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Dining Duration Estimates - Spain (Barcelona, Valencia and Girona)

Posted by (Colorado) on

Hi All,

I have done research and know that dining in Spain is a multi-hour event (generally), but there are also "tapas" for the quick bites and more time flexibility.

What guidelines do you use to plan your daily itineraries with regard to eating?

Perhaps it's restaurant specific (or at least type of restaurant), but I'm trying to map out daily itineraries that leaves adequate room for meals, at the times and places we'll be in a particular area.

We are a family of four (two teenagers) who will generally be planning for lunch or mid-afternoon larger meals (as we like to be done eating by 18:30 except for the occasional event), but do want a mix of casual, fine and tapas, as well as balancing different cuisines.

I've outlined below an example of where I'm having trouble with planning when and how long to plan for eating based on the other items on our itinerary (we will be arriving from Iceland on a 4 hour flight).

Barcelona

  • Arrive 14:45 (taxi to hotel which is SW of Placa de Catalunya)
  • Drop luggage at hotel
  • *Late Lunch / Early Dinner at Teresa Carles
  • L2 (purple) Metro line (University to Paral-lel)
  • Montjuic Funicular
  • 18:00 – 20:00 - Catalan Art Museum
  • *Dinner at CruiX

*not sure if we will have time to eat before going to the Catalan Art Museum, if not, find quick snack and eat afterwards

Posted by
5264 posts

Unless I've eaten at a fine dining restaurant with multiple tasting courses my meals in Spain have rarely been multi hour events. Lunch is usually a quicker affair whereas with dinner you can generally count on having your table for the entire evening if you want.

Granted it's not the fast, conveyor belt, get you out of the door as quick as possible approach of the US but you can certainly enjoy a multi course meal within an hour in Spain if you want to. The wait staff are usually adept at identifying those who want to linger and those who want to eat and move on.

Posted by
1007 posts

In my experience I’d allow 1.5hrs for a meal in Spain. Service is not usually that quick as the ethos is to linger. Some places can of course be quicker but I would say that’s fairly unusual. Lunch is traditionally the main meal of the day in Spain and people still take a 2 hour lunch break.

You will find that your preferred dining times don’t fit with Spanish meal times, which are 1.30pm for lunch and 8pm or later for dinner. Most restaurants don’t open until 7pm at the earliest for dinner. You will find places that declare ‘service non-stop’ or similar but that’s not the norm or it’s likely to be a tourist focussed business.

Posted by
341 posts

Thank you both! I was thinking 1.5 hours a good estimate for non-fine dining, so assume Teresa Carles could be done in an hour, but CruiX would be 2. It will depend, I guess on how hungry and/or tired we are at any given time!

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