Entertainment Book - Grill'd BOGOF

After watching The Longest Ride at Hoyts Melbourne Central. My friend and I decided to eat at Grill'd using an Entertainment Book voucher.

We both ordered Simply Grill'd with cheese ($9.90+$1). The lady who took my order kept pressing strange things on my phone while trying to redeem the voucher and so handed my phone back a couple of time so that I could get back to the voucher page. We were only given one of the small envelopes with bottle-caps inside that they give you after ordering (for voting on which organisation you want to get funding), even though we were two people, maybe because we only paid the price of one burger.

I was only reminded to take these photos after we began eating so you can see the bite marks in the photo. The bun was nice and crispy with lots of lettuce (although very cold which was a little annoying). The meat tasted nice but my friend mentioned it wasn't as juicy as the patty of the burger that we had back at the Highlander Bar. That's probably because the Highlander patty was thicker and cooked to around medium rather than well done (was a little pink inside).

I don't know how other people usually eat large burgers with the toothpicks/sticks stuck in the middle, but I think I did a good job today and I didn't have the fillings falling out everywhere. What I did was, I worked my way close to the toothpick, then moved and stuck it into the new middle, making sure that everything is stacked neatly. I did that a couple of times and this time left behind the cleanest plate compared to the last two times I ate at Grill'd.

I used the voucher from the 2014/2015 book but the same voucher is in the 2015/2016 book as well, if you're interested in purchasing one. I ordered mine from the Royal Children's because I wanted to support them. You can also search for another charity or organisation that you want to support who sells the books.

Scoopon - Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken Part 2

Since I still had three vouchers left after using it last time, I bought popcorn chicken again to eat inside the cinema while watching Parasyte Part 1. I won't say a lot since I already posted about it.

Sorry for the crappy photo, took it in the cinema which was kind of dark. Last time I chose garlic chicken so this time I opted for chilli. I could not taste the chilli at all and it was salty this time as well, maybe more than last time. I think I'll choose garlic next time since I still have to use the vouchers.

Hoyts - Using the "Free" Membership Tickets

When you sign up to Hoyts Rewards you get a "free" ticket which actually isn't free because you have to pay for membership. Current members would be aware that there was a price hike in the yearly membership. It used to be $10 a year and this worked, because it was the same price as the cheapest adult voucher that people can easily get (i.e. through Optus). But now it's $12 a year and so $2 more expensive than an adult voucher, which just doesn't seem worth it. So you can watch a single movie for cheaper if you don't join, but if you do join you rack up the points for movie you watch using that card. So should you join or not? A dilemma, right?

I went to buy a couple of tickets at Hoyts for the film Parasyte Part 1. It's a special event, so I couldn't use the Hoyts cinevouchers mentioned in the previous post to buy the tickets. I had a Hoyts gift card worth $50 that my brother had won in a competition so I thought I'd just get the tickets at full price. I asked for one adult and one student ticket, and handed the girl at the counter my membership card so I could get the rewards points. Turned out I had a "free" ticket on the card and that I could use it for this movie, even though it's a special event. So that's what I did.

The "free" ticket is valid for six months after signing up or renewing, so it would be wise to save the ticket for a special event. Full price adult tickets are $20 (student/concession is $17) and you can't use the vouchers for special events. So if you save your "free" ticket for a special event, that is a saving of $8 for adults, $5 for students. Using the "free" tickets for special events is the only scenario of using those tickets where you're actually "saving" money (the irony on the "saving" since it's money that's already been spent and if you don't use the "free" ticket at all then that's even worse).

After buying the tickets I walked away thinking I had saved money. Then realised later that I the ticket I bought using the gift card was the adult ticket. If I'd bought the student ticket using the gift card (since the "free" ticket is an adult ticket anyway) I'd have saved another $3!

RACV - Cheap Movie Vouchers

Nowadays probably everyone knows about the cheap movie vouchers you can get through Optus and Telstra. But there is one other place you can get cheap vouchers - RACV! In fact, the cheapest - if you're a student, that is. So how do you get these cheap vouchers?

First, you have to be an RACV member. Or have a family member who is a member. Or a friend who's a member. If you want to go to a physical RACV shop to buy the vouchers you have to show the RACV membership card, so obviously you have to have physical access to the card. But if you order online, it's another matter. You only need to input the member number and the family name to be able to order the discounted vouchers - easy! And it's actually better to buy online because the physical shop only sells a limited variety.

Online, RACV sells vouchers for Hoyts, Village, Reading, Palace and some other independent cinemas. There are mail-out or e-vouchers and for some reason the e-vouchers are more expensive even though really it should be cheaper, since it would require less work to send them... The downside of buying online is that there are fees - credit card and postage fees. So you have to consider that when deciding to buy online or at a shop - the ones that are actually sold at the shop would be cheaper to buy there so only buy online for vouchers not sold at the shops. Also, if you just want a restricted adult ticket, then better to buy through Optus. The people who would be able to get the most value out of these vouchers would be... STUDENTS!

The reason I order from RACV is because I can use the student Hoyts cinevouchers. The mail-out ones are $8.50 each. If you just buy one, it will be more expensive than the Optus ones because of the added on fees, but if you buy several at once then it's a lot cheaper to order from RACV.

I've ordered twice from RACV and each time I bought seven vouchers, because then even with the fees it would work out to be just under $9 for each voucher. The more I buy at once, the closer each voucher would become to being $8.50 but if I buy too many I might not be able to use them all in time, so I think seven is a good number. If you have lots of friends who are students, you can go ahead and buy a hundred at a time!

