3 Steps To Use First Table and get 50%off Discount

What is the First Table?

First of all, let me explain what kind of service the Fist table is.

Briefly, this booking service system offers you 50% off payments for meals (mainly dinner) at restaurants.

However, as you can imagine from the word, First table, it is necessary to reserve the table during the certain time when there are few customers, which is 5-6pm. (At some restaurants, there is a “Late table” time, around 8pm-9pm.)

I like this service because it clearly shows a win-win benefit for both customers and restaurants. For customers, we can get discounts, which is 50%OFF! The restaurants can let the customers enjoy the dinners who they might miss if they come to their busy time.

This service is currently deployed in most places in New Zealand, and it seems it is spreading in Australia. If you would like to use it in Australia, click here. Eating out is relatively expensive in New Zealand, so I believe it’s a lovely service.

Hopefully, sometime, it will be deployed in Japan and other countries. Especially there is a great demand when there will be more opportunities to dine in. For example, people can more easily move to the cities and dine out quite often. 

However, there are some conditions to get the discount, so let’s see them!

Conditions to get a discount at First table

Time

・ time when you can make a reservation is fixed

・ The Time you can eat (for example, 90 mins) is fixed.

・ If you are late more than 10 minutes, you will not receive a discount.

The time when you can make a reservation can be

Breakfast: 8:00am -9:30, Lunch 11:30 -1:00pm, Dinner: 5:00pm -6:00pm

When it comes to breakfast and lunch, I think it’s the best mealtime. Dinner is a little bit early, but you can enjoy the dinner in a quiet time. In addition, most meals are 90 minutes long. It might be sound a little short, but if it’s not crowded, you don’t need to worry to be kicked out.

Please also note that your discount will not work if you are more than 10 minutes late for your Reservation.

Order

・ 50% OFF for dishes only

・ One drink system per person (not necessarily alcohol)

In other words, the bill for food will be 50% off, but the drinks will not.

 Reservation

・ Reservation can be made for more than 2

Specifically, the number of people who can make a reservation is 2-4. 

・ You can only make a reservation up to one week in advance

・ Not all restaurants join this service

Not all restaurants and cafes are affiliated with this service. Still, you feel lucky when you find the restaurant where you want to go to. Also, you can only make a reservation for one week in advance, so few spaces can be reserved.

Booking fee

・$ 10 payment is required at the time of booking in advance

A deposit of $ 10 is required. Please note that this will not come back even if you cancel the Reservation.

Do you feel there are so many conditions to get a discount? I felt the same when I first used this service in Dunedin; I was shocked by how many conditions there were! However, I think they are not that strict if you just go to restaurant in time!

How to use First Table

Let’s see how to use the First table. There is nothing complicated!

① Click the Time when you want to reserve for the restaurant

② Fill in your personal information and how many people, and lastly, pay $10 with your credit card. I had a $ 5 credit at this time, so I’m sorry it’s not $10 on this image…

③ You will receive a complete reservation email, so keep it until you go to the restaurant just in case.

Dinner in Queenstown with the First table

It’s okay to go to the restaurants as usual. There is no need to say “we made a booking with the First table”. If you dine earlier, you can enjoy dinner in a quiet time, and you don’t have to wait that long for dishes! I used it in Dunedin and in Tanoshi in Queenstown, and i just love it.

There are several Japanese restaurants in Queenstown, but I felt this is a popular place, including service and taste. The price was Queenstown price (that means a bit expensive); I felt luckier that we could use this service. I was so happy to have freshly roasted salmon, sashimi, and Japanese food first time in a while…

When it comes to the bill,

Beer ($ 11)* 2 = $ 22 ← This is not discounted

Total meal ($ 82)* 50% OFF = $ 41

In total, $ 63 for two people, $30 for each, so we got a good discount at this dinner.

pros and cons of the First table

pros

・ You can get 50% OFF

The most attractive point is that you can get a big discount! Whether you’re eating out once or eating out a lot, this is a very usable service. There are many restaurants where we can use this service in Nelson, where I stayed for 6 months, and I wish I knew this service at that time.

・ Win-win service for both customers and restaurants

By using this service, you can get discounts, and the restaurants don’t have to miss the potential customers.

cons

・ There are many conditions

There are a lot of conditions, so it might be easier to go to the restaurants directly or call to make a reservation. However, as long as you don’t cancel the booking or aren’t late for the booking time, you don’t feel that the conditions are strict.

・ They accept the booking only for 2-4 people

If you want to use this service, the booking has to be for 2-4 people. Unfortunately, if you’re going to dine in by yourself or more than 5 people, you have to pay the regular bill.

Finally

Thank you for reading!!

In this blog, I share the booking service called “First table”, which you can get 50%off discounts on your bill at restaurants in New Zealand and Australia.I hope this blog helps you use this service for the first time or provides helpful information when you want to enjoy eating out at restaurants.

Seeya!

Misaki