In this guide
The card that costs £29.99 and the card that costs £79.99 are sold by the same company, from the same office, on the same VAT number — and 527 of their London restaurants are the same restaurants. That is the single most useful thing to know before buying one.
This page covers paid membership cards and subscriptions: Tastecard, Gourmet Society, Dine Club, Meerkat Meals and NeoTaste. It is not about restaurants’ own fixed-price menus — those are on our set lunch and pre-theatre page, and, as it turns out, the two rarely combine.
Everything below was read off each scheme’s own website on 3 September 2026, including the exclusions on all 635 of Tastecard’s individual London restaurant pages.
💡 The Short Version: Tastecard at £29.99 a year is the only one of these that is obviously good value — it pays for itself in under two meals, and Gourmet Society sells a near-identical list for £79.99. NeoTaste has by far the most London restaurants (1,033) and much the best ones, but each deal must be booked in advance and cannot be repeated straight away. Meerkat Meals is free if you were buying insurance anyway. And the number nobody advertises: only 30% of Tastecard’s London restaurants accept it on both a Friday and a Saturday.
⚠️ These are auto-renewing subscriptions. All four paid cards renew until you stop them, and Dine Club requires three days’ notice by phone or email. Prices and terms were correct on 3 September 2026.
Who these are for
Worth it if: you eat out in London at least once a month, you are flexible about which restaurant, and you are happy eating Sunday to Thursday. On a £70 bill for two, 25% off saves £17.50 — so a £29.99 annual card is ahead after the second meal.
Not worth it if: you eat out mainly on Friday and Saturday nights, you book specific restaurants rather than browsing for one that takes the card, or you eat out a handful of times a year. Nothing here beats simply going at lunchtime — see set lunch and pre-theatre menus.
The comparison
| Tastecard | Gourmet Society | Dine Club | NeoTaste | Meerkat Meals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual | £29.99 | £79.99 | £49.99 | £71.88 | Free* |
| Monthly | £3.99 | £7.99 | £4.99 | £6.99 | — |
| Discount | 25% off bill, 2-for-1, or 50% off food | Same | 25% off bill, 2-for-1, or 50% off food | 2-for-1 mains, % off, £10 off — varies | 25% off bill |
| London venues | 635 | 591 | 289 | 1,033 | Not published |
| Main catch | 61% exclude Saturday | Same list, 2.7× the price | Cancel by phone, 3 days’ notice | One booking per deal, then a wait | Must buy insurance first |
| Extras | Coffee, cinema, pizza, days out | Same | Cinema, theatre, foodie extras | Loyalty stamps | Pizza delivery, cinema |
| Free trial | None advertised | None advertised | None advertised | Yes, length not stated | n/a |
* Meerkat Meals requires taking out a qualifying product through Compare the Market; one membership a year.
Tastecard
£29.99 a year or £3.99 a month. 635 London restaurants.
The biggest list of the traditional cards and, at the annual price, the cheapest. Membership also brings 25% off barista-made coffee at Caffè Nero and independents seven days a week, 50% off or 2-for-1 pizza delivery at Domino’s, Papa Johns and Pizza Hut, around 25% off cinema tickets at 350+ venues, and discounted days out.
The London reality. Of the 635 restaurants, 425 are independents and 210 are chain outlets — including 44 PizzaExpress branches, 25 Krispy Kreme, 22 Burger King, 20 Popeyes, 18 Zizzi and 18 Fireaway. Only 191 are in the ten central postcode districts, and the independents skew hard towards neighbourhood curry houses, dessert bars and hotel dining rooms.
By postcode: E1 36 (33 independents, mostly Brick Lane curry houses), WC2 32, W1 30, SE1 24, SW1 16.
The photograph at the top of this page is Babel Grill House at 40 Brick Lane, and it is a fair summary of the whole proposition: a genuinely good-looking room, a 2-for-1 offer, and the terms attached — Monday to Thursday only, no Friday, no Saturday, no bank holidays, and you must telephone to book.
