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I'm starting to write short items on food or drink for Wednesday's LA.com section. My debut item today is about Web sites that help you save on your grocery tab so check it out! (You may recognize it from a blog post last week.)
If you are pregnant Baskin Robbins will give you a free three-ounce soft serve ice cream May 21 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. If you wondering how big three ounces is, it is small. About the size of a large swallow of water. Print the coupon here.
Caveats: gotta be preggers! Limit one per person. Find a participating BR near you. Thanks, Rachel!
Thought I would re-post this popular coupon for a 2-for-1 at Yozen Frogurt because it is supposed to be a scorcher today. Plus I've got yogurt on the brain after writing about two freebies in Valencia this weekend. If you don't make it up that far north you can still save a buck at Yozen Frogurt's stores in West Hills or Westlake Village.
Here are two coupons for the store. It is a pdf so give it a minute or three to load. The first coupon is for a buy one get one free for 4, 6, or 8 oz portions. The second is for 50% off a quart of frozen yogurt when you buy a second quart. Both expire May 31, 2008.
I like their fruity flavors the best. If I get more than one dairy flavor it always seems too sweet and heavy. I recommend strawberry, tart peach, white cloud (the Pinkberry flavor) and peanut butter gold. If you ask nicely they will let you combine up to three flavors in a cup.
Caveats: cannot be combined with other coupons. Visit them at 6450 Platt Ave in the Platt Village strip mall in West Hills. (818) 887-8511. They also have a store at 2416 East Thousand Oaks Blvd in Thousand Oaks.
Red Mango in Valencia is celebrating its grand opening by giving away frozen yogurt Saturday, May 17, from 12 to 6. The store is part of a popular chain that originated in South Korea in 2002. They specialize in tart, nonfat frozen yogurt flavors.
If you also hit the Robeks Juice opening on Saturday you'll be set for freebies! Visit Red Mango at 23885 Newhall Ranch Road at the Bridgeport Marketplace. (661) 253-4492.
A new Robeks Juice in Valencia is celebrating their grand opening by giving away free 12 ounce smoothies Saturday from 1 to 4. There will be samples of pretzels and soft serve yogurt, a live DJ, and prizes while supplies last. Even the Mayor of Santa Clarita may be there!
For details turn to page A8 of Thursday's Daily News. Visit them at 27730 McBean Parkway in Valencia. (661) 297-4915.
Get a free Southern Style Chicken Biscuit between 7 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. or get a free Southern Style Chicken Sandwich from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. at McDonald's today only. You need to purchase a medium or large drink to get the freebie so alas, it is not entirely free.
No coupon needed, according to Fast Food News. The deal is also posted on this McD's site. Find a McDonald's near you. Thanks, Coralee!
UPDATE: Problem solved. I uploaded a new coupon that everyone *should* be able to access. If not, leave me a comment to let me know!
UPDATE: You may need a Gmail account to get this coupon. I'm looking for one that is easier to download.
PREVIOUSLY: Get a bag of Popchips free when you buy one bag now until May 31, 2008. The ad says "never baked never fried." So how do they cook these things - microwave oven? The Popchips site says they are popped "using heat, pressure, and a little snack magic." They are not fried in oil but are seasoned with oil so I'm guessing they are healthier than say, my beloved Fritos. They come in nine different flavors and are sold at Ralphs, Vons, Whole Foods and Albertsons.
Bring this printable coupon into the store. Find a store near you that sells them.
Caveats: one per customer, you pay sales tax, max value $3.29. Thanks, Natalie!
We've all seen online reviews that just seem too glossy or pessimistic to be true, whether it is for a restaurant or a new gadget. Reading these fake reviews makes me doubt other write ups and leaves me constantly looking over my cyber shoulder.
Now OpenTable, the free online restaurant reservation service, claims "that every review (on their site) came from someone who actually dined at the restaurant," according to TechCrunch. They do this by sending emails to folks who were actually seated after making a reservation on their site. The down side to this is that OpenTable does not share the actual review, instead providing a ranking from confirmed diners. The system also seems to be new enough that very few restaurants have reviews. Boo!
