Eatigo is a free Singapore reservation app that hands you up to 50% off your food bill for the crime of eating slightly early or slightly late. No coupon to clip, no membership to buy, no minimum spend in most cases. You book a discounted time slot, show the booking code at the restaurant, and the discount comes off the food when the bill arrives. The whole model exists because empty 5pm tables earn a restaurant nothing, so it would rather fill them at half price than leave them cold. The trade is your timing for their margin. If you can move dinner to 5.30pm or supper to 10pm, the savings on a single meal can beat a year of most credit-card dining cashback.
Eatigo launched in 2013 and now runs in five markets: Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Its own numbers put it past 4,000 participating venues, more than 5 million diners seated and over 1.5 million app downloads. Travel giant Tripadvisor became a strategic investor across two funding rounds, which is why you will sometimes see eatigo listings surfaced inside Tripadvisor's restaurant tools.
The pitch is one line: time-based discounts of up to 50%, every day, with no coupons and no hidden cost. A restaurant marks certain time slots, usually the dead hours before and after the lunch and dinner rush, with a percentage off. You pick a slot, the discount is locked to that slot, and you pay the restaurant directly afterwards with the cut already applied. Eatigo does not take a cut of your savings and does not charge you to book.
Why would a restaurant give away half the bill? Because a table sitting empty at 3pm or 10pm produces zero revenue, and the kitchen and rent are paid for either way. Filling that seat at 50% off still beats an empty chair. You are being paid to absorb the inconvenient timing the restaurant cannot sell at full price. Think of it the same way a cheaper weekday matinee works for cinemas.
Eatigo discounts are not a flat rate. They step up and down with how unpopular the slot is. A 7.30pm Saturday dinner might show 0% or be unavailable, while a 5.30pm or 3pm slot at the same restaurant shows 25% or 50%. The exact percentages are set per restaurant per slot and change daily, so the number you see in the app is the number you get for that booking, not a promise for next week.
The discount applies to the food bill. Service charge and GST are usually calculated on the discounted subtotal, which is the order most restaurants follow, but check the slip because a few apply the percentage after tax. Drinks, set menus and promotional items are sometimes excluded, which the restaurant's eatigo listing will state. If you want to understand exactly how the 10% service charge and 9% GST stack on a discounted bill, our guide to service charge and GST breaks down the order of operations.
A discount only matters in dollars. Take two people ordering S$80 of food before tax. Eat at peak with no discount and you pay roughly S$80 plus 10% service plus 9% GST, around S$95.92. Book a 50% off eatigo slot for the same order and the food drops to S$40, so the total lands near S$47.96. That is almost S$48 saved on one dinner, which is more than the typical annual dining cashback a card returns on the same spend.
Compare that to a dining rewards credit card paying, say, 5% cashback. On an S$80 food bill, 5% is S$4. A single 50% eatigo booking saves you twelve times that. The two are not mutually exclusive: book the off-peak slot for the 50% cut, then pay with your dining card to stack the cashback on top of the already-reduced bill. Run your own numbers with the personal budget calculator if you eat out often, because the slot-shifting savings compound fast across a month.
| Scenario | Food after discount | + 10% service + 9% GST | Total paid | Saved vs peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peak, no discount | S$80.00 | S$15.92 | S$95.92 | - |
| Eatigo 25% off slot | S$60.00 | S$11.94 | S$71.94 | S$23.98 |
| Eatigo 50% off slot | S$40.00 | S$7.96 | S$47.96 | S$47.96 |
Booking is four taps: open the app or site, search by cuisine, area or restaurant, pick a date and time and read the discount on each slot, then confirm. You get a booking code. At the restaurant you show that code so staff apply the discount, then you pay them directly. No prepayment is needed for standard bookings, though a handful of premium restaurants now ask for a card hold to deter no-shows.
The catch that catches people: turn up late or skip your booking and the restaurant can shrink or void the discount, because the slot was the deal. Eatigo also tracks no-shows at the account level, and racking up three no-shows can get your account suspended. Cancel inside the app if your plans change rather than ghosting the table. Arriving more than 15 minutes late often means the discount is gone even if they still seat you.
Beyond the slot discount, eatigo runs a referral and rewards layer. Completing reservations and referring friends earns points that convert into eatigo Cash Vouchers (ECVs), which you redeem against future bookings, and at times partner perks such as ride or shopping vouchers. The points sit on top of the time-based discount rather than replacing it, so a referred friend's first booking can stack a voucher onto an already half-price meal. Treat it as a bonus, not the headline; the off-peak slot is where the real money is.
Eatigo is one tool in a crowded Singapore dining-deals shelf, and the right pick depends on how you eat. Eatigo wins for spontaneous off-peak dining at no cost. Chope, now under Grab, blends bookings with Chope-Dollars loyalty and vouchers, with deals increasingly surfaced inside Grab Dine Out. Burpple Beyond is a paid membership built around 1-for-1 deals. The Entertainer is a paid app of buy-one-get-one offers across dining and leisure. Fave (formerly Groupon SG) sells prepaid cashback deals and vouchers you buy upfront.
The honest split: if you never want to pay a membership fee and can flex your timing, eatigo is the default. If you dine at the same handful of cafes weekly, a 1-for-1 buffet or a Burpple Beyond pass can out-save eatigo because the discount is not tied to dead hours. For value beyond restaurants, our roundup of birthday dining treats and high-tea promotions often beats any single app during the right window.
| App | Cost to use | Discount type | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eatigo | Free | Up to 50% off, time-based slots | Off-peak diners who can flex timing |
| Chope | Free (Grab-owned) | Vouchers, 1-for-1, Chope-Dollars loyalty | Regular bookers wanting loyalty value |
| Burpple Beyond | Paid membership | 1-for-1 deals, any time | Frequent cafe and casual dining |
| The Entertainer | Paid app | Buy-one-get-one across dining + leisure | Couples and families dining often |
| Fave | Free app, prepaid deals | Cashback + prepaid voucher discounts | Planned outings at a fixed venue |
Eatigo pays off hardest for flexible eaters: retirees, remote workers, students, anyone who can take an early dinner or a late supper without a fight. It is weak for the 7.30pm Friday crowd, because the best slots are gone exactly when most people want to eat. The smart move is to treat it as a weekday and shoulder-hour tool, not a Saturday-night one.
Stack it deliberately. Book the off-peak slot for the headline cut, pay with a dining cashback card to layer on a few more percent, and skip it entirely when the only available slot shows 0%. If eating out is a real line in your budget, the slot-shifting habit can free up enough cash to redirect into savings; plug the monthly figure into the savings goal calculator to see what a year of off-peak dinners adds up to.
Yes. Eatigo charges nothing to browse, book or dine. There is no membership fee and, for standard reservations, no prepayment. You pay the restaurant directly after your meal with the time-slot discount already applied, so your only cost is being flexible about when you eat.
Restaurants attach discounts to specific time slots, mostly the quiet hours before and after the lunch and dinner rush. Eating off-peak fills an otherwise empty table, so the restaurant offers up to 50% off the food bill for that slot. The deeper the off-peak, the higher the discount tends to be.
Arriving more than about 15 minutes late often means the restaurant reduces or voids the discount, since the slot was the deal. Eatigo also counts no-shows on your account, and reaching three no-shows can get your account suspended. Cancel inside the app if your plans change.
Eatigo is better if you can flex your dining time and want zero fees, because it gives up to 50% off off-peak slots outright. Chope, now under Grab, suits regular bookers who value loyalty Chope-Dollars and vouchers any time of day. Many diners use both depending on the meal.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.