Saving Money on Date Night

I really think I am becoming addicted to FREE stuff or getting such a good deal. But I can't help it. I get SOOOOO excited. So usually on date night (when we are so lucky to have such a rare occassion) we almost NEVER spend more than around $25 on our meal. We have the deals down at different restaraunts and what restaraunts we can split a meal. Well a few weeks ago I was able to purchase a $50 gift certificate to a local restaraunt for only $25! So last night we got to use it and if you can't tell by the numbers above what a good deal it already was then I will spell it out for you ;). The restaraunt was Shoguns which is a Japanese restaraunt where they cook in front of you. We've been to a similar restaraunt but we've never been to this one. And if we were to ever go to one of these it would have to be an extremely rare occassion because it's almost $20 a person. Even if you choose not to get a meal they will still charge you a $6.50 sitting fee but this comes with soup, salad and rice. Actually not a bad deal. So my husband ordered sushi which was actually really cheap. It was only $5.50. Then we both ordered meals that were about $18 each and he did order tea but we weren't charged for it. So in the end our ticket price was almost $45. So we could've still ordered another order of sushi if we had wanted. But we were STUFFED. It would've have been greaty if we could have paid the tip with the leftover amount on the certificate but it doesn't work out that way. So in the end we paid $30 out of pocket (with tip) and could have got $50 worth of food. I would say that's a good deal. And now we still have two more gift cards that we paid NOTHING for and I have enough points on two of my online things where I can get a $10 gift card to a restaraunt.
On a completely other note we had horrible service! And this has happened EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. we have went anywhere to eat for months now. I honestly can't remember when we've been out together and had good service. We were so hungry and had been waiting forever and then the chef shows up to start cooking our meal and they had not even brought us our sushi, soup or salad yet! I'm surprised we even had drinks. Just wanted to throw that little rant out there.