I may stick to Yelp for now. Check out the reservations process for San Fernando Valley area restaurants.
Get a free scoop of Vanilla Honey Bee ice cream at Haagen-Dazs today, May 13, from 4 to 8 p.m. only. Short lived, but the best deals usually are. I love their super creamy, dense ice cream!
Find a participating store near you. No idea if the scoop is itty bitty or regular size.
Get $5 off a food, beverage or merchandise purchase of $20 or more at Planet Hollywood now until December 31, 2008. Print the coupon here. Use it on your trip to Vegas or find one in one of these far flung destinations.
Caveats: excludes tax and gratuity, one per table, at participating Planet Hollywood restaurant's only.
Hi folks, If you have not noticed, there have been very few posts about Lincoln Lunches of late! I have pretty much exhausted all the places I know about so I am asking you to submit ideas for where I might find a tasty $5 lunch (called a Lincoln Lunch because it's a $5 meal and Lincoln is on the fiver). I'm hungry so help me out!
Here are my guidelines: No fast food chains like McDonald's because everybody already knows about them and no repeats of places I have already been to. (You can check by typing the restaurant name into the search box on the left.) I stick to the San Fernando Valley, which I roughly define as Thousand Oaks to Burbank and Glendale.
Please share your suggestions by leaving a comment on the blog (click on the tiny "comments" link underneath this post.) Your fellow Bargain Hunter readers will thank you! And I will too!!
Get a free Streamliner veggie burger at Johnny Rockets with an order of a Streamliner® or any sandwich, starter, and drink. Good through the end of May. Print the coupon here. Find a Johnny Rockets near you.
Get a free steak two weeks before or after your birthday at Black Angus Steakhouse when you join their free membership club. You also get a free dessert for joining.
Caveats: must order one entree to get the free steak, must be 16 years or older, must confirm dob before ordering the free meat, one per table, can only be used once. Dine in only, must show photo ID. Read all the rules here.
Find a Black Angus near you. Thanks, Richard!
UPDATE: This offer has expired ahead of time, probably because so many people printed it out.
PREVIOUSLY: Get a dozen Krispy Kreme original glazed donuts when you buy any dozen donuts at regular price. Use this printable coupon. Expires May 13, 2008. Nearby locations include Burbank, Santa Monica, LA and Gardena.
Caveats: valid only at Krispy Kreme stores, not at grocery or convenience stores. Thanks, Kay!
Get five free toppings on a large cheese pizza at Papa Johns when you order online. Use code PIZZA3. Unclear when it expires. Where you enter the promo code is not immediately evident when ordering. Look at the top of your screen and click on a link that says "Enter Promotion Code." It is easy to order and pay without adding the code. Other than that, ordering online is easy and once you share your email address they send a coupon or two a week.
Tomorrow is taco truck night! A new county law that fines trucks for idling more than an hour may do away with taco trucks. Some of us, especially those who appreciate the trucks for their cheap, tasty meals, are ticked off. District 1 County Supervisor Gloria Molina and the L.A. Board of Supervisors are to blame.
"Citations will be punishable by fines starting at $100 for the first offense," according to a story in the Daily Breeze. "If the District Attorney's Office chooses instead to treat the offense as a misdemeanor, it will be punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 or six months in jail or both, he said."
Join this petition to save taco trucks and show your support by eating at a taco truck tomorrow, May 1. Before they are gone add your favorite taco truck to a site that lists dozens, mostly in NoCal.
Wednesday, April 30 is 31-cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins. It's a stunt to gain publicity for their $100,000 donation to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, which, together with the ice creamery, is honoring 31 firefighters from across the nation who have shown an "exemplary commitment to community service."
The cheapo scoop is only from 5 to 10 pm on April 30 and it is for a 2.5 ounce scoop, which is about four gulps of water. But each person can buy 10 mini-scoops. The press release rightly points out that this is a great opportunity to try more than a tiny pink spoonful of wacky flavors. Find a Baskin Robbins near you. Thanks, Judi!
