Discount deals reach London's high-end diners Two new websites have recently appeared which offer a new type of saving - one which, unlike just about every other booking site, service or app, you actually pay for. Despite being apparently unrelated, Quisine and table7 launched within barely a week of each other at the end of last year, offering startlingly similar propositions. Or do they? I must confess to being a bit sceptical as to whether the benefits of either scheme justify the price, which is £7 per booking in the case of Table7 and £10 for Quisine. It seems counter-intuitive to pay for a discount when it's perfectly possible to save money - for example by taking advantage of pre-theatre menus or weekend lunch offers - in so many other, free ways. Also, the actual saving isn't quite as much as implied. Under the Quisine scheme, 12.5 per cent service is levied on the total amount of the bill before the discount was applied; £30 saved on a bill of £100 - which comes to £112.50 when service is included - amounts to a still-impressive saving of 26.6 per cent, but strip out the £10 paid to make the reservation in the case of Quisine and the saving drops to just under 18 per cent. Table7's scheme varies, with the discount of 20-30 per cent normally applied before the service charge, but again the booking fee lessens the final discount. However, restaurateur Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of the successful Leon chain, thinks that table7 and Quisine might just be on to something: "Businesses that get addicted to discounts can get into a vicious spiral of margin reduction," Dimbleby says, "but to fill excess capacity on quiet nights and give people who maybe couldn't afford it a chance to taste your food seems like a good idea." Whether the emergence of this scheme reflects a loss of confidence in the higher end of the market or is simply a sign of more businesses taking a healthy, proactive approach to the problem of excess capacity, the calibre of restaurants signing up to these schemes suggests that the industry is prepared to put its faith in "premium discounting." It just remains to be seen whether London's financially stretched diners will be willing to pay for the privilege. Hugh Wright, a self-professed "thirtysomething bon viveur," writes the restaurant blog TwelvePointFivePercent.com. Covering all manner of restaurants from fish "n" chips shops to fine dining, he reports humorously on the complete experience, not just the food.