Today’s Byte is just for fun. I’m back in the US and my birthday is coming up – so I’ve been happily getting emails from my favorite restaurants inviting me to come in for a free drink or desert.

It got me thinking about the great ways to use the Internet for free food:

Sign up with your favorite restaurants. Certainly every chain and most independents have email lists these days and most send the occasional coupon or freebie.

Open Table (http://www.opentable.com/) make enough reservations to earn a gift certificate. Also I love Open Table for finding restaurants when I’m away from home.

Dinner Broker (http://www.dinnerbroker.com/) I haven’t used it, but it sounds like Open Table.

MyKidsEatFree (http://www.mykidseatfree.com/) a searchable database of bargain nights for kids.

Restaurant.com (http://www.restaurant.com/) where you can buy $25 gift certificates for $10.

Minnesota Restaurants
(http://www.minnesota-restaurants.com/Minnesota-Restaurants-Special-Offers.php) has a list of local coupons. (Sorry for those outside MN.)