Free cone day is tomorrow, Tuesday, April 29, at Ben & Jerry's in celebration of the chain's 30th anniversary. I went last year and there was no line and the server was very pleasant. If I recall correctly, you could get any flavor in a regular cone or cup and the scoop was a normal size. Find a B&J near you.
If you miss this freebie or crave more ice cream (who doesn't?), check out 31-cent night at Baskin Robbins on Wednesday, April 30. More details tomorrow!
Get 70% off restaurant gift certificates at Restaurant.com for a limited time. Enter code GOURMET after you have added the certificate to your basket. The certificates are for specific restaurants and often come with a detailed set of rules you have to follow to redeem the certificate. At Il Paradiso Ristorante in Encino, a $25 certificate goes for $3 with the code, but to use it you must order a minimum food purchase of $35, excluding alcohol/beverages. Dine in only. They automatically add 18% gratuity. I've seen other certificates that limit days and times you can use them. The certificates are a good deal, but run the numbers to see how much you are actually saving before buying.
Take the deal above. Say you order $35 worth of food, no drinks. You pay $13 for the grub ($3 certificate plus $10), plus a $6.30 tip (that's 18% on the original bill of $35) plus $3 in tax. The total comes to $22.30 for the $35 meal. You save 36%, not bad, but nowhere near the 70% discount that you started with.
The northern Italian restaurant Cafe Carolina in Encino is offering a special five-course meal and lecture for $36 this Monday at 6:30 p.m. RSVP required. The meal includes antipasti, salad, fish, ravioli, chicken, and dessert. Portions are two to three ounces because there are so many courses. BYOB with no corkage fee. The $36 does not include tax or tip. Read the menu here.
The dinner is part of the restaurant's food appreciation series. UCLA emeritus professor Henry Ansgar Kelly will talk about why Valentine's Day should be celebrated in May, not February, during the meal. The restaurant seats 29 and there are only a few spots left. RSVP at (818) 881-8600.
Visit them at 17934 Ventura Blvd. between White Oak and LIndley in Encino. They are usually only open Tuesday thru Sunday, 5:30 to 10 p.m. Thanks, Alyse!
Back by popular demand...At first blush this does not sound like a bargain: dinner for two for $99? But my well heeled colleague tells me at a "prime steakhouse, this is a good deal." Each person gets a single cut steak filet, a choice of jumbo shrimp, crab cakes or broiled scallops, a Cesar or Morton's salad, hot chocolate cake or key lime pie, and to share a potato and vegetable.
It is available through June 30, 2008 when you share your name, address and email here. They e-mail you a certificate, which you need to get the special meal. It is not on the menu. Participating locations include restaurants in Woodland Hills, Burbank, and downtown LA. Scroll down on the above link to check other regions and states.
Caveats: does not include tax or tip. Thanks, Greg!
Hubby had the crazy idea to go to the Grilled Cheese Invitational Saturday in Griffith Park. I am often slow to appreciate his vision, but this one hit me pretty quick. All you can eat grilled cheese? Free? Yessssssss.
More than 100 grillers came to compete in four categories. Missionary (white bread, yellow cheese, butter), Spoons (any bread, any cheese, butter), Kama Sutra (anything goes), and Honey Pot (dessert). Each treat came with a ballot and voting was mandatory. The criteria were taste, presentation, wessonality (was it special? not cheesy enough? inspirational?) and weirdness factor. Hundreds of hungry tasters, including me and Hubby, lined a curve of tables four deep, hoping to get a sandwich to taste.
Everybody quickly realized that tasters far outnumbered sandwiches, which made the grillers picky about who they handed their carefully made treats to. The crowd hollered for the greasy bites, chanted "we want cheese," and pounded the tables. I was good at pushing to the front and making noise so I got to taste six different sandwiches, plus I had a freebie from a Kraft booth that was not part of the competition but was giving out free sandwiches all night. That's a lot of cheese.
