Cover Article
gDine Helps Make Group Dining Hassle-Free
By windy city guide
Oct 7, 2011, 11:36

The power of the group has never been more potent or popular than today, thanks to group couponing sites that offer great discounts on everything from retail stores to beauty services and dining. One of our favorite such sites is gDine, a new Chicago-based service designed to take the stress out of dining with your friends and business associates.

The concept is simple: Plan and pre-pay for your group dining event to remove all the hassles involved with splitting a check several different ways. This makes it easy to calculate individual meals on separate credit cards or expense accounts, without figuring out who ordered appetizers and extra drinks. A group consists of as few as two people and as many as 200, which makes this a fabulous alternative for almost any dining experience.

gDine participants include popular and upscale restaurants, all of whom offer pre-negotiated, exclusive group rates. Just go to the website, do a search for your preferred time and party size, and check out the discounted prix-fixe menus at the eatery of your choice. These usually include a choice of entrees and several courses. Then, book it. You’ll pay in advance, even the tip, which means that once you arrive at the restaurant all you do is enjoy your friends, the food, and the atmosphere. It’s easy and quick, and takes all the guesswork out of figuring out who owes what (and often coming up $8 short because someone calculated wrong).

Got a special request? Use gDine’s concierge service, which helps you personalize your experience in many different ways. Want to add something when you get there, such as a glass of wine? No problem. You can start a tab and add to your order during your meal. This service doesn’t take the spontaneity out of dining, it just makes eating out any day of the week easier and more fun.

The site adds more restaurants every day, but current participants in the gDine concept include 312 Chicago, Prosecco, Klay Oven, Bin 36, South Water Kitchen, Zapatista, Nia, Sunda, Rio’s D’Sudamerica, Ai Sushi, Hearty, Ditka’s Steakhouse, Browntrout, Rhapsody, mk, Quartino, Cyrano’s Bistrot  & Wine Bar, Mexique, Catch 35, Pensiero, Carlucci and Weber Grill, which means that there’s a great variety of cuisine and restaurant locations included in gDine’s offerings.

This up-and-coming website launched in March and is currently adding a restaurant a day. gDine intends to expand to other major U.S. cities by the end of the year, so jump on the bandwagon while you can still be considered trendy!

The website is located at www.gdine.com. Check it out today and plan your next exciting group trip to one of Chicago's best restaurants!


-By Helen A. Lee