40+ places to get free food on your birthday

If your birthday is coming up, what better way to enjoy it than with free food?

Tons of restaurants offer free birthday meals. This article covers the places where you can get free food on your birthday all around the United States — hopefully you can find one of your favorites near you!

Where to eat for free on your birthday

Most of the restaurants listed below require you to preregister for their free birthday meal promotion. To avoid spam, you may opt to use an alternate email address when you sign up, rather than your primary one.

Also, make sure to verify with the restaurant in your area that they honor the birthday deal before you head out!

Here are some of the most popular national chains that offer free birthday meals, followed by a more exhaustive list of other national and regional chains that do the same:

Top national restaurants that offer free birthday meals with email sign-up

Restaurant Freebie/Deal California Pizza Kitchen Free CPKids meal all month if you are age 12 or under Chili’s Free dessert Denny’s Free Grand Slam breakfast Firehouse Subs Free medium sub Fuddruckers Buy one burger get one free Hard Rock Cafe Buy one entree get one free IHOP Free full stack of pancakes

Alfy’s PIzza

Register first – Free personal one-topping pizza

Applebee’s

Register first – Free dessert

Bakers Square

Register first – Free pie

Baskin Robbins

Register first – Free ice cream scoop

Benihana’s Japanese Restaurant

Register first with The Chef’s Table to receive a complimentary $30 birthday certificate during your birth month

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Bennigans

Register first – Free birthday brownie with ice cream

Bob’s Big Boy

Register first – Free hot fudge ice cream

Bruster’s 

Register first – Free waffle cone on your birthday (age limits may apply)

California Pizza Kitchen

Register first – Free meal during birth month for kids 12 and under

Captain D’s Birthday Club

Register first – One free dessert or appetizer with sign-up, plus free birthday dinner

Charlie Brown’s Fresh Grill

Register first – get a $10 voucher on your birthday if your Handshake Club account has been activated at least 30 days

Chevy’s Fresh Mex

Register first – Free dessert on your birthday, plus get a free appetizer with two adult entrées just for signing up

Chili’s

Register first – Free dessert on your birthday, plus free chips and salsa or a non-alcoholic drink with sign up

Claim Jumper Restaurant & Saloon

Free slice of Motherlode Cake on your birthday with valid ID and purchase of adult entrée (no registration necessary)

Denny’s 

Free Grand Slam with valid ID (no registration necessary!)

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El Chicos

Register first – Free dessert

Firehouse Subs

Register first – Free medium sub (must sign up for birthday club)

Fuddruckers

Register first – One free burger with similar purchase

Hana Japanese Steakhouse

Birthday guests with three to five guests get 50% off their bill. With six or more guests, birthday guests eat free (no registration necessary)

Hard Rock Café

Register first – Annual birthday offer, including free dessert

Houlihan’s Restaurant

Register first – Free entrée on your birthday and $10 off coupon for joining

IHOP

Register first – Free pancakes for signing up, on your birthday and the anniversary of your sign-up

Macaroni Grill

Register first – Free dessert

Maggiano’s

Register first – Complimentary cookies and $10 off next purchase following email sign-up

Marie Callender’s

Register first – “Marie’s Magnificient Six” free pancakes (available all day) or a slice of pie

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Max And Erma’s

Join the Good Neighbor program and get free dessert on your birthday

Old Spaghetti Warehouse

Register first – Free appetizer with sign up and Special Birthday Meal on your big day

Moe’s Southwest Grill

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A post shared by Moe’s Southwest Grill (@moessouthwestgrill) on Apr 28, 2019 at 4:46pm PDT

Regiser first –  When you do you’ll get free nachos with a purchase of a large drink or more. On your birthday, get a free burrito.

Outback Steakhouse

Register first – Free dessert and get 50% off every fourth visit with Dine Rewards (good for Carrabba’s, Bonefish and Fleming’s, too)

Panera

Register first — Get free pastry or other sweet for joining, plus a free reward on your birthday

Pappa’s Restaurants

Register first – Free dessert with purchase of a single entree

Perkins Restaurant & Bakery

Register first – 20% off when you sign up, plus you and family members you sign up can all get free birthday gifts

P.F. Chang’s

Register first – Birthday reward as well as a 1,000-point bonus to get you halfway to your first free entrée

Poncho’s Mexican Restaurant

Free sweet accompanied by staff serenading the Mexican traditional birthday song, “Las Mananitas” (no registration required)

Provino’s Italian Restaurant

Get any pasta specialty dinner for free, plus salad, garlic rolls and a birthday dessert with valid ID (no registration required)

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Red Robin

Register first – Free gourmet burger, plus you get every tenth item free, and $20 toward purchase when you visit five times in the first five weeks

Rock Bottom

Register first – Free birthday entree for Rock Reward members

Ruby Tuesday

Register first – Free burger, appetizer or Garden Bar entree

Ryan’s

Register first – Free BOGO birthday buffet during your birth month if you join the Crave Connection

Shula’s

Register first – Free entrée during your birth month if you join the E-Team

Steak-N-Shake

Register first – Free Double ’n Cheese ’n Fries when you join and a free specialty milkshake on your birthday

TGI Fridays

Register first – Free appetizer or dessert

The Palm

Register first – One complimentary entrée – up to a three-pound lobster – on your birthday (if you’ve made a qualifying purchase within the last year)

Tony Roma’s

Register first – Complimentary dessert on your birthday as well as a free appetizer when you join the Roma Rib Expert Club

Zio’s

Register first – Free birthday entree and free appetizer upon sign-up

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Enjoy your free birthday meal(s)!!!