Places on the list a Londoner would actually choose: Arros QD in Fitzrovia, Maresco in Soho, Kapara Soho, Bala Baya in Southwark, Farzi London, Café Spice Namasté, Macellaio RC, Escocesa, Bar Esteban, Dirty Bones Soho, The Mayfair Chippy and Yuu Kitchen. That is a real list. It is also about a dozen restaurants out of 635.
The catches, measured rather than guessed. Reading the small print on every one of the 635 London pages:
| Exclusion | Restaurants | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday | 388 | 61% |
| “Celebration Days” | 322 | 51% |
| Bank Holidays | 307 | 48% |
| Friday | 269 | 42% |
| December | 181 | 28% |
Only 193 of the 635 — 30% — take the card on both a Friday and a Saturday. In central London it is 52 out of 191, or 27%. And 347 of them, 55%, say you must telephone to book in advance. “Celebration Days” is never defined.
One more honest note on the headline. Tastecard advertises savings of “over £600 a year”, and its own page breaks that down as £246 from coffee and only £222 from dining. The biggest component of the claim is 25% off flat whites.
Verdict: buy it, at the annual price, and treat it as a midweek card. Four coffees a month covers the monthly fee on their own.
Gourmet Society
£79.99 a year or £7.99 a month. 591 London restaurants.
Gourmet Society and Tastecard are the same company. This is not an inference — clause 11 of the terms published on Tastecard’s own site is headed “Ello Group Ltd Terms & Conditions” and states that Tastecard is operated by Taste Marketing Ltd, Gourmet Society by Simard Limited and Hi-Life by Hi-Life Diners Club Limited. All three are registered at the same Huddersfield address, and all three share the VAT number 220 9026 46.
The London reality. We pulled both full London lists and compared them. 527 venues appear on both — 83% of Tastecard’s list and 89% of Gourmet Society’s. The differences are almost entirely fast food: Tastecard adds Krispy Kreme, Burger King, Zizzi and Pizza Hut, which account for 69 of its 108 exclusives. Gourmet Society’s 64 exclusives are small independents — Palm Court Brasserie, Pimlico Spice, The Terrace Bar at The Chesterfield Mayfair and the like.
The benefits are word-for-word identical on the two join pages: the same 25% off or 2-for-1, the same Coffee Club, the same pizza delivery, the same cinema and days out.
Verdict: no reason to buy this. It is the same product as Tastecard at 2.7 times the price. Tastecard’s own “was £79.99” crossed-out price is exactly what its sister brand charges today.
Dine Club
£49.99 a year or £4.99 a month. Around 289 venues within 25 miles of Covent Garden.
A genuinely separate company — Rocket UK Ltd of Brighton, nothing to do with Ello Group. Same three offer types: 25% off the total bill including drinks, 50% off the food bill, or 2-for-1 on mains. Extras run to 40% off cinema and up to 50% off theatre tickets, which is the most interesting thing about it. The annual plan includes a physical card as well as the app, and restaurants must hold a 3.5-star rating to join.
The London reality. Much smaller than the others, and concentrated in the centre. Within a mile: 27 around Covent Garden, 24 around Soho, 16 around Brick Lane, 8 around Borough, and 5 around Victoria. Within three miles of Covent Garden, 82.
Small, but better chosen. RedFarm, El Ta’koy, Paladar, Shepherd’s of Westminster, London Steakhouse Co., Isolabella, Mango at Borough Market and the Lucky Voice karaoke bars are a more appealing central list than Tastecard’s, even though there are a fifth as many.
The catch is cancellation. From Dine Club’s own FAQ: you must contact them “on 01273 668831 or email enquiries@dineclub.co.uk (Mon–Fri 9am–5.30pm) at any point during your 12 month Membership but no later than 3 days prior to your renewal date”. There is no in-app cancel button. Its restaurants can also exclude Friday and Saturday nights, December, bank holidays and celebration days, exactly as Tastecard’s can.
Verdict: only if the central list happens to suit you — and diarise the cancellation date the day you join.
Meerkat Meals
Free, but you have to buy something first.
Compare the Market’s scheme gives 25% off the entire bill when dining out, plus 50% off Papa Johns and Pizza Hut Delivery and 2-for-1 at Domino’s for delivery, seven days a week. The old 2-for-1 dine-out offer is gone.
