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A good dining credit card can go a long way. You'll earn points or cash back every time you go out to eat, and when you get delivery too. If weekly dinners or business lunches are your thing, you should get something back — those credit card rewards can be free meals in your belly.
By Brendan Harkness
By Brendan Harkness
How often do you dine or take out food? Ever get FOMO when other people pull out their sweet restaurant credit cards, talking about all the points or cash back they’re earning?
Whether you’re sitting down at your favorite hideaway, pulling up for some fast food, or resorting to GrubHub, a good dining card is always handy. If this is a regular thing for you, it could be your best friend.
You’ll earn points or cash back you can use to put a dent in your regular expenses, or, if you save up for a bit, you could even book a flight or hotel for a nice vacation.
Pro Tip: Go out to eat with friends or family, and generously offer to pay for the meal — assuming they’ll reimburse you. You’ll earn a ton of credit card rewards, and people will even thank you for it (or give you a dirty look, if they were planning the same thing).
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Most travel cards are focused on, well, travel, and dining seems like an afterthought. But the American Express® Gold Card (Review) didn’t pass on the opportunity to serve up a more complete dish.
You’ll earn more points on food than anything else with this card — at restaurants, along with U.S. supermarkets (the latter up to $25K spent annually). So any foodie will be ready to go out or take up the mantle of chef. There’s even a $120 dining credit each year (among other benefits, of course); the eligible restaurants are few in number, but some popular meal delivery services are included so it shouldn’t be too hard to use (how hard is ordering a calzone, really?).
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American Express is a Credit Card Insider advertiser.
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Dinner, drinks, and a movie? One card to rule them all — the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card (Review) gives you 4% cash back on all three. It even earns 8% back at Vivid Seats (a marketplace for concerts, sports, and theater), so there’s no excuse for being bored.
You will have an annual fee to pay, however. If you won’t use the card enough to make it worth the cost consider the less rewarding but annual-fee-free version, the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card (Review).
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The information related to Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card has been collected by Credit Card Insider and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer or provider of this product.
For an inexpensive way to earn a lot of points at restaurants, it’d be hard to beat the U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa Signature® Card (Review) with 4X per dollar. Some other cards offer just as many points, or close to it, but they also come with an annual fee to pay.
In this case you can earn points for no cost whatsoever, as long as you avoid interest and other fees. Along with your restaurant rewards you’ll get 2X points in a number of useful categories, and 0% intro rates for purchases and balance transfers.
There’s even a $15 annual credit for streaming services, like Netflix — credits are rare finds on cards with no annual fees.
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No annual fee? No problem. The Wells Fargo Propel American Express® card (Review) is unassuming but it packs a punch. It features four bonus categories to earn 3X points in, a bit unusual for a card without a yearly fee (in a good way).
The appeal of this card is simple: If you like the reward categories, it could be a contender. Otherwise, check out the runners up.
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The Citi Prestige® Card (Review) is great for eating out while traveling, with 5X points at restaurants — you won’t find deals like that too often, even on other premium cards.
The 5X rewards rate means this card could be a dining powerhouse: Transfer your ThankYou points to an airline partner and you could get upwards of 2 cents per point, which would give you a cash back equivalent of 10% or more.
Those points come with a fairly high annual fee, but if you’ll travel and use the card enough each year it shouldn’t be much of a problem. You’ll get a sizable travel credit, Priority Pass Select membership, and a unique hotel perk: Your fourth night is free when booking through ThankYou.com, up to twice per year.
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The information related to Citi Prestige® Card has been collected by Credit Card Insider and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer or provider of this product.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® (Review) gets a lot of praise, with features and perks travelers love.
They include 3X points on dining and some excellent point redemption and transfer opportunities, which can boost your effective earnings quite a bit. Combine that with the same good rate on travel (after using up the annual travel credit) plus airport lounge access and primary rental car insurance to help you get around, and you’ve got one of the best travel credit cards on the market.
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If you’re not ready to spring for the Reserve, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (Review) makes an excellent restaurant card for the occasional traveler.
