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Did you know that Amex offers a dining benefit where, at selected restaurants, you can get perks such as 20% off your food bill, free drinks, or free appetizers? Somehow I missed this Amex perk altogether until I began researching the perks for the new PenFed Pathfinder Rewards American Express Card. Among the card’s advertised benefits was “Taste Dining”. I had no idea what that was, so I dug further. It turns out that this benefit, which is available to all Amex cardholders, is called “Taste from American Express.”
With this program, cardholders can use the Taste from American Express restaurant finder to find participating restaurants, along with info about what type of perk each restaurant offers. For example, here’s a screenshot from a search of New York City:
As you can see above, some restaurants offer free drinks or free appetizers, and others offer 20% off the food bill (i.e. drinks are presumably not discounted).
How to use the benefit
- Find a participating restaurant
- Call the restaurant and identify yourself as an American Express Cardmember.
- Pay with your Amex card
How does it work in real life?
I haven’t yet used this benefit, but I’m leery about the part that says to call the restaurant and identify yourself as an American Express Cardmember. I imagine the conversation would go something like this:
Me: Hi, I’d like to make a reservation for … people at … o’ clock…
Them: Great, you’re confirmed for .. o’ clock
Me: I’m an American Express Cardmember!
Them: Um… Good for you?
Me: The website for Taste from American Express said to identify myself as a cardmember in order to get 20% off.
Them: Sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about
Me: Maybe the manager can help?
Them: I am the manager
The Citi Prestige card has a similar dining benefit, but in that case the Citi Prestige Concierge makes the reservation for you and therefore they would have to deal with conversations like this rather than you. But not everyone has a Citi Prestige card, whereas I’d bet that most readers have at least one Amex card.
I’m interested in hearing about your experience if you’ve tried to use this Amex benefit. Did the restaurant know what you were talking about? Did they ever check to see if you were an Amex cardholder? Did you really have to pay with your Amex card? Please comment below!
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I’m chatting with a rep from american express and they seem to have no idea what this benefit is.
yup, haha. they had no idea. I was just offered a new CC that says it has this benefit, which is how I found your site as I did a search to try to figure out what it was. 🙂 The peeps at AE said they don’t know anything about it. Even though it is in a new CC offer for a Wells Fargo AE card. AE peeps said to contact WF. I’m dubious about this working.
It doesn’t surprise me at all that Amex reps don’t know about it. Are you going to try it? I’m still waiting for the (expected to be hilarious) reports from people who, as instructed, call the restaurant and “identify yourself as an American Express Cardmember.”
greg. the reason why a pro like you didnt know about this is because this is offered thru Amex CONNECT which is a benefit on 3rd party Amex CC that are NOT discussed in detail all over the internet like the CSR. its a hidden gem and most n00bs wouldnt care.
[…] Dining perks from Amex: Taste from American Express Invites by Frequent Miler. The restaurant selection absolutely sucks, but worth checking out to see if by some miracle there is a good one near you. […]
[…] Dining perks from Amex: Taste from American Express Invites by Frequent Miler. The restaurant selection absolutely sucks, but worth checking out to see if by some miracle there is a good one near you. […]
Yeah, this has two restaurants available in my city, neither of which I’ve ever heard of (and I know most of the good restaurants downtown at this point). I’m not too thrilled with the choices – I’m hoping they offer a better selection, and a way to book that doesn’t involve me sounding needy on the phone.
My city has 0.
Are you saying that the Prestige can get you discounts/free things while dining in addition to tough reservations? I’ve used the card for the latter but didn’t know about the former.
Can you expand on the Citi Prestige dining benefits? Would love to take advantage of that program as well.
Yes, simply email the Citi Prestige Concierge (concierge@yourconciergecenter.com) to ask for a list of restaurants in your city or a city you’ll be visiting where you’ll get special perks if the conicerge books the restaurant for you. There used to be a way to see them online, but I’m not currently able to get that to work.
Funny, I’ve been curious about this benefit for years but never had the gusto to approach a server and demand free stuff haha. Will look forward to seeing replies with how it works in practicality!
They have 2 restaurants listed in Nashville, but one of them closed 6 months ago.
The vast majority of the cities they list have only one or two restaurants listed. Check Boston, Dallas, Philly, Seattle. A couple cities already have a lot: NYC and Miami. And a few cities have 5+.
Seems like this is something new and their marketing to restaurant owners has been focused in specific cities, so they haven’t started promoting it to card members yet.
There is a restaurant down the street from me that has this and is also on the seated app. I plan to try this out and stack them. Will report back what happens.
Yeah, that’s a dining program that I suspect almost no one knows about, and I suspect the restaurants would be similarly clueless. I wonder why you have to identify yourself at the restaurant to use it. It would make more sense to have customers book a table through a dedicated website to obtain the discount — or make it like AMEX offers.