My favorite was a marble cheese sandwich served on marble rye bread. It was hot, crispy, cheesy and so flavorful. A second close was Hubby's smores dessert sandwich made with chocolate cheese and marzipan. The worst was a sandwich with ricotta cheese and pumpkin filling that was trying to impersonate pumpkin cheesecake. Blech! The strangest was a huge sammy with a thick layer of blue cheese and peanut brittle, topped with a dollop of honey comb. At every bite I asked myself "Whaaa?" and then had a little bit more. Read who won here.
The owner of Yozen Frogurt, a newish seller of tasty treats in West Hills and Thousand Oaks, got such a good response from my post about the store last week that she decided to offer two coupons to Bargain Hunter readers. Yea! You might have seen similar deals in Clipper Magazine, which can be difficult to get a hold of.
The first coupon is for a buy one get one free for 4, 6, or 8 oz portions. The second is for 50% off a quart of frozen yogurt when you buy a second quart. Both expire May 31, 2008.
Caveats: cannot be combined with other coupons. Visit them at 6450 Platt Ave in the Platt Village strip mall in West Hills. (818) 887-8511. They also have a store at 2416 East Thousand Oaks Blvd in Thousand Oaks. Thanks, Karin!
Today, April 17, 2008, participating Southern California Carl's Jr. restaurants will give you a free western bacon cheeseburger when you buy a western bacon cheeseburger. It's part of a stunt to promote Carl's claim that Jack in the Box is trying to duplicate the western bacon cheeseburger. Right, because the concept of a western bacon cheeseburger is soooo original that nobody else can have one. But hey, food that is so heavily discounted it feels free is cheaper than full price. You can redeem the coupon today or save it for another day.
Caveats: One per customer. Find a Carl's Jr. near you by entering your zip code into the box at the upper left corner of this link.
The nickel wine sale is on at Bev Mo! The deal is you buy one bottle of wine and you get a second bottle of that same wine for a nickel. Browse their selection online. Not sure if the sale also includes beer and hard alcohol. I'm told it ends April 20, 2008. Find a store near you.
Kids under 12 eat free at Zanos Pizza Kitchen in Woodland Hills Monday and Tuesday nights between 5 and 9 p.m. No more than two kids per adult. Meal choices include a slice of pepperoni, cheese or veggie pizza OR spaghetti with marinara sauce or butter, and a fountain drink. Dine in only. Caveats: the adult must order $8.50 of food or more.
Sadly, their lunch special rose from $5 to $6. It was the first Lincoln Lunch I ever blogged about and I still return even though it is $1 more. It includes a slice of pizza, side salad, fountain drink with refills and garlic knots.
Visit them at 21604 Ventura Blvd. Woodland Hills. (818) 719-0003.
Hubby loves Yozen Frogurt and he doesn't even like frozen yogurt! He swears it's a great spot for a healthy snack so I told him I would check it out. On my first visit I found the employees very friendly. The girl who was helping me offered extra samples (I had three total) but forgot to tell me about the club card. (Buy eight treats at their shop and get the ninth free.) The pomegranate flavor was perky and tart. I did not like cookies 'n cream but white cloud was even better than its counterpart at Pinkberry.
I settled on tried and true favorites - chocolate mint and vanilla with toffee bits - but later wished I had experimented with the kiwi strawberry, espresso rush, or caramel pecan. It tasted good, but it wasn't overly special and the small serving (8 oz) was too much to finish. I think funkier flavors would have made the difference.
Stopped in one more time because Hubby really couldn't believe I wasn't head over heels about Yozen Frogurt. This time I got three flavors in a smaller cup (junior size, 6 oz). The peanut butter gold was top notch, espresso rush was tasty and kiwi strawberry packed just the right punch. Opted for no toppings because they did not have fresh raspberries. The line was packed with kids and families, but it moved along okay. With my two for one coupon from the Clipper Magazine my friend and I had two treats (hers with two toppings) for $5.15. Not too shabby.
Yelpers give YF the thumbs up. Visit them at 6450 Platt Ave in the Platt Village strip mall in West Hills (818) 887-8511. Their new store is at 2416 East Thousand Oaks Blvd in Thousand Oaks. (805) 230-2401. Note, it can get busy.
