Mastercard One Dines Free: Enjoy one free main course at restaurants across Asia Pacific

If you love a good deal when dining out, you’re probably aware of discount programs like The Entertainer, Eatigo and AMEX Love Dining. 

But there’s another lesser-known one: Mastercard’s One Dines Free. As the name suggests, this offers a complimentary main course for a party of 2-6 diners at selected restaurants across Asia Pacific. 

Mastercard One Dines Free

One Dines Free is open to Mastercard customers of any tier (even debit cards). Prior reservations are required, and must be made through Mastercard’s dedicated website at least 24 hours in advance. Each guest must order one main course, and the cheapest main course will be removed from the bill. This offer only applies for dine-in. 

There are currently 43 restaurants participating in Singapore:

There’s some interesting selections here, with the inclusion of several restaurants at Mandarin Oriental and Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel. 

I’m also glad to see Burlamacco Ristorante featured. This, you may remember, recently dropped off the list of AMEX Love Dining establishments. Granted, the One Dines Free Program is not quite as good as Love Dining (see below), but at least you can save a bit. 

How does One Dines Free compare to other discounts?

AMEX Love Dining, where available, is clearly superior to One Dines Free. That’s because it offers up to 50% off the entire food bill, including appetizers and desserts. Furthermore, since it’s 50% off, there’s no pressure for one person to order a more expensive dish just because the other did.

To illustrate:

Of course, Love Dining is only available to AMEX Platinum credit card members, and the cheapest version carries a S$321 annual fee. 

What about The Entertainer? There’s more similarity here, in that Entertainer users also get 1-for-1 main courses. The difference is that you can use multiple Entertainer coupons in a single seating (e.g if you have four diners, you can use 2x 1-for-1 offers), whereas One Dines Free is capped at one free main course regardless of your party size.

On the other hand, The Entertainer does have a membership fee (you could get a free version with HSBC cards like the HSBC Revolution though), whereas One Dines Free has no fee. 

One key advantage of One Dines Free is that it can be used outside of Singapore too. It’s currently available in Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, which gives you more options than Love Dining or The Entertainer. 

Terms & Conditions

The full list of One Dines Free T&Cs can be found here. The key ones I’d highlight are:

• Reservations are required; you can’t redeem it for walk-ins
• Reservations must be made 24 hours prior to arrival
• Offer requires a minimum of 2 and maximum of 6 diners. Only one free main course per bill
• Each diner must order one main course
• The lowest cost main course will be removed from the bill
• Offer valid for dine in only, not applicable for takeaways
• Offer not valid on eve of and on public holidays; blackouts apply for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and other special occasions

Conclusion

If you don’t have any other dining discounts on hand, One Dines Free at least takes some of the pinch out of the bill. It goes without saying that you’ll maximize its value with a party of two people, since you’re limited to one free main course per bill.

For the full list of FAQs, refer to this link.