Weddingbee Blog

Besides going to ball games, Mr. Plumeria and I also love to go out to eat. While we can’t afford to do it often, the occasional special dinner is something we both look forward to. We like to try new places, but as neither of us have enough time to read through a lot of reviews and whatnot, we, along with some of our friends, have become enthusiastic users of OpenTable.com.

(Image from OpenTable.com)

OpenTable is a reservation service with many restaurants in most major U.S. cities and their suburbs. Once registered, a user can browse through restaurants in a certain area, view available reservation times, and set reservations… all online! You can also change and cancel reservations once they’ve been made. Typically, the restaurant calls to confirm the reservation on the day of.

Besides convenience, the best part about OpenTable is the point system: for every restaurant with a fulfilled reservation, points are earned which can be eventually redeemed for Dining Cheques for use at any OpenTable restaurant nationwide. Granted, at 100 points a restaurant, it takes a while to earn enough points to redeem for a Cheque, unless you go to the special [read: expensive] restaurants that are worth 1,000 points for a single visit. But still, it’s nice to get further rewards, however small, from something that’s an indulgence in itself regardless.

For those in the CA Bay Area, here are my and Mr. Plumeria’s most recent dining choices via OpenTable:

Bing Crosby’s Restaurant, Walnut Creek, with my maid of honor Jasmine and her honey:

(Image from OpenTable.com)

We went here for my birthday this year; luckily it had hearty enough portions to satisfy the guys, unlike the place we chose last year! The food took a while to come, given the busy-ness of the restaurant, but once it did, it was delicious! The wait was actually not bad — a very attentive waiter made sure our table had an endless supply of freshly baked bread to keep us occupied. And, the presentation of the food was nice enough that even Mr. Plumeria had to note the delicacy of the potato crisp shapes on his plate before he inhaled it. I think my favorite part of Bing Crosby’s was non-food related, though: a live jazz pianist playing tunes on a grand piano, right there in the restaurant.

Va de Vi Bistro and Wine Bar, Walnut Creek

(Image from Vadevi.com)

We had walked by this restaurant many times on various trips to Walnut Creek, and it was ALWAYS full of people. The one time we had actually tried to go, the wait was over an hour long! Enter OpenTable. Even a week ahead, the place was getting booked left and right, so we felt very lucky to end up with a table at a decent dinner hour on a Friday night. It was a new experience: the plates were very small, but each one was bursting with flavor.

What are some of your favorite “date night” dinner places, either in the Bay or your neck of the woods?