Food expenses

George, it's difficult to provide a specific idea of costs, as this will depend on which restaurant you select and which items you order. There are fast food outlets (McDonald's is everywhere!), gourmet restaurants and everything in between.

Regarding payment methods, some places only accept cash and others are fine with either cash or credit cards. There is no "recommended" method. Having some Euro's on hand is always a good idea, as that's accepted everywhere. It gives one the option of stopping by any establishment that looks interesting. I always keep both options available for payment.

When looking at the cost of meals, it's easy to forget the exchange and be "fooled" by the sticker price. I often do a mental conversion to judge the meal cost on what the equivalent would be in my home currency. In the UK the cost is often "dollar for pound" (ie: if a Burger costs $7 at home, the same item will be about UK$7, which is equivalent to about $15.75).

Cheers!

George
It depends on what part of town you are in. General rule of thumb is to eat at places on side streets. My most expensive meal was about 14 euros at a nice little local place. Can't remember the name. I used cards for my meals unless it was a small amount. Eat away from the squares and touristy spots. Thats my best bet. I managed to only spend 40-60 euros a day on food, transportation, entrance fees and some shopping. I also got sandwiches and meats at local mom and pop delis. The truck stops also have good food if you are driving on the highways.

...http://troi.cc.rochester.edu/~tdip/tomsguidetoparis.htm

Hi George,
The above web site has information on Paris café / restaurant costs. There are even price-bearing menus. You might find the average price for Rome a bit less than the Paris average ... but not much.
No matter where you choose to buy restaurant food, if you combine eating out with shopping the markets for "picnic" makings, you should have a most enjoyable holiday - even if it rains on your picnic a time or two.
Have a great holiday!... P.

George,

What you pay depends on how fancy the place is and its location (right in a tourist area vs. off the beaten path).

Remember, in Italy, they usually add coperto (€2-4) cover charge per person. But taxes are included (that adds a lot here) and if service is included (often is), then the amount you see is the amount you pay. So use these as a guide when calculating price compared to the U.S.

In addition, wine is very cheap there as is the bottled water (no such thing as free tap water). We paid as little as €2 for a 0.25L (2 5 ounce glasses) of very good house wine at a Rick recommended place in Sorrento. A 1.5L bottle of water cost typically €1.5-2. My cousins over there taught us about mixing the wine and water (either natural or with gas) together. It made for a lighter drink and still tasted great. With the gaseous water, it is more like an unsweet soft drink.

Forgot to mention:

In Italy, they have first course (pasta) and second course (meat). Don't order both as you will never finish it and they don't do takeouts of leftovers like here. What we did often was have one order a first and the other a second, then shared.

Note that side dishes like salads and vegetables are extra (but may be included in a meat dish if so specified) so a side dish and a first/second are more than plenty for two.

Pastas were typically €6-8, meat/fish plates were €8-12 for us and salads like caprese typically €5 (we'd split it) so for two, we'd usually pay €35-50 with coperto, wine and water.

No restaurant ever complained about splitting or sharing.

Now, when we visited the relatives, it was course after course after course.

George, in general, we found dining to be a bit more expensive than here at home. In Italy, I think that you have the VAT included.

I suppose that you can find inexpensive food most anywhere but that wasn't our experience.

George, with a bottle of house wine and one course with a salad I was spending 50-70E for two.

My sense is that credit cards are far less commonly welcomed in Europe than in the US. I typically pay for the hotel with a card (if they take it) and in souvenir shops for items over 20E, and cash for the rest.

One tip is that there are plenty of places to grab a panini or slice of pizza and a soft drink. Eat on the go and its a lot less expensive. It depends what you feel like doing; if its a great day then sit down at the outdoor seating and have a nice lunch and watch the people go by, but it will cost you both money and time. After wondering for a while where my money was going (hey, I put 50E in my pocket this morning and there's 7 left!) I realized that casual sit-down lunches were easily 15E apiece after the glass of wine and entree. Plus nobody's in a rush (probably a good thing) but its easy to sit down at 11:30 and leave at 1:15, a chunk of one's day gone.

It's hard to say. It depends on location, and how fancy the restaurant is. For exemple once I paid 3.5 EUE for an expresso, somehwere near Eifel tower, but other time I paid 1.75 EUR.And with the food is the same. I did't realy dine in a restaurant in Rome, I only had a pizza, close to Spanish steps, which was 4 EUR and it was about 2.5 x2.5 inch.It wasn't a restaurant, it was like a take out,they didn't have any tables to sit down.An expresso was only 50 cents in the airport in Rome, but in Milan, I paid 2 euR for a very small tea. But if you go to supermarkets , it will save you a lot of money.

When you use your credit card for anything overseas, you have a 2-3% conversion rate from your bank on the total purchase. I'd pay cash unless you are purchasing something expensive but then you can still pay cash. Many B&B's give you a discount if you pay in cash.
Don't forget to keep track of the VAT taxes. You need one form for each purchase to declare at the airport upon departure. We found pasta/spaghetti was around 8 euro at small cafes. Eat at carts along the street. Watch what the locals purchase. Many places (like cafeteria style) have prepared food that you can go in and purchase to take out or sit in the area to eat.

