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Places To Get Free Food or Drink on Your Anniversary

ByLeah Ingram
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Looking to get free food or drink on your anniversary? I can help. There are local restaurants, cafes, or eateries that give you free food or drink on your wedding anniversary.

It’s the same with some cash back apps, too. So, I’ve put together this list of national and large regional restaurant chains that will give you free food or drink on your anniversary.

We’ve even found restaurants local to us with rewards programs that offer anniversary freebies. So, we get free food or a discount on our birthday and then a freebie on our wedding anniversary.

My husband’s birthday is in October, our wedding anniversary is in November and my birthday is in December. So, three months in a row we’ve been getting some sort of free food or drink. Now, scroll down to find out the details of their wedding anniversary freebie offers.

easy anniversary gifts
Photo credit: Adobe Photos.

How to get a free anniversary gift

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How do you get this free anniversary gift? First, sign up for a restaurant’s mailing list or download an app to your phone. A restaurant rewards program might be called an eClub, but basically you need to register on the site. As a result of signing up, you’ll get an email near your anniversary for your free food or drink offer.

None of the restaurants I found ask for proof of a wedding or an anniversary date in order to give this freebie. What they do ask for is email or printed proof from their rewards program that your freebie popped up. I usually just show it on my phone to the server. That means that everyone should be able to get free food on your anniversary just by entering the date!

This list includes places you can go or services you can use (in alphabetical order) that can help you celebrate your big day with free food or drink on your anniversary. So if you are looking for ideas on anniversary meals, this blog post can help.

Looking for easy anniversary gift ideas by year or theme? Check out this article.

Savings on your anniversary dinner

Here is a great way to save big money on an anniversary dinner. Buy a discounted gift card or deal. Here are a few ways to do that.

Darden Restaurant gift cards

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You can buy Darden Restaurant gift cards in bulk. So you can have your anniversary dinner somewhere you like at a savings plus enjoy your anniversary dinner freebie to boot. Not familiar with Darden? They’re the parent company of these restaurant brands:

  • Olive Garden
  • LongHorn Steakhouse
  • ‘Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen
  • Bahama Breeze
  • Seasons 52
  • Yard House

Use Rakuten to save

There are ways to save on restaurant meals using Rakuten (formerly Ebates), the cash back service. This includes dining in house as well as delivery services. Have you signed up for Rakuten yet? If not, what’s holding you back?

Since I signed up for Rakuten, my lifetime cash back has added up to $2,626.44–and counting. Here is my blog post that explains What is Rakuten.

Save with Groupon

Sign up for Groupon. You never know what kinds of great deals will be coming down the pike with Groupon. This includes local restaurants.

Restaurants offering anniversary freebies

On this past anniversary, we visited our favorite restaurant and told our server it was our wedding anniversary. He informed us that we would be getting a free dessert to share at the end of the meal.

In that instance, we didn’t need to sign up for anything to get our anniversary freebie. However, with the restaurants listed below, you do. So, I’ve explained how it all works. Note: when I’d first compiled this list, Fogo de Chao had a generous rewards program that included a wedding anniversary freebie. However, they no longer do. Sorry!

Buca di Beppo

What is Buca di Beppo? It is a nationwide chain that features Italian food. When you sign up for the Buca eClub, be sure to include your anniversary date along with your birthday.

Then, on those two special occasions, you can expect to receive a free small dish of pasta. However, these days things are a little different. It seems that the anniversary freebie is now more of a BOGO, or buy one, get one, freebie. Here’s what the brand told me:

“The Anniversary gift can be taken to go with the purchase of an additional item.”

Maggiano’s Little Italy

Upon signing up for Maggiano’s Little Italy email, you’ll get a $10 off coupon to use on your next visit. While I cannot confirm what the freebie is for your anniversary (or your birthday for that matter), Maggiano’s must have something planned. Why else would they ask for these dates when you sign up?

Marie Callender’s

The chain Marie Callenders has restaurants in five Western states, plus Texas. Its restaurant customers can enjoy an anniversary gift similar to its birthday deal. That gift is likely to be a coupon for $5 off your meal. In addition, you’ll get a free piece of pie for dessert.

Mimi’s Cafe

Sign up for Mimi’s Cafe‘s Club Fun e-Club for your freebies. First, you’ll get a coupon for free muffins upon signing up. Next, around the time of your anniversary, you’ll get a BOGO (buy one, get one free) meal on your anniversary.

