Beware - always ask the price!

[peteroldracer]

Just in case anyone else is as innocent as me - I had an excellent main course of Lubina (Sea Bass) in a Torre del Mar restaurant in the fish quarter the other night - just 2 fillets, slice of lemon, spoonful of spuds and beans - and got a right shock when the bill came - 25 € !!
It was listed as "SM" on the menu - seasonal price or whatever - but as I had just seen the fresh fish in Mercadona at around 10€ per kilo, I never thought it could get marked up so much. With the current exchange rate that is over £20 for a bit of fish...spoilt my delight at the taste completely!

[julian]

SM = segun mercado..(amongst other things) !!!

[frank]

I'm sure you have already learnt an expensive lesson, but according to a Spanish website about consumers rights, if a restaurante advertises fish for example priced SM (según mercado) the waiter has to tell you the price before you order. But of course, I doubt they ever do.

Derechos que tienes como consumidor: Si en la carta pone s.m. (según mercado), el camarero también te tendrá que informar del precio antes de pedir.

[frog]

crikey,who the hell would order a meal without knowing the price or am i stupid?

tourist rip off i guess,mugs will always be there for them

no offence por but i guess your old enough to know better

by the way,restaurants wont sell fish at the same price that you get in mankydona,they sell it on to make money from customers(thats just between me and you tho) as they employ people to cook it etc..

[julian]

by the way,restaurants wont sell fish at the same price that you get in mankydona,they sell it on to make money from customers(thats just between me and you tho) as they employ people to cook it etc..
it´s happened again frog..I agree with you on something!!! this is becoming a habit, that´s twice it´s happened now !!

[frank]

crikey,who the hell would order a meal without knowing the price or am i stupid?

I take it that's a rhetorical question!

[peteroldracer]

frog: I don't think I am stupid, but perhaps unwise!
I know that a restaurant has to cook the stuff, pay a man to bring it to the table, and provide the place to cook and eat it in, but I also know that if the retail price is, say, 10€, the "trade" or market price will be around, what - 6€?
In the same way. if I order egg and chips, I do not bother to enquire the price as I know it should be no more than 10€, depending on the standard of the eatery.
It was just to warn others who may be as unwise as me!

[Jool]

Frog - out of interest, where do you eat out in restaurants and which supermarket do you shop at?

[El Cid]

Buying fish SM in a restaurant is always expensive.

What really annoys me is that while some fish such as the larger Bream etc are quite expensive in the market, they sell farmed Dorada (less than €6/kg in the market) for the same price as fish that costs 3 times as much. I have even seen mackerel at €28/kg.

At least they haven't (yet) got round to selling Rosada or Panga at an inflated price!

Sid

[K chameleon]

We had a similar experience in Benalmadena, when we were 'fresh off the boat'.
Our daughter ordered sole (we weren't big fish eaters then), looking at the Menu, we thought it was 8 euros. The bill was a bit more expensive than we thought, 24 euros for the sole.
Checking the menu, price by weight -100g.

[peteroldracer]

Maybe this ought to go in the "Menu del Dia" thread, but just to compare values, today we had Menu del Dia at Chiriguito Antonio, Venta Baja: large fresh salad for her, macaroni carbonara for me, followed by costillas and sardines respectively, with nice chips, then one flan, one natilla, both washed down with a tasty tinto de verano - total bill 10€.
And, katy, it was served on nice plates, with clean cutlery, and we were not surrounded by workmen in greasy overalls!

[frog]

peter

frog: I don't think I am stupid, but perhaps unwise!
I know that a restaurant has to cook the stuff, pay a man to bring it to the table, and provide the place to cook and eat it in, but I also know that if the retail price is, say, 10€, the "trade" or market price will be around, what - 6€?
In the same way. if I order egg and chips, I do not bother to enquire the price as I know it should be no more than 10€, depending on the standard of the eatery.
It was just to warn others who may be as unwise as me!

i think the mark up on most things is like your egg and chips,but change the 10 to 3 on that

jool

Frog - out of interest, where do you eat out in restaurants and which supermarket do you shop at?

i generally eat out as little as possible,prefer my own food,go ponchos in fuengirola a bit,thats an argie steakhouse and go local pizza place when friends are here

and i do shop in manky dona only,unless i get to gib for real food

[fincalospinos]

Having just returned home to Competa from a couple of weeks touring La Rioja, Aragon and Catalunya, I shall never complain about bar and restaurant prices in CdS again.
One bar we were in, normal sort of a place, no frills, 3 tapas and 2 beers, €19.50.
Very rarely did you see Menu del Dia, and if we were lucky enough to find one under €7, it was only 2 courses.
We actually found the Paradores were offering the best deals. Very much reduced room rates, some around €65 including breakfast, and an 80th Anniversary menu, 8 starters ( 4 hot, 4 cold ), a main course and pud for €19.28 !!! Admittedly the main course wasn't very big, but together with 8 tapas sized starters and a pud, very satisfying.
Lovely to be back in the land of sensible prices

[concorde]

The only trouble is with 'sensible prices' is you resent paying more elsewhere, unless it's pretty spectacular, both food and surroundings.

I hate being ripped off, and of course it's worse when you can't speak the language, or of course the waiter, chef etc pretend they don't understand.

I quite understand some places have much higher rates etc but they still pay their waiting staff rubbish wages.

About 30 years ago we had a holiday in the South of France, but couldn't afford to eat out in French restaurants and lived at the local pizzeria, where the food was fantastic and good value, except one night we decided to have a Cointreau, being the French national drink, you'd expect it to be reasonably priced but no, the 2 drinks cost more than the two course meal for the 3 of us.

So we still ended up being 'done' especially since we could have bought a bottle of the flaming stuff for less than we were charged.

And no, before anyone asks, we didn't see a price list for that 'liquid gold'

[fincalospinos]

On the other hand .............................................
A fine example of " no menu" is El Tintero, a fabulous chiringuito/restaurant on the eastern edge of Malaga.

We were there on Sunday, no frills, just waiters coming around offering plates of fish and seafood,there were 8 of us and we had everything including a whole monkfish, lobster, barbecue octopus, malaga prawns, calamares, sardines, whole lenguado, and the most wonderful herring roe,you name it, we had it.

They charge by the plate, which varies from 7 euros - 30 euros / plate, and the total price, including drinks, was 25 euros each.

For value and atmosphere, it cant be beaten.

[anis]

Yes I agree with you about that restaurant. Great fun, good value food and you get a chance to try things perhaps you may be reluctant to order normally, by sharing dishes.
It's a nice outing to take visiting relations. They see a little bit of real Spain as well. All our guests say they have seen nothing like it and had a great time.

[Mowser]

€10 for egg and chips? They didn't see you coming - they sent for you!

[keddyboy]

The newly taken over Sierra de Albatross down the road from Laura Golf is doing Menu del Dia for 4 euros and it was absolutely first class. CDS bars and restaurants are not all rip offs.

[anis]

Keddyboy, we have also heard very good reports about the Albatross' Del Dia menu from several people. 3 courses apparently and more than enough to eat.
We shall try it for ourselves this week. I think they are serving it between 2 and 5 pm according to my friend.

[keddyboy]

Might see you there, we are going to do a repeat visit. Cannot miss me, 6 feet 3 square with glasses, John Candy lookalike. I recommend the place very highly.

[anis]

I'll wear a flower in my buttonhole