Here is what the tickets look like. They expire in December so plenty of time to use the vouchers. Maybe I should've bought more! The really good thing about using these Hoyts cinevouchers is that you get 140 points for each, worth $1.40, which you can use later to pay for 3D/Xtremescreen upgrades, or even free movies once you've saved up enough points.

The conditions of use. As you can see, these student vouchers are not restricted, i.e. they can be used on Saturday nights. The adult non restricted vouchers are $11, therefore cost $1 more than the restricted ones. So these student vouchers are really good value.

Scoopon - Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken + a Drink

This time I used a voucher from Scoopon I had bought a long time ago, for Taiwanese Popcorn and Drink for $6. Just the popcorn chicken by itself is normally valued at $9.50. Here is the Scoopon page with the details (finished deal, click on 'show deal details'). Took me so long to go there because when I was supposed to meet my friends for a meal I asked my friends to choose from the vouchers I had and no one chose this one. I still have three vouchers left...

The place is called Yes - Authentic Taiwanese Street Food and is located in China Town (address is 2/128 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne). Their Facebook page is here. They deliver to your door within the CBD with a minimum $20 order and extra $3 delivery charge; I saw the motorcycle/scooter parked outside.

I nearly walked past the place because it was very small. I hadn't really thought about the opening hours before coming but I happened to walk in at around 12:30, so just as it opened.

The lady at the counter asked whether I wanted to eat in or take away. I hadn't been aware that it was possible to take away (it's not in the voucher) but it was good news, because I think I'll be taking away next time I come. This time I had purposely come early and had time before my class so I decided to eat in.

Next question I was asked was whether I wanted garlic or chilli. Again, I hadn't been aware that I could choose between the two, I asked which one was less saltier. The lady thought for a while and said, maybe the garlic. So I ordered garlic.

I mentioned that the place looked small from the outside, and it's small inside as well. Only nine seats in the whole place, with two at the centre table and the rest facing the wall. I sat facing the wall.

My popcorn chicken and Coke Zero. Was kind of salty and also dry (because it's boneless I guess) so I ended up drinking a lot of Coke while eating. The taste was just average-good I guess, certainly not as good as it had smelt.

The popcorn chicken was served in a paper bag which kind of made it hard to eat (didn't think to rip it open like another person who came later did). Since I was dining in it may have been easier to eat with the paper bowls/cups or something like that. I had to shake the bag to get the contents closer to the opening. 

Only after I had eaten about half did I even see the garlic bits that had sunk to the bottom. The garlic was really spicy, I don't know if it was supposed to be like that or if it hadn't been cooked enough.

Here you can see the leftover garlic at the end. Decided not to eat it.

I would say this is good for a snack to share with friends but not for a meal because of the oiliness and the saltiness. Next time I go (since I still have to use up the vouchers) I will order the chilli so I can compare.

Pizza Hut - Any Three Large Pizzas + 3 Sides Delivered

Ordered from Pizza Hut for dinner. I usually order from Domino's as the pizza tastes better there and on top of that it's cheaper, but I felt like a change and I really like the Triple Dippers.

Used the coupon code for ANY THREE LARGE PIZZA + THREE SIDES DELIVERED for $33. The coupon code is ED33D3 (for online). I added a Triple Dipper so ended up being $42.95. Here's the photo of my receipt which shows my selections.

So I ordered online around 7:30PM and the estimated delivery time was 8:00PM but it was delivered a little earlier, around 7:55PM, so prompt delivery.

Mountain of food

The calzone and the cheesy garlic bread. I don't think I would want to eat the calzone again. Basically just nutella inside, nothing special and too sweet. The cheesy garlic bread I chose over regular garlic bread because it's supposed to cost more but I don't pay extra because of using the coupon (so I wanted more value for money). I've had it before but it seemed a lot more saltier than I remembered. I also noticed that the box has changed, used to be in a long one,

Chicken bites. I didn't actually eat them because I had too much food to eat. The smell was quite strong (not a good or bad thing, just a statement), as soon as the delivery man started handing me stuff this was the only thing I could smell pretty much.

The triple dipper, my favourite! The only reason I ever order from Pizza Hut. Once I was given an extra tomato sauce instead of the sweet chilli sauce but they got the sauces right this time. I like dipping the cheese sticks in the sweet chilli sauce. You can get the chicken and the potato as separate sides but you can only get the cheese sticks as part of the triple dipper. I didn't eat any of the chicken (I usually don't).

El Scorcho minus the peperoni. This must be their new version of the hot and spicy. Removed the peperoni because I thought it would be salty. Maybe I should've removed the Italian sausage as well, because that was also somewhat salty.Other than that, similar to the old hot and spicy but not really hot and spicy...

Veggie Trio with chilli flakes, because I like hot food. The chilli flakes made my lips tingle a little but other than that wasn't hot at all. Pretty much generic veggie pizza taste.

Veggie Sensation minus the olives, because olives are usually the pickled ones and therefore salty. Interesting change to the usual veggie pizzas with the pineapple and the aioli sauce, I liked it.

Overall not bad but Domino's is still better as it has both tastier and cheaper pizza. My dad complained after eating the pizzas today that he prefers Domino's and that Pizza Hut pizzas don't have enough toppings (I don't think Domino's has much more toppings but that is what he things). Lesson learnt from today is that next time I should order from Domino's! I would also received one dollar back for every pizza ordered from Domino's as well using the mogul pizza system.

But if you want to order from Pizza Hut anyway, click here.