To get it you must take out a qualifying product through Compare the Market — insurance, energy, a credit product — and you get one membership per year. If you were switching your car insurance anyway, the restaurant discount is free money. If you were not, it is not a discount card, it is an insurance purchase.
The London reality: we cannot tell you. Meerkat Meals is app-only, and Compare the Market publishes no restaurant finder on the web at all. There is no way to check which London restaurants take it without installing the app and holding a qualifying product. Its own small print says “days available/no. of diners vary by participating restaurant/outlet” and “restrictions may apply to special menus”, so expect the same weekday bias as the paid cards.
Worth separating out: Meerkat Movies, the 2-for-1 cinema offer, now needs no purchase at all and runs until 19 July 2027. That one is free to everybody with the app — see our cinema deals guide.
Verdict: take it if you are buying insurance. Don’t buy insurance to get it.
NeoTaste
£71.88 a year, £6.99 a month, or £95.76 for two years. 1,033 London venues.
The newcomer, and structurally a different animal. NeoTaste is a Berlin company now running in seven UK cities, and it lists more London venues than any other scheme here — 1,033 in its own sitemap, against 811 in Berlin, its home city.
The London reality. The list is almost entirely independent and much fresher: Wingmans Soho, Kanada-Ya Piccadilly, Preto Angel, Café de Nata Soho, Steak & Bun Marylebone, Sandwich Sandwich, Eggbreak, The Noodle Inn, 3 Locks Brewing and Bagelbuzz are all on it. Deals are specific rather than blanket — “2-for-1 signature wings”, “2-for-1 main item plus 30% discount”, “£10 discount and a free dessert”.
The catch is the model, not the small print. Per its terms, every deal must be booked in the app in advance for a time slot; only one deal per member per restaurant at a time; and — the important one — “the same Deal can only be booked again at the same restaurant after a certain period of time”, which varies by restaurant. It is designed to make you try somewhere new, not to discount your local every week. Dine-in only, and you must show the booking before you order and redeem it before you pay.
The website advertises a free trial but does not say how long it lasts, which is a small black mark. Cancellation is by email at the end of the billing cycle.
Verdict: the best list here, and the wrong card if you want to use the same restaurant repeatedly. Good for people who like trying new places, poor for people with a favourite.
What we checked and left off
- Hi-Life Diners Club still exists as a company — it is named in Ello Group’s terms — but hi-life.co.uk now redirects to tastecard.co.uk. There is nothing separate to buy.
- Coffee Club is not a separate purchase. It is included free with Tastecard and Gourmet Society.
- Vitality rewards are Caffè Nero drinks and cinema tickets earned by hitting activity targets — not a restaurant discount.
- O2 Priority gives a £1 Greggs hot drink or savoury item weekly, up to four times a month: about £3.20 a month, at a bakery.
- Deliveroo Plus (£4.99/month) and Uber One discount delivery, which is a different product.
Which card for which person
You eat out once or twice a month, usually midweek, and you are not fussy. → Tastecard, annual, £29.99. It pays for itself on the second meal and the coffee discount covers the rest.
You eat out on Friday and Saturday nights. → None of them. Only 30% of Tastecard’s London restaurants accept it on both those days, and 27% in the centre. Book a set lunch or an early-evening pre-theatre menu instead — those have no membership fee at all.
You like trying somewhere new every few weeks. → NeoTaste. The most London venues, the best ones, and a model built for exactly this. Expect to pay £71.88 a year for the privilege.
You are about to renew your car or home insurance. → Meerkat Meals, and take the free 2-for-1 cinema while you are there.
You already own a Gourmet Society membership. → Let it lapse and buy Tastecard. Same company, same list, £50 a year cheaper.
Cards versus set menus: they do not stack
Every scheme here says some version of the same thing. Ello Group’s terms: offers “may not be available for use in conjunction with any other offers at participating venues”. Dine Club: “only one Dine Membership can be used per visit”. NeoTaste: “a 2:1 Deal cannot be combined with a direct discount”. Meerkat Meals: “restrictions may apply to special menus”.
