Questions and Answers
I’m wondering about brunch also – does it work for Sunday brunch?
I bought Groupon to Noble – American Eatery in Philadelphia, pA. Based on my experience I WILL NEVER buy groupon for a restaurant. The manager at Noble treated us as we were second class citizens. As soon as he saw the groupon during the payment process, he came to us and said “you know this cannot be used with other deals” and apparently we had some drinks during happy hour for half off and he was trying to get us to use the groupon at another time and made such a big deal – I ended up saying whatever. Also – he was saying that he will cancel our opentable reservations because that is also considered a deal??? Be aware, you cannot make a reservation at opentable and use Groupon.
The rules for this Groupon are not clear and have not been clarified. Two other people have asked the following question, which obviously needs clarification, but have received no answer: can the Nineteen Groupon be used for a brunch meal? The same question applies with regard to breakfast. The rules indicate that lunch is excluded, but this restaurant also serves BOTH brunch and breakfast. Additionally, the rule that the groupon can only be used in the “main dining room” is unclear: there is no indication as to whether breakfast and brunch are served in the main dining room. Finally, John K.’s post raises a serious concern. Have other people had this experience at Noble or at other Groupon-offering establishments? John K., I hope you posted your comments on Yelp and called to complain directly to the supervisor of the manager. The manager at Noble should not get away with this, and the restaurant should be held responsible for it, especially in connection with its Groupon offer.
Can’t speak for Noble, but I’ve used Groupons in a few other restaurants with OpenTable reservations and had no problems at all. It sounds like the person at Noble was the problem.
Thank you for all your great comments and questions! Unfortunately the groupon is not valid during brunch because at we offer a $46 price fix brunch. Breakfast and afternoon tea are also excluded as they not served in our main dining room. We plan on offering a groupon for our brunch in the future so stay tuned to Groupon our next offer! Please feel free to utilize opentable for making a reservation to use your groupon and we look forward to having you here at XIX.
If you have any other questions please feel free to contact me Kevin.Beary@Hyatt.com
-Kevin Beary
XIX Assistant Manager
I’ve never had a problem using making a reservation with Opentable and using a Groupon. I remember that deal for Noble, and they explicitly said you had to make a reservation via phone and I thought that was wack and didn’t buy the deal because of that. That’s such a ridiculous restriction, it costs them like, a whole 25 cents to accept an Opentable reservation, what kind of business practice is that?
My general rule is that if a restaurant has an unreasonable restriction, then there’s a good chance the restaurant will be unreasonable when redeeming the Groupon.
Now, onto this XIX Groupon – I bought it, I will keep it because I would like to go to dinner, BUT – I think it is unfair and illegal to sell a Groupon like they have, with only the stated restriction of “no lunch” and then HOURS after hundreds have been sold, come onto the discussion board, which Groupon has now made harder to find, and severely restrict the terms of the Groupon (no brunch, breakfast, afternoon tea). Groupon still hasn’t clarified this on the listing. I’ve never been to XIX, how am I supposed to know what’s served where? It’s NOT clear either from XIX’s website. Wouldn’t it have been easier for Groupon just to state “DINNER ONLY”?!?!
I’ve never used Groupon with an OpenTable reservation, but I have used a few Groupons at restaurants without any trouble.
S.G.— Exactly! It is inappropriate for Groupon to have offered this coupon under false pretenses (the lack of completeness or clarity in the “fine print” etc. absolutely creates a false pretense). I also agree with you that it’s very telling when a restaurant attaches unreasonable conditions and/or fails to be clear about the conditions to which it’s asking buyers to agree. The current problems represent a lapse on the part of both Groupon and Nineteen. In addition, it’s in the interest of both Groupon and its coupon-offering establishments to realize that a customer alienated via the Groupon “experience” by unclear, incomplete, inconveniently presented conditions is more likely to “imprint on” the negative experience with respect to that business—because that customer has gone through a whole immersive experience of trying to examine the deal, looking into the restaurant, etc. — than a customer merely reading a Yelp or Zagat’s review. So this means that people like us can readily form a negative impression of a business simply by going through the process of deciding not to buy a Groupon because of issues like those outlined above. A negative experience on Groupon is very formative. So it’s in everyone’s interest for Groupon to apply its fairly impressive resources to preventing these kinds of up-front problems. And for business owners to get a clue about how transparent they are when they post fake “positive” comments about a Groupon deal that’s currently waiting to tip (though it doesn’t look as if that’s been done in the case of Nineteen). IMHO.
Kevin X. Please do offer a Groupon for the brunch. I am sure it would be a huge hit.
I’ve used Groupons at restaurants with no problem. The staff has always been just as friendly and attentive as if I were paying in full with cold cash. Was treated particularly well by the folks at Cichetteria 19, who seemed happy just to have me there at a slow hour.
I bought this one because Nineteen is a great restaurant and I’ve always received great service there. And the views are stunning (yes, worth the cliché word) even on a cloudy day! They don’t seem to be on OpenTable at this time, but that could be temporary.
It all reads pretty clear to me, but the clarification is appreciated.
As both S.G. and I have noted, it is simply not honest or right to *fail to indicate clearly up-front *that the offer cannot be used with either breakfast or brunch. And the fact that, somewhere else on Groupon at some point (not on the same page as the current offer), a brunch deal for IX was presented, and, further, the fact that this brunch deal would render using the current Groupon for brunch an instance of “combining with another offer,” has nothing to do with the need for these matters to be spelled out clearly, up-front, and completely when the deal is offered! Similarly, the business about “dining room only,” as S.G. noted, was likewise entirely unclear: the new customers you hope to attract, who’ve never been to IX, have no way of knowing that breakfast and brunch do not occur in the dining room and so are excluded! And you still haven’t addressed the fact that, as was disclosed only after the deal was posted and bought by many people, breakfast is excluded, yet the rules don’t make this clear. Why don’t you clarify the up-front rules, apologize to everyone who bought the groupon under the false rules, and promise to avoid describing Groupon deals inaccurately in the future?
what does ‘Open table’ mean?
Had the same problem with my Noble Groupon. They cancelled my Open Table reservation and told me that the Groupon wasn’t eligible for brunch.
Does this deal work for brunch?