out during off peak hours. This is now our preferred time when we're eating out. There are less people and we have all the attention of the staff. And best of all we can take advantage of the discount from Eatigo's partnered restaurants.

If those are not good enough reasons to convince you to join Eatigo, then I don't know what else to say. Balakayojan. LOLOLOLOL!!!

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Shi Lin - Greenbelt

It's almost over. My 105-day maternity leave. We are still looking for a new nanny so good luck to us. Our funds are depleting but I told myself I deserve a good meal. Something I did not prepare or cook. This is how I de-stress. Food binge.

I know it's not right and very unhealthy, especially when you're getting old and all. But my mental health is more important right now. Healthy eating can wait.

To lessen the guilt of spending too much money on food, we availed of a discount from Eatigo. Hooray! I think Eatigo and I will be good pals from now on.

We made a reservation at Shi Lin. Tapioca was so looking forward to it because it's Chinese, his favorite.

. . . the facade

We were a few minutes early for our reservation but they accommodated us right away. Although the restaurant was not full, they made all dining customers gather in this area close to the window. It's as if they wanted to say to everyone who passes by "Hey, look here! We're a full house coz our food is awesome!" They wouldn't let us transfer to another table considering we have a baby and a stroller.

If it wasn't for the Eatigo discount, I would have walked away. Like seriously! I guess this is the downside of dining when you do not pay full price. Luckily, the table behind us cleared out and I finally had room to walk and rock Pumpkin to sleep. Also, I was thankful they did not seat anybody at that table until we finished our meal. It's because they finally opened the area where we wanted to be seated originally.

Anyway, so much for that. Let's move on to the food. First to arrive on the table:

xiao long bao . . .

Tapioca approved. And so did the nanny. Though I must say, the skin was a little too thick to my liking.

. . . braised beef noodle soup

This was the nanny's order. It was super huge! We didn't expect it to be good for sharing. Tapioca liked the noodles. The beef pieces were freakin' soft and oh so tender! But then the soup was the total let down. It was on the sweet side. Also, it was served lukewarm. Unforch, we are not fans of sweet soup. But if you like the sweet kind like sukiyaki, then this one's for you.

hakaw . . .

This was just okay. Actually, I can't recall how it was. Perhaps I was busy taking care of Pumpkin when I ate them? I guess that's how forgettable these babies are. And that's bad considering I love hakaw.

. . . mapo tofu

Tapioca's choice. This was good but we had better.

shrimp and pork shaomai . . .

Aren't they pretty? I think they're the prettiest shaomai I've ever laid my eyes on. These were kinda big so you cannot eat them in one go. It had some soup inside just like xiao long bao. But, between the two? I'd still prefer the xiao long bao.

. . . salt and pepper squid

I'm not sure what happened to me but I have turned into a squid person. Every time I see squid/calamari on the menu, I just have to order it. Good thing it did not disappoint. I think it's better with fried rice but we didn't order any.

pork, salted egg & chorizo bun . . .

. . . the innards

This was super yummy. I'm not really into the bola-bola type of siopao but this was not your typical bola-bola. The meat filling was very flavorful and juicy. The salted egg wasn't overpowering. This kinda reminded me of the pan fried siopao we had from Lugang Cafe. It was Nanay's favorite so it goes to say that it reminded me of Nanay, too.

congee . . .

Jellybean's choice. This was the last to arrive. We thought they forgot about it. Once again, it came in a humongous bowl. Prolly good for 2-3 pax. No matter how good it was I knew for sure I wouldn't be able to finish it with all the other food we ordered.

Overall, we enjoyed our meal. So sulit the discount at half the price excluding drinks. It's just saddening that we can't take home the leftovers (Eatigo's terms and conditions). Well, technically we can. But if we take the leftovers home then we will have to pay them in full price. And that defeats the purpose of the discount.

I wish the waitstaff could have set our expectations. But oh well, we know better. Next time.

Or, could it be that they intentionally didn't really tell us? So we would feel guilty of having way too much uneaten food? Then we would have the urge to take it home instead and pay the full price? Whatever. Prolly just my mind playing what ifs. Lolz!!!!

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