Latest / Best of Business / Megan Singleton: BloggerAtLarge writer with her tips on dining out affordably

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Megan Singleton: BloggerAtLarge writer with her tips on dining out affordably · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk SEDB. Follow
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• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Right Time to Talk Travel now In Joining me is
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  Speaker 2: Megan Singleton, blogger at large dot com.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning, Good morning, Francesca.
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  Speaker 2: I love what you're going to talk about today because
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  Speaker 2: we have been talking about for ages now here on
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  Speaker 2: the Sunday session, about how hard it is for the
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  Speaker 2: hospitality industry, and one of the things that we often
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  Speaker 2: do when we go pop into a different town or
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  Speaker 2: a different center and things is head out for a
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  Speaker 2: meal and you've got a wonderful solution here that everyone
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  Speaker 2: benefits from.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly well, that's exactly right. So we've been reading about
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  Speaker 3: the sort of downfall of some amazingly gorgeous food hospitality
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  Speaker 3: venues and our favorites are sort of going under, and
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  Speaker 3: I thought, what a perfect time to discuss the whole
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  Speaker 3: concept of first table dining. So that's what I want
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  Speaker 3: to talk about. First Table is actually ten years old
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  Speaker 3: this year. I've really only just discovered it. It was
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  Speaker 3: founded by a Kiwi businessman. It now has nineteen hundred
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  Speaker 3: restaurants across New Zealand, Australia. In the UK, it has
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  Speaker 3: one point five million people registered as foodies in their
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  Speaker 3: online community, and that means there'll be a whole lot
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  Speaker 3: more diners than just the ones registered, because often you
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  Speaker 3: can you go as a group of four or whatever,
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  Speaker 3: so you can only go two, three or four people
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  Speaker 3: and take advantage of this offer. But it's fifty percent
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  Speaker 3: of all meals, so it's amazing. So I used it
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  Speaker 3: to dine at some posh restaurants in Auckland. My sister
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  Speaker 3: used it to dine in a posh restaurant in Hawks Bay.
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  Speaker 3: Try out a new place, get fifty percent off the dining.
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  Speaker 3: Some of the restaurants might put their own terms that
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  Speaker 3: they want on it, so they might exclude, like, I
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  Speaker 3: don't know, the crayfish tail or something like that, or
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  Speaker 3: they might say you need to buy a glass of
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  Speaker 3: wine because the drinks are not fifty percent of but
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  Speaker 3: then the oh, so it's a great little encouragement for
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  Speaker 3: us to get out. And who doesn't like to dine
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  Speaker 3: early in these dark, cold winter nights. Anyway, do you
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  Speaker 3: have Is.
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  Speaker 2: There any fee involved to make part of this?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so though there is so for each booking you make,
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  Speaker 3: and the fee ranges from eight to fifteen dollars, so
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  Speaker 3: like the high end restaurants will there'll be a fifteen
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  Speaker 3: dollar booking fee, so that gets paid to first table.
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  Speaker 3: There's no commission or contracts that the restaurants enter into
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  Speaker 3: with them, so I like that. You know they can
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  Speaker 3: come and go see how it works for them. They
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  Speaker 3: also have the option of last table, so when you
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  Speaker 3: go on to make a booking, you can choose first table,
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  Speaker 3: and you look at the dining times available and then
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  Speaker 3: you can actually click the tab for last table, and
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  Speaker 3: that is only like eight o'clock eight thirty, and you
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  Speaker 3: could do the end of the night dining. So the
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  Speaker 3: whole idea is to help the restaurant, like create a
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  Speaker 3: buzz early on, people are seated, people are eating. Some
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  Speaker 3: restaurants use it so that the chef can try out
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  Speaker 3: a new tasting menu perhaps, And I just think it's great.
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  Speaker 3: I can't believe I've only just discovered it and it's
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  Speaker 3: ten years old.
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  Speaker 2: No what, I hadn't heard of it either. I don't
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  Speaker 2: go out to eat a lot, but I have noticed
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  Speaker 2: when we have gone out, and maybe a bit earlier,
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  Speaker 2: it is busy. Earlier people do like don't mind, well
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  Speaker 2: a lot of the time. That's a six o'clock six
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  Speaker 2: seating and then at eight o'clock seating, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: you have to sort of leave the table and things.
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  Speaker 2: So often restaurants are sort of churning through the diners
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  Speaker 2: and things. But I think a lot of people, especially
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  Speaker 2: in winter, quite enjoy going out and eating early. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I loved it.
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  Speaker 1: Personally.
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  Speaker 3: Our girls' nights often start at six o'clock and we're
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  Speaker 3: done by eight, thank you very much, home by eight
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  Speaker 3: thirty with a cup of tea.
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  Speaker 2: No, why not? So basically you do the booking through
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  Speaker 2: first Table. You go to first table, Google for restaurants.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you look at the city you want to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: Like I even looked up London and there's tons of
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  Speaker 3: restaurants in London, and then within London I looked at
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  Speaker 3: Covent Garden. I was like, oh my goodness, Yeah, what
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  Speaker 3: an opportunity. Why not do all of that then go
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  Speaker 3: to a show. I mean that's sort of the idea.
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  Speaker 2: It'll be arazing, fantastic. It's yeah, global, so New Zealand
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  Speaker 2: and Australia and the UK, is that.
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  Speaker 3: Right, yes, yes, nineteen hundred restaurants, so that's that's yeah,
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  Speaker 3: probably more than the whole New Zealand's got all together.
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  Speaker 3: Not every restaurant's a members, so you do jump on
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  Speaker 3: have a little look. But again I say, we actually
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  Speaker 3: did it before a show in Auckland. We did that there,
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  Speaker 3: so that just is reminding me. Even somewhere like Melbourne,
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  Speaker 3: the ideal do an early restaurant book and get fifty
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  Speaker 3: percent off your food, go to a show, go for
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  Speaker 3: a drink after I did.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Meghan, and Meghan's got all the
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  Speaker 2: information about our first table in a blog on her website,
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  Speaker 2: Blogger at large dot com. It is thirteen to twelve.
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