TangoTab
Most of you have heard of Groupon, but have you heard of TangoTab? It’s like a food-only Groupon crossed with TOMS Shoes.
TangoTab is a free online dining service that warms the heart in more ways than one. The service helps connect diners with great local meal deals, while also helping feed a person in need through local food banks and hunger-related charities—warming your heart, stomach, and wallet.
How TangoTab Works. Go to TangoTab and create an account. Once you’ve done that, click on “search offers,” enter your address and press enter. A list of restaurants offering meal deals appears. Browse through, choose the deal you like, claim it free of charge, and check your email for a confirmation number. At the restaurant, you give the waiter your confirmation number to seal the deal.
TangoTab donates a meal to people in need every time you use the service. This year alone they have fed over 92,000 people.
A Dallas-based company, TangoTab is plugged in to several cities like Dallas, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and nearby Hoboken, among several others. In fact, a large amount of NYC restaurants are working with TangoTab, offering some sweet deals to clients in an effort to keep their tables full while also helping their local area.
For instance, Arctica Bar & Grill, an upscale casual restaurant located in Kip’s Bay, on Tuesday had several offers left on a three-course lunch for only $8.50. The deal included a choice of entrée, like the Salmon BLT, Cajun chicken Panini, or roast turkey ratatouille melt; alongside a cup of soup and choice of salad or French fries.
Tax and gratuity are not included in deals. For more information, visit TangoTab.com or download the app to your iPhone.
Seamless
The Seamless.com website takes ordering delivery on the Web to another level.
We’re used to being able to order online from restaurants that offer the service on their personal website, but on Seamless.com there is a large variety of restaurants to browse and order from, not just one.
How Seamless Works. On the main page, after entering your address, a list of available restaurants to order from appears, with those closest to your location at the top. Choose a restaurant, browse through the restaurant menu (you can subcategorize by cuisine too), place your order, and wait.
The website will send your order to the restaurant, and a confirmation email will be sent to you with a delivery or pick-up time estimate. Once the food is ready, it will be delivered to you.
Many restaurants offer deals for first-time orders and there is no fee for using the online service. However, you will see a drop-down menu at checkout for selecting the amount of tip you'd like to give, spanning from $0 to $3.50. The website auto selects the $2 amount. Prices for food are the same as in the restaurant, and there are minimum dollar amounts to orders—usually $10–$15.
Wix
Wix is more for the restaurateur than the dining connoisseur, although it would be a good start for a food blogger too.
This is a website where you can design a site and get hosting for free, but more specifically for restaurant owners offers a free menu management feature. According to Wix PR, this makes it “inexcusable for restaurants around the world to not be online.”
After reviewing consumer statistics, Wix owners say they found that 89 percent of diners research a restaurant online before deciding on where to eat.
Of course, consumers should be able to review and compare menu items and pricing before dining out. It just makes sense. So, no matter how small a restaurant is, the place can benefit from having a few pages on the Web.
Wix offers free website hosting and easy page design, as well as premium services to clients.
For more information on starting a website for your restaurant, visit Wix.com.
Food Blogs
The food blog started out as a hobby. However, over time some foodies have become rather motivated by their enthusiasm for food, sharing recipes, reviews, thoughts on food, even videos and photos of their dining escapades.
And some have grown quite successful, even becoming experts in their own right; growing with experience over time.
For instance, there is NYC Food Guy.
NYC Food Guy has been eating his way through NYC, blogging his experiences, reviewing dishes, and suggesting the best places to eat in the city to locals and visitors alike—constantly in search of the “most delicious and affordable food” in NYC.
He’s been on PIX11’s morning news, ABC News, Food Network, and so on. He likes sharing his food.
It’s not just about playing with his food, it’s about photographing it, eating it, writing about it, and publishing to the World Wide Web and exchanging feedback too.
To see the Food Guy’s latest culinary exploits, visit NYCFoodGuy.com.
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