More food-related articles from Clark.com

Market Force review: How I earned $42 as a restaurant mystery shopper

What if you could make extra money every week eating in restaurants you’ve always wanted to try anyway? That opportunity exists with MarketForce.com.

I signed up with Market Force as a mystery shopper after another member of Team Clark told me about other ways to get paid by testing food.

How to make extra money as a mystery shopper for MarketForce.com

I was skeptical at first, but then I saw how this could be a good way to do three things I’ve always wanted to do:

• Become a mystery shopper
• Try some new restaurants
• Eat for free!

What is Market Force?

Market Force helps food companies, restaurants and even wireless service providers with quality control and customer service assessments.

Those companies rely on mystery shoppers to objectively tell them how their businesses are doing, whether employees are applying their training and if their food is being prepared as it should be.

When you go to mystery shop for Market Force, you will be reimbursed for the “shopping” as well as for expenses like parking or tolls.

Full disclosure: Most of these places are fast-food restaurants, with the occasional full-service eatery thrown in. Since I’ve been doing it, I’ve eaten at places like 5 Guys Burgers, Hooters, Church’s Chicken and shopped at T-Mobile wireless stores and the like.

How to get paid to eat at restaurants as a mystery shopper

The key to getting paid is that you must keep meticulous records of your experience. Your mystery shopping experience will typically revolve around doing one of three things:

• Confirming business hours
• Trying the product or service
• Taking a photo of the establishment

Let’s talk a little about each one of the above activities so you’ll know what may be involved if you choose to become a mystery shopper:

Confirm business hours

Different “shops” have certain activities that you must accomplish or fulfill. If you accept a shop that wants you to confirm the business hours of operation, many times you can do that over the phone (usually, you’ll get paid $3 to make a phone call).

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Try the product (eat)

Other shops involve going into the business or restaurant and dining inside to try the food. That’s where the real money is.

With Market Force, you’ll typically get paid around $12 for a basic meal, but it could go up depending on what food items they want you to try.

Take a photo

Other times, your mystery shop may require that you take a photo of a restroom or some important signage that’s supposed to be prominently displayed.

In other instances you may have to do something as simple as ask a server where the restroom is.

How to sign up for Market Force

To join, go to MarketForce.com and click on the orange “Login” button under “Mystery Shoppers.”

When you sign up for MarketForce.com, you do give up a bit of personal data, including your information that allows you to be paid.

Once you’re approved, you can find shops on the site via a map. All you need to do is put in your ZIP code or one where you want to mystery shop.

Scrolling through the restaurants and other businesses on the left-side rail, you can select shops to accomplish at the times listed. Usually, there are several days and hours that you can choose from.

Mystery shopping: How not to get disqualified

Once you approve a shop and you are sent the specific details (either as a PDF or Word doc), make sure you follow it accordingly.

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One of the easy ways that your shop can be disqualified is if you go to a particular restaurant at the wrong time of day.

If it’s a lunchtime shop — usually between 11:15 a.m. and 3:15 p.m. — and you arrive there at 4:30 p.m. you’ll basically be wasting your time and money. Market Force won’t reimburse you, even though you may have followed all of the other instructions.

Another thing that makes your shop null and void is if you fail to report the shop in a timely matter.

Market Force asks that you upload the receipt and fill out the report no longer than eight hours after you’ve left the establishment. If you exceed that time limit, again, that meal is on you.

How much money can you make as a mystery shopper?

While Market Force pays you every time you do a mystery shop, don’t think this is a full-time job. The money you’ll make can best be described as extra income.

Still, you can make quite a bit of spending money with Market Force, if you have the time. If you have a full-time job, it may be difficult finding shops that are available after office hours.

One other great thing that will determine how much money you make with Market Force is that you don’t have to accept the price they give you to shop. That’s right, you can negotiate.

Once you select a business, if you think you deserve more money for the shop, click the green “Make An Offer” button and input your desired price. If Market Force agrees, it will be accepted.

From the above example, it will cost you $15 to eat and try the entree choice that this restaurant wants your feedback on. They are offering to pay you $5 to eat there. So you’ll be reimbursed for the $15 + $5 for the shop, meaning you’ll get $20 total for this one shop.

How often do you get paid with Market Force?

As with some other mystery shopping sites, Market Force pays monthly (the 15th of every month). That means if you do all your shops in the first few days of the month, you won’t see that check until the middle of the following month (about 45 days later).

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That’s why it’s best to sprinkle in some shops throughout a 30-day period. You can get your money back quicker if you shop on the back end of the month.

Final thoughts on mystery shopping for Market Force

Market Force is a great way to passively supplement your income by doing something you’d likely do anyway. After all, we all have to eat!

The last time I used Market Force, I only “shopped” at two restaurants in the month, spending about $15 each time, and was paid $42.82. That’s not bad.

Here’s a screenshot of my haul.

As you can see, it’s no to difficult to earn a little extra money and have some fun (and maybe even a meal) at the same time!