Eating out in the UK can end up being very expensive, most restuarants work to a 70% plus profit margin on food dishes and even higher on drinks. This means that a dish that cost £10 only cost the restaurant £3 in ingredients. So you really are just paying for the location and wages.

But all is not lost, if you do like eating out then a bit of forward planning can make all the difference and save you a fortune when it comes to paying the bill.

Below are some essential restaurant sites you should check out if you want to get a discount on your restaurant bill.

5pm.co.uk – 5pm.co.uk is always my first port of call when i’m scouting out a discount for a restaurant. 5pm.co.uk covers most UK cities and has a huge range of restaurants. Don’t be put off by the name most restaurant deals run from lunchtime too late a night depending on the restaurant you are looking at. Typical offers can be anything for 2 courses for £10, a main course and a free drink. It’s worth noting you don’t need to pay for anything online, you just book the restuarnant and turn up.

Toptable.co.uk – Toptable is a restaurant and hotel review website. You can choose from 100′s of difference UK restaurants, read what people have thought about them and book a restaurant online. At toptable.co.uk you collect points for reviews and for booking restaurant tables throught the site. Once you have collected enough points you can cash them in for a free meal at a restaurant on toptable.co.uk.

Grapevine.co.uk – Grapevine is a UK restaurant review website, at present it doesn’t quite cover the whole of the UK. It has reviews for many UK resturants and there some resturants have printable vouchers that you can take along and redeem at the restaurant.

Regional Offers

Totaleating.co.uk – A London restuarant review website, which has quite a few special offers for restaurants all over London, you book on the website and pay when you get there.

Priceyourmeal.com- Like Ebay but for food instead. Restaurants can upload auctions onto priceyourmeal.com for and you can bid on them. Some of the offers I have seen on this website are great so well worth a visit. The bad news is it is only for Glasgow restaurants so lets hope they roll out this website nationwide!

Students Only

Snapfax.co.uk – I say students only because it is a student discount card, but there is nothing stopping anyone from purchasing a snapfax from the website and using it. Some offers do say you need a matriculation card, but most don’t, and the there are offers for restaurants as well as shops, the cinema, hairdresses… So well worth getting your hands on one.

Other Offers

Wagamama.com – One of my all-time favourite restaurants, there is a wagamama in most UK cities, make sure you join the members area on the website (which is free to join) which always has different offers to print out for most of their branches.

The food section of the forum – Sometimes offers are limited, in which case the best place to check is the Peazyshop food section of the forum which will have any offers that people have posted.