You can save money by buying food at stores/markets and making your own meal. It can be a lot of fun and quite relaxing too - sit in a park and enjoy local fruits, meats, cheese and bread - or whatever you like. Buon appetito!

I went to Italy in October and with the falling value of the dollar, found food costs to be insane. After 5 days of dismay at pizza and a beer for lunch costing between $15-20 US, we started buying picnic supplies. Much better. A decent dinner out was at least $40 and that was nothing outrageously fancy and mostly we ate out of the tourist spots. So either bite it and pay it, or do the picnic thing. One thing about the eating habits of Italians; they don't do breakfast so unlike traveling in the UK or Germanic countries where they go in for big breakfasts where staying at a B and B can keep you fueled for most of a day in Italy it is a cappacino and a roll. Most of the smaller more inexpensive places only take cash. Eat lots of gelato! It's great and more of a bargain.

I eat lots of pizza in Italy. In many places around the country it is possible to buy a slice to take-away. In other places you can buy a small individual size pizza as a meal to be eaten in house. Mixed salads are widely available. I eat in the daytime and skip the traditional evening meal, which tends to be more expensive. For breakfast I usually have some store-bought muesli and yogurt in my room, then go to a bar for capuccino and brioche (croissant). It is easy to find bread, pastries, cheese and fresh fruit in most towns. Many simpler restaurants offer a pasta dish for 7-10 Euros. Yes, eating out can be expensive. Yes, in Italy cash rules. Just hit the ATM and retire your credit cards for Italy. Some hotels will accept credit cards and some won't. Be prepared to pay cash.

We were there in September. Breakfast was included at our hotel. I usually took an extra piece of fruit, yogart, and a bottled water to have for later in the day. We mostly relied on asking at the front desk of our hotel for good restaurants in our price range and in the area we were going to that night. They made reservations for us in advance. In Rome, we would never had discovered them on our own, and without reservations there were 2 in Rome that we would never had gotten into if we arrived on our own because they were completely booked for the night. I did stop for light lunch near our hotel in Rome and found that the 2 places right next to each other and very similar were so much different in price. One was adding a charge for bread and water and a service charge, the other was not. Read their menus carefully before making a choice. For dinner we useually used our credit card, so a to not be carrying around alot of cash. We saved our cash for taxis, buses, souvienrs, etc.

I can't remember the exact cost of our meals when in Italy and Rome.

What I recall most is meals cost the same at the restaurants we really enjoyed as the ones we didn't.

When we were famished and stopped at the first place we saw, we were always disappointed in both food and service.

When we took the time to ask a local for a recommendation we had absolutely wonderful dining experiences, great food and service.

At the end of either the bill seemed to add up to almost exactly the same amount. This was true all over Italy but the difference between good and bad restaurants was more pronounced in Rome.

We were just in Italy this past November and we didn't do too badly in terms of food expenses. Breakfast was included with our room so we always ate well in the morning. Lunch is much cheaper if you just grab a pizza or panini and stand to eat. Bottled water is significantly cheaper than any kind of soda. A tip I learned while in Florence, the prices at the bar in cafes are standard throughout the city. It is when you sit down for coffee or a drink that prices can vary and jump as high as 20%. So we always went to the best places for coffee or hot chocolate but stood at the bar. You miss that "sitting in a cafe and people watching" experience but if the budget is more important then it is worth it.

Be careful to keep track of each item you are ordering and don't be afraid to ask prices if they try to push the special of the day. Back in May, we were checking the menu at a small place on a side street near the Spanish Steps. The owner came out and showed us the lower priced items to get us in, and then pushed the special pasta of the day, the salad, etc. The food was wonderful, the salad was beautiful, the bill was a shock! We got our money's worth, but would probably have made less expensive choices if we had been paying attention.

What Jackie said is important. If you grab a slice of pizza, STAND to eat it. Many times the person will invite you to sit down. If you do, you'll pay about double for your food. If you go to a local place, you will see many locals standing for that reason. If you are just going to eat and run, it's silly to pay to sit down. Only sit down when you plan to stay and enjoy a relaxing meal.

Hello George. In a city in ITALY, some days the lowest priced eatery you will find is a pizzaria. Some of them are very pleasant, and they serve more than Pizza. They also serve a salad, and various kinds of cooked pasta. And the food is likely to be served quickly in a pizzaria. In a large restaurant in Europe, typically, it has only one person serving food. A customer waits at the table for a long time before the server (waiter) comes to the table. And the customer waits for a very long time for the food to arrive at a table. And it takes a l ong time to pay for the food. It is common for a person eating a small simple meal to be in the restaurant for 90 minutes, or longer, in the evening. In Rome I ate at a small place that was recommended by Rick Steves, in his book on ITALY. It was low cost, but a bad experience : that place is really only a bar. I arrived at 7 pm. A few people. The salad was served at 8:30. The pasta was served at 10 p.m. It ruined my plans for that evening.