Seated Dining App: How It Works, And My Experience

There are all kinds of ways to maximize your return on dining, from using the right credit card, to taking advantage of airline and hotel dining programs.

A few days ago, I shared my experience using the InKind dining app, which is pretty awesome. Since I’ve been in the habit of once again using more dining programs, I wanted to take an updated look at the Seated dining app. I first downloaded the app back in 2017, and hadn’t used it since. So I figured it was time to give it another shot, especially as it has changed a bit over the years.

Long story short, I think it’s worth keeping the Seated dining app on your radar, especially since you can double dip with other dining portals.

What is the Seated dining app?

Seated is a free app that offers savings when dining at over 2,000 restaurants around the United States. This is primarily available in major cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, and Washington.

The way this works, when you dine at a participating restaurant at an eligible time, you can receive a certain percent back on your dining experience, in the form of gift cards with major brands, like Amazon.

Let me say that the quality of restaurants on Seated is mixed — some are good, while others aren’t. What I appreciate the most is that you can double dip, by using Seated and also using a dining portal, to really maximize your rewards.

For those curious about the business model, it works similar to other dining rewards programs. The idea is that Seated takes a cut on the checks for the customers it sends to restaurants, with the argument being that the app is generating incremental business.

How does the Seated dining app save you money?

So, how does the Seated dining app actually work? Let’s cover the basics of how you can save, and the process of using the Seated dining app.

Save a certain percentage at restaurants

Once you’ve downloaded the Seated app, you can browse all restaurants available through the program.

Rewards with Seated come in the form of a certain percentage credit for restaurants you dine at, when making the reservation through the Seated platform (there’s also the option to dine as a walk-in, but you have to state that you’re dining as a walk-in through the app). Seated is intended to fill restaurants with empty seats. In the case of some restaurants, that covers all opening hours, while in the case of other restaurants, it only covers off peak periods.

You’ll generally find that the savings are somewhere in the range of 7% to 14%, though they can vary, and can be higher or lower than that. Sometimes the savings amounts will be lower for lunch on a Monday, and higher for dinner on a Saturday. Yesterday we decided to have brunch at Jass Kitchen in Miami, where 14% savings were available.

So we made the reservation through the Seated app.

In order to get rewarded through Seated, you just need to make your reservation through the Seated app, and then you can do one of two things to ensure you’re rewarded.

One option is to simply use your linked credit card to pay the bill. Seated lets you link multiple credit cards, and then when you use one of those to pay, you’ll automatically receive your reward. Alternatively, you can choose to submit your itemized receipt through Seated, and then you’re supposed to receive rewards within 48 hours.

Within a minute of paying the bill, I received a push notification from Seated, telling me I had earned $11 in rewards. As you’d expect, you don’t earn rewards on gratuity, taxes, or fees.

How to redeem your Seated rewards

So, once you earn rewards with Seated, how can you redeem them? The program’s rewards can be redeemed for gift cards with all kinds of popular businesses, ranging from Amazon, to Delta, to Uber. I’d basically consider these rewards to be good as cash.

When you redeem for rewards, you’ll be given codes for the gift cards. For example, I redeem for Amazon gift cards, since that’s money I’d spend anyway, so I can instantly load that balance to my account.

Get $10 with refer a friend offer

Seated has a refer a friend program. When you’re referred by an existing user, you’ll get $10 after your first meal, redeemable for rewards. Similarly, the friend who refers you can get a $10 credit as well.

You can find my refer a friend QR code below, or you can use referral code ben242 (in the app, just click the three horizontal lines at the top right, and then click “add promo”). Others are welcome to leave their link or referral code in the comments section as well.

Double dip (or triple dip) your rewards

Obviously you should always use the best credit card for dining rewards, which is the easiest way to double dip rewards. However, what’s awesome is that you can typically use both Seated and other dining rewards networks at the same restaurants, as there’s quite a bit of overlap. For example, many restaurants are also available through American AAdvantage Dining or through Bilt Dining.

So by using a card that’s also linked to my Bilt account, I also earned 3x Bilt points for my dining, in addition to the Seated rewards, and in addition to credit card rewards.

Is using the Seated dining app worth it?

The way I view it, it’s absolutely worth seeing if a restaurant you want to dine at participates in Seated. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend making dining plans around Seated’s network of restaurants, since some of them aren’t great.

However, if there’s a participating restaurant of interest, then using Seated is a no-brainer. When you stack it with credit cards rewards plus the potential for using another dining portal (just by using the right credit card), the rewards can really add up.

Now, I have to say, I have a strong preference for InKind compared to Seated. InKind is a great app, with restaurants people actually want to eat at, the savings can potentially be much bigger, and it has a unique business model that potentially has more upside for restaurants, in my opinion.

Bottom line

Seated is an app offering rewards for dining at over 2,000 restaurants in the United States. You just have to book your reservation through Seated, and then you can receive a certain percentage back on your dining experience, in the form of credits that can be redeemed for gift cards. Best of all, you can generally stack Seated rewards with dining portal rewards, to really get as much value as possible.

I wouldn’t dine at a mediocre restaurant just to earn rewards, but if there’s a Seated restaurant you like, you might as well take advantage of this.

If you’ve used the Seated dining app, what was your experience like?