Meals and Restaurants

Once again, there's a multitude of distinctions. You can sit down and have a full meal in a comedor, a cafetería, a restaurante or a marisquería - all in addition to the more food-oriented bars.

Comedores are the places to seek out if your main criteria are price and quantity. Sometimes you will see them attached to a bar (often in a room behind), or as the dining room of a hostal or pensión, but as often as not they're virtually unmarked and discovered only if you pass an open door. Since they're essentially workers' cafés they tend to serve more substantial meals at lunchtime than in the evenings (when they may be closed altogether). When you can find them - the tradition, with its family-run business and marginal wages, is on the way out - you'll probably pay around €4.50-8 for a menú del día, cubierto or menú de la casa , all of which mean the same - a complete meal of three courses, usually with bread, wine and dessert included.

The highway equivalent of comedores are ventas which you'll be extremely glad of if you're doing much travelling by road. These roadside inns dotted along the highways between towns and cities have been serving Spanish wayfarers for hundreds of years - many of them quite literally - and the best ventas are wonderful places to get tasty country cooking at bargain prices. Again the menú del día is the one to go for and the best places usually have quite a gathering of lorries in their car park, shrewd long-distance truck drivers being among the best customers.

Replacing comedores to some extent are cafeterías , which the local authorities grade from one to three cups (the ratings, as with restaurants, seem to be based on facilities offered rather than the quality of the food). These can be good value, too, especially the self-service places, but their emphasis is more northern European and the light snack-meals served tend to be dull. Food here often comes in the form of a plato combinado - literally a combined plate - which will be something like egg and chips or calamares and salad (or occasionally a weird combination like steak and a piece of fish), often with bread and a drink included. This will generally cost in the region of €4.50-6. Cafeterías often serve some kind of menú del día as well. You may prefer to get your plato combinado at a bar, which in small towns with no comedores may be the only way to eat inexpensively.

Moving up the scale there are restaurantes (designated by one to five forks) and marisquerías , the latter serving exclusively fish and seafood. Restaurantes at the bottom of the scale are often not much different in price from comedores , and will also generally have platos combinados available. A fixed-price menú del día is often better value though: generally three courses plus wine and bread for around €4.50-9. Chinese restaurants - increasingly popular in Spain - generally have the cheapest menús del día : €4.50-6 is the norm. Move above two forks, however, or find yourself in one of the more fancy marisquerías (as opposed to a basic seafront fish-fry place), and prices can escalate rapidly. However, even here most of the top restaurants offer an upmarket menú called a menú de degustación (a sampler meal, usually including wine) which is often excellent value and allows you to try out some of the country's finest cooking for €20-30.

To avoid receiving confused stares from waiters in restaurants, you should always ask for la carta when you want a menu; menú in Spanish refers only to fixed-price meal. In addition, in all but the most rock-bottom establishments it is customary to leave a small tip ( propina ): Spaniards are judicious tippers, so only do so if the service merits it: the amount is up to you, though 5 to 10 percent of the bill in a restaurant is quite sufficient. Service is normally included in a menú del día . The other thing to take account of in medium- and top-price restaurants is the addition of IVA , a seven percent tax on your bill. It should say on the menu if you have to pay this.

You'll find numerous recommendations, in all price ranges, in the guide. Spaniards generally eat very late, so most of these places serve food from around 1 until 4pm and from 8pm to midnight. Many restaurants close on Sunday or Monday evening . Outside these times, generally the only places open are the fast-food joints; Pans & Co and Bocatta serve suprisingly good bocadillos and often have special offers.

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