Get a free order of Carmen's Nachos when you sit at the "Nacho Table" at El Cholo Mexican restaurant. The eatery has at least one designated "Nacho Table" at each of its four locations. It's the worst table in the house, but it comes with free nachos that would otherwise cost $7.25. To get the deal just ask to be seated at the nacho table.
Caveats: no Valley locations, sadly. But they are in LA, Santa Monica, La Habra, and Irvine. Find an El Cholo near you.
Get a dozen free original glazed Krispy Kreme donuts when you buy one dozen of their sweet treats at the regular price (I think about $5). Bring in this coupon to get the deal, which expires May 13, 2008. Find a KK near you. Stores in Burbank, LA, Santa Monica, Gardena and Long Beach, among others.
Get a large original or thin crust pizza from Papa John's for $3 when you order two large pizzas online at the regular price (about $12 each). Offer expires April 21, 2008. Use code 40708. Ordering online is easy, I've done it.
Caveats: Pan pizza may be extra. Offer good at participating Papa John's restaurants. Additional toppings extra. Not valid with any other coupons or discounts. Limited delivery area, charges may apply. Find a Papa John's near you.
Register a Starbucks gift card and get these coffee perks at the caffeinated green giant: free syrup and milk options, free refills on brewed drinks, and a free tall drink with a whole bean purchase. Unclear how long these bonus' last. Registering requires you to set up a username, password, share an email address, street address and phone number (I use my work info). It also asks you the city of your birth in case your card is ever stolen.
Offering perks in exchange for personal information is a tactic many big companies use these days. They gather marketing information and build your loyalty by e-mailing you news and deals. It usually seems like a good idea to sign up at the time, but I wonder about the long term costs of getting spam and junk mail.
Another way to save money at Starbucks is to order a ghetto latte. Don't use those words, but ask for a shot of espresso in a tall cup (or supply your own) then fill with free milk from the fixings counter. Thanks, Steve!
Get a free 12 oz breakfast product at Jamba Juice up until 10 a.m. tomorrow, Tuesday April 8, 2008 only. Deal starts whenever the store opens that day. Sounds like the stores are trying to draw a bigger morning crowd. They are usually busy afternoon on. No coupon needed.
Caveats: valid only at participating Jamba Juice locations (not including Jamba Juice stores operating in airports, universities, Safeway, VONS, Pavilion, Target or on the islands of Hawaii). Breakfast products are limited to Juice, Juicies™, Chunky Strawberry, Granola Toppers™ and Yogurt Blends. Limit one product per customer. Find a Jamba Juice near you.
Note, their site is really slow. Probably because so many people are checking out the freebie.
For the thrifty diner who wants to save a buck at restaurants but not fiddle with coupons comes Rewards Network. You sign up on their Web site, register a credit card, then eat at one of the hundreds of restaurants that are part of the program. Each one has different perks but you can get up to 20% back on your entire meal, including alcohol and tax. The discount shows up a few days later on your credit card so you never have to show a membership card, mention a discount to the server, or say a word to your dining companions. Just pay with the card you registered.
Caveats: Rewards Network "retains" the first $49 in rebates each year but never charges you an outright fee. You don't get to see the specific benefits at each eatery until you join, which is kind of lame. Because you are giving them your credit card information, which is how they track your rebates, they can see where you are spending your moolah. If you are worried about privacy (read their privacy policy here) consider registering a credit card that you will only use for eating out.
Valley restaurants include The Rack at the Promenade mall in Canoga Park, Spazio in Sherman Oaks, many Baja Fresh locations and dozens of other restaurants. Browse the list of participating restaurants by zip code, cuisine, or state. Thanks, Stephanie!
Buy one lunch at TGI Friday's and get the second one half off when you order from their Right Portion Right Price menu. Good now until April 18, 2008, Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Go here to print the coupon.
Caveats: dine in only, not valid on alcohol, tax or tip. One coupon per party. Find a TGI Friday's near you.