So a card will not usually come off a restaurant’s own fixed-price lunch — ask before ordering, not at the till. These are two separate strategies, not one. A £16.95 two-course lunch at Brasserie Zédel or £20 for a course at Hawksmoor beats 25% off dinner, needs no membership and is open to everyone: the full list is on our set lunch and pre-theatre page.
Continue planning your London trip
Paying less to eat out in London. A few different strategies, and they rarely combine — pick the one that fits how you eat:
- 🍽️ Set Lunch and Pre-Theatre Menus — the restaurant’s own fixed price, no membership, biggest single saving
- 📱 Off-Peak Restaurant Apps — First Table and EatClub — cheaper if you will eat early or walk in
- 🥂 Bottomless Brunch — 38 packages compared on price per minute, and what “bottomless” covers
- 👨👩👧 Kids Eat Free — every free and £1 children’s offer with a London branch
- 💷 Cheap Eats in London — good food under £15 with no offer, code or membership at all
- 🎬 The Best Cinema Deals in London — including the free 2-for-1 Meerkat Movies offer
- 🧭 London on a Budget
- ☕ The Best Coffee in London
All prices, terms, exclusions and restaurant counts were read off each scheme’s own website on 3 September 2026, including the small print on all 635 of Tastecard’s individual London restaurant pages. Confirm before you buy — these are auto-renewing subscriptions.
Common questions
Is Tastecard worth it in London?
At £29.99 a year it pays for itself in under two meals, so for most people who eat out monthly, yes. The catch is availability rather than price: of its 635 London restaurants, only 193 accept the card on both a Friday and a Saturday, and 55% require you to book by phone in advance.
What is the difference between Tastecard and Gourmet Society?
Almost nothing, because they are the same company. Ello Group owns both, and the terms on Tastecard's own site name Taste Marketing Ltd and Simard Ltd as sister companies sharing one VAT number. Of their London restaurants, 527 appear on both lists. Tastecard costs £29.99 a year and Gourmet Society £79.99.
Which restaurant discount card has the most London restaurants?
NeoTaste, with 1,033 London venues listed in its own sitemap, against 635 for Tastecard, 591 for Gourmet Society and 289 for Dine Club within 25 miles of Covent Garden. NeoTaste's deals work differently though — each one has to be booked in the app for a time slot, and you cannot repeat the same deal at the same restaurant straight away.
Can you use a discount card at weekends in London?
Often not. Across Tastecard's 635 London restaurants, 388 exclude Saturday and 269 exclude Friday. Only 30% take the card on both a Friday and a Saturday, falling to 27% in central London. Check the individual restaurant's listing rather than assuming.
Do restaurant discount cards work with set lunch menus?
Assume not. Ello Group's terms say offers 'may not be available for use in conjunction with any other offers', Dine Club allows only one membership per visit, NeoTaste forbids combining deals, and Meerkat Meals warns that restrictions may apply to special menus. A restaurant's own fixed-price lunch is already the discount.
How do you cancel a restaurant discount card?
Tastecard and Gourmet Society cancel in the app, and both auto-renew until you do. NeoTaste cancels by email at the end of the billing cycle. Dine Club is the awkward one: you must telephone or email during office hours, and no later than three days before your renewal date.
Does a restaurant discount card include drinks?
It depends which offer the restaurant runs. "25% off the total bill" includes drinks, and Dine Club states that explicitly. "50% off food" does not. "2-for-1" applies to main courses only, cheaper one free. None of the dining offers cover takeaway — they are all eat-in only.
Do I have to book ahead to use a restaurant discount card?
Usually. Of Tastecard's 635 London restaurants, 347 — 55% — say you must telephone to book in advance. Every NeoTaste deal has to be booked in the app for a time slot. Dine Club asks you to mention the card when booking.
Is there a maximum party size?
Yes, and it varies by restaurant — commonly two, four or six diners. Only one membership can be used per table. Dine Club is blunt about it: restaurants are under no obligation to honour the card if the number is exceeded.
Will the restaurant actually honour the card?
Usually, but the schemes disclaim responsibility if not. Ello Group's terms say venues may withdraw or change offers at any time and that it accepts no liability for availability. NeoTaste says outright that it is not responsible if a restaurant refuses to honour a deal. Mention the card when you book, and again before you order — not when the bill arrives.