Romano’s Macaroni Grill

When you sign up for “The Dish,” Romano’s Macaroni Grill’s newsletter, you’ll get $5 off an entree. While completing the sign-up form, be sure to include your wedding anniversary date. They ask for the month and date, not the year. That way you’ll receive a coupon for free food on your anniversary around the time of your anniversary.

What is that freebie? Last time I checked it was a free piece of chocolate cake.

Texas de Brazil

When you sign up for the Texas de Brazil e-club, right away you get a coupon to save $20 on your first two meals. There is more good stuff to come from this Brazilian steakhouse.

These freebies include that free food on your anniversary plus your birthday. In fact, here is what the sign-up page says:

“Look for great gifts in your inbox on birthdays, anniversaries and for other special offers throughout the year!”

Right now, you can snag these daily deals for Texas de Brazil on Groupon.

Looking for restaurant reviews?

Perhaps you’re thinking of finding a nice restaurant near you for your anniversary or “Where can I go out to eat for my anniversary?” Perhaps you’re looking for restaurant reviews as well as suggestions. Well, I love reading restaurant reviews.

And even though you might think of TripAdvisor as a place for travel-related reviews, TripAdvisor also has restaurant reviews. In fact, this link will take you to the best restaurants in the United States.

TripAdvisor starts the list with some of the biggest cities, like the best New York City restaurants, best Los Angeles restaurants and best Chicago restaurants.

And then the TripAdvisor list of the best United States restaurants continues to some of the smallest towns where you might want to go out to eat. You can search by locality or popularity.

Choose your cuisine for your anniversary dinner

If you decide to check out the best restaurants in the United States on TripAdvisor, here’s what happens when you click through to your chosen city. TripAdvisor will then break out the restaurants by cuisine.

So, for example, if you were looking for the best Chicago restaurants for your anniversary dinner, you could choose from the following cuisine options:

  • barbecue
  • Chinese
  • Indian
  • Italian
  • Mexican
  • pizza
  • seafood
  • steakhouse

While you’re on the TripAdvisor site, you can also check out–and book–romantic hotels for a really special anniversary celebration. 

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8 Comments

  1. Our 60th anniversary is on July 26, 2022, and we are looking for a nice restaurant for this special occasion, and would appreciate recommendations as we do not often eat out. We were married while in the Navy, flying with VP47 out of Whidbey Island, Washington, in 1962, and have had many wonderful experiences during those following 60 years, including 3 years with the American Embassy in Germany.

    Reply

    1. Happy 60th anniversary. That’s quite a milestone. However, since I do not know where you are located, I can’t make any recommendations.

      Reply

    1. Happy anniversary. Not sure I can help with such little notice but I hope one of the restaurants listed in this article come through for you.

      Reply

  3. Just got my Anniversary coupon from Teds Montana Grill. It is a free appetizer. I would suggest the crab cakes they are the most expensive appetizer on the menu. Not the most filling, but very good. We usually do not get them because of the cost and not being very filling, so this is a good time to get them. Also the free desert is on your birthday not anniversary.
    I also got the email from Fogo de Chao it is a free desert which is a little lame. Although I think their salad bar (market table) alone is worth the cost at lunch time only. I can eat a lot of meat and have had the Gaucho lunch or dinner and it is not worth the cost.
    Another good one is Konavore Rewards which is the rewards for Kona Grill. They just sent me a $9 off $30 (I know strange amount). When I signed up they sent me a BOGO sushi roll which is about $10 value. I signed up about 2 weeks before my anniversary so this $9 off $30 may just be a thank you reward since the email didn’t mention my anniversary.

    Reply

  4. My wife and I are celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary today Feb. 19, 2018. We got married Feb. 19, 1988.
    Carolyn is a school bus driver / trainer for First Student in Palm Springs, CA. and have been a driver for the past 15 years.
    I myself a telecommunications technician for the past 26 years have been out of work since December 20th 2017 and have absolutely no money to do anything special for my beautiful wife who birthed three handsome boys who are now young men.
    I feel so ashamed not being able to make her feel as special and loved so much.
    I would love to take her out for dinner but can’t even afford the BOGO. Are there any places near Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Coachella Valley or Indio, CA. that will do dinner for to on they’re anniversary.
    Please let me know if you can.

    Thank you.
    Kennithe Hiler

    Reply
  5. Pingback: Weekly Frugal Living News: What not to buy in bulk and how to get free food on your anniversary

  6. Marie Callenders is my favorite restaurant. It’s food is really delicious and I know a very nice waiter at Texas restaurant. Thanks for share, Leah!

    Reply