You won’t get a lot of fancy perks, but you will get 2X points on dining and travel, plus a comprehensive selection of shopping and travel benefits. They’re not as flashy as big statement credits and lounge access, but they can be valuable in their own right, especially the primary auto rental insurance. And you’ll get some excellent point transfer opportunities too.
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Hotel credit cards aren’t only good for hotels — they often have other bonus categories as well, although they’re not always very valuable. But some, like the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (Review), award quite a few points per dollar for dining (6X), in this case at U.S. restaurants only.
It’s true that hotel cards are usually best used at their co-branded hotels. But if you’re getting a good rate and will use those points to book rooms wisely, using hotel cards at restaurants can be a rewarding strategy.
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American Express is a Credit Card Insider advertiser.
With bad credit comes fewer opportunities. But that doesn’t mean you have to scrape the bottom of the barrel.
Where many secured credit cards don’t come with any rewards at all, the Discover it® Secured (Review) has a solid 2% category for restaurants as well as gas stations. It’s limited to $1,000 in combined spending per quarter, but that’s still top notch for a secured card.
Not only that, your first-year rewards are all doubled — so you can get a 4% cash back equivalent on dining and gas in the first year, with 2% back for everything else in the first year after the Cashback Match.
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The information related to Discover it® Secured has been collected by Credit Card Insider and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer or provider of this product.
Small business owners have a few choices when it comes to restaurant cards — the right card for you really depends on what you need it for. Spending a lot of time on planes and in hotels? Or is it more for trips to the office supply shop? What about internet and phone services, or Amazon purchases?
The American Express® Business Gold Card (Review) is flexible, automatically providing 4X points in the two categories you spend the most in each month, out of six. And yup, one of those is U.S. restaurants.
So you’ll only earn 4X points at U.S. restaurants if it’s one of your top two spending categories for the month — and if that’s true, you’ll probably be earning a lot of points. But otherwise you’d only earn 1X point, and if that’s the case we suggest checking out the runners up.
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The information related to American Express® Business Gold Card has been collected by Credit Card Insider and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer or provider of this product.
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As a student with limited credit you likely don’t have a ton of options — but some of those options are pretty good. The Bank of America Cash Rewards™ Credit Card for Students (Review) is pretty rewarding, letting you pick your own 3% cash back category each month. Of course, restaurants are one category.
It’s a pretty good student credit card all around, with a one-time signup bonus, an intro APR, and an opportunity to earn bonus rewards.
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If you’ve got a wholesale club membership, you may have access to a decent restaurant credit card too. These cards require a membership but have no annual fee on top of that; they provide some decent rewards at their co-branded stores and elsewhere.
Costco members can check out the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi (Review), which earns 3% cash back at restaurants (and 2% back on most Costco purchases). There’s a business version too.
Or, if Sam’s Club or BJ’s has your allegiance, check out their cash back cards in the runners up.
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Citi is a Credit Card Insider advertiser.
Do you want to earn points or cash back? Are you willing to pay an annual fee?
There are excellent restaurant cards no matter what you’re looking for, like:
Restaurant credit cards, also known as dining credit cards, have bonus categories that let you earn more credit card rewards at restaurants. They typically work like any other cash back or rewards card.
You can find many restaurant cards with features like these:
Most reward cards earn at least 1% cash back or 1X point per dollar for everything you buy, but restaurant cards have special categories that let you earn more. Some cards offer points, while others offer cash back, but there’s usually not much difference between the two types.
Most restaurant credit cards will include bars and fast food in their “restaurant” category. If you’re not sure, you can test any particular merchant with a small purchase, or contact your card issuer to ask.
Food delivery is another matter, however. Some credit card issuers will include food delivery services, and others won’t. Furthermore, some food delivery services may be included, while other services may not be.
Since there’s so much variability here, we recommend testing with a small purchase or contacting your card issuer.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors American Express Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Business Gold Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card, please click here.
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The information related to Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card, Citi Prestige® Card, Discover it® Secured, American Express® Business Gold Card, Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card, American Express® Green Card, Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card, Capital One Spark Cash for Business, Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card, Amazon Business Prime American Express Card, Discover it® Student Cash Back, and Discover it® Student chrome have been collected by Credit Card Insider and have not been reviewed or provided by the issuer or provider of these products.