Lately, things started to get a bit ridiculous – I couldn’t really remember the last time that we had eaten a bad meal. It does happen, occasionally, and usually when it does, it happens to comic value. But really, these occasions are so few and far between. I might have even gone as far as calling myself (as much as I don’t want to admit it) a food snob. Ouch. Yes, that hurt.
When I am showing groups around Spain, they often comment about how they “have never had a bad meal yet” and “how do I manage to find so many good places”. Now, when I am travelling in places that I know well and I can take them to one of my favourite restaurants in Spain, or to an unsuspecting meat grill in a laid back beach town, or for the best pintxos in Logroño, it’s not so hard.
But I am not always in such a lucky situation. Often, I am in places that I have never been before (yes, sometimes even with a group of 12 eager travellers in tow) and I need to find a good restaurant, stat. It’s not just while I am working either – even on my personal travels I am always in search of a good meal. I just like to eat, dammit!
These stuffed olives from the Mercat de Abacería in Barcelona were so good, I thought that they deserved a place in this post.
But you know what? Choosing a good restaurant is just a particular skill of mine.
But it wasn’t one I was born with. It took practice. It took trial and error. It took being scared of the “dirty” looking restaurants to discover for myself that they were going to be safe to eat at. It look getting sick while eating cheese and cucumber sandwiches in India and not getting sick while eating fried noodles out of a plastic bag from a roadside shack outside the hospital in Nepal. I too, once ate paella on Las Ramblas in Barcelona. Hey, I was 19 – please, no judgement.
Of course, part of having a great local experience, especially when it comes to dining, is to do with local interaction.
It is those great suggestions from a local in the city – be it a friend of a friend, the cheerful receptionist at the hotel, or a curious local who was happy to talk to visitors in the bar. And in the days of my most hated friend TripAdvisor, online recommendations have become the must-go-to source for information, especially when you don’t have a local person on hand to turn to for advice.
Local women selling sweet potato fritters at Bac Ha Markets in Vietnam – looks simple, but they were really good!
But what happens when you have to make a decision in the moment?
There’s no wifi to consult the internet? You don’t have a local friend to turn to for advice? Or you just want to be adventurous and try something new?
I am able to turn up to a new place and find myself a semi decent meal off the bat, with no research and no friend to help me, and here’s how you can do it too. I am not promising you gourmet, but I am promising a satisfying meal and hopefully good value meal, that shouldn’t give you food poisoning.
1 / Stay away from main squares and big tourist attractions
As a general rule, try and move at least two blocks away from any main square or tourist attraction. Places that are located where there is a large flow of people traffic don’t have to be serving good food to get business. They get the business anyway, simply from the passers by. Waterfront areas such as beach fronts and harbours, and the known “restaurant street” that is often found in touristic cities, are also danger zones.
Visitors go for the easy option, the restaurant that is in the right place at the right time, and usually with one of the following points in place too. Don’t be one of those people! You’ll have better success at finding a good quality meal if you wind into the back streets and find something a little off the beaten track. Restaurants in these locations need to impress with their food because people aren’t just always stumbling across them by chance.
A row of restaurants alongside the walls of the very touristic Medieval Old Town. Two words: run away!
2 / Don’t go to a restaurant with a menu in English out the front
When you are in a non-English speaking country, skip the restaurants that are proudly displaying an English menu out the front.
While many restaurants may have one or two English menus to share around inside, if they have an English menu out the front – or even worse, the menu in six different languages, it tells me one clear thing. They WANT the business of the tourists.
Now, why would a restaurant be so desperate for the business of tourists, instead of being happy with their local patrons and the odd foreign visitor here and there? It’s easy. Because their food is no good and the locals don’t eat there. They don’t have any local patrons to keep happy.
But again, it’s an easy option and it sucks customers in. People see the English menu and breathe a sigh of relief at the prospect of not having to worry about the language barrier, or not having to worry about what unidentifiable object is going to end up on their plate. So in they go. The restaurants tricks have worked, once again.
Not knowing exactly what you have ordered and what is going to end up on your plate is half the fun of travelling. Sometimes it can even turn out better than expected. So accept the challenge, and don’t be afraid of restaurants displaying a menu in the local language.
English, Russian and pictures. It’s a trifecta!
3 / Don’t go to a restaurant with a person out the front that is trying to coax you inside
We have all seen this on our travels. Those waiters dressed in suits, standing outside the restaurants. In one hand they have the menu that they are trying to shove in your face, as they show off all their specialities, and the other hand waving you in the door, as you look uncertain and weigh up your options.
But the waiter speaks to you in English, the menu is in English, and you don’t even have to think about finding an alternative solution. Perfect. Right?
Far from it.
Why are these waiters trying to pull in tourists off the street? Because their food is so bad, no one in their right mind would actually choose to eat there. I know this sounds harsh, but if a restaurant has sacrificed one of its employees to coax in customers off the street, generally it means that their food is low quality.
Other restaurants and bars on Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam were pressuring guests to come and sit down, but this little unsuspecting shack did none of that. No advertising at all apart from the one sign out the front, and it was the best place I ate on the Island.
4 / Say no to “Tourist Menu”
Imagine this: Venice on a summer day, the heat blazing down, you are desperate for a respite and then you see it: €15 for first course, second course, dessert and a complimentary glass of wine. It’s too good to be true.
But you know what they say – if something is too good to be true, it probably is. Tourist menus like this might seem like a reasonable deal, but you can be sure that you are eating low quality, frozen and poorly prepared produce. And just to top it off, the complimentary wine is probably intended for cooking, not regular consumption. (Disclaimer: based on no prior facts or research, just on my own judgemental nature.)
This is not to be confused with lunch menus which are typical in many European countries, as by having these lunch menus you can find yourself a genuine deal and partake in a very local experience. These are the menus that actually call themselves “tourist menu”. And when you see these two words, you know to run a mile.
Haven’t even see the tourist menu yet, but I’m sure there is one – run away!
5 / Do as the locals do
You have followed all these rules and now you are three blocks away from the Duomo in Florence, there is not an English menu in sight, and the only people in the street are passing cyclists. The next problem is that in this area there are five different restaurants to choose from. What do you do now?
The locals know best so follow the crowd.
If there is a restaurant with a high proportion of guests that appear to be locals, go for it. And when one place is empty while its neighbour is jam packed, there’s a reason for this. The locals always know something we don’t.
So follow the locals – I mean that in a non-creepy, non-stalkerish kind of way – and let them lead you to a great place serving authentic food. Locals know.
Of course these are guidelines, and to every rule there is an exception.
I have seen the restaurant with two menus: the tourist menu with Hamburgers and Spaghetti Bolognese, and the local menu of raciones (large plates) consisting of traditional and experimental dishes cooked with fresh ingredients. This place was even highly recommended to me by locals around the town.
I’ve also seen the a gem of a restaurant that’s hidden in between the low quality restaurants on the touristy “restaurant street” in the centre of the city. Or the restaurant with the comforts of home such as English menus out the front and vegetarian/gluten free options marked on the menu, but they happen to do great food. Or the restaurant that is well known by locals as the place to go, that also touts for customers just because all the other restaurants on the street do so – they feel the need do the same in order to get business. Yes, for every rule there are exceptions.
But when you need some tips to help you make a better judgement in the heat of the moment, keeping these tips in mind will ensure that you are heading in the direction of food heaven.
How has your food experiences been when travelling? Have you had some bad meals? Perhaps you’ve followed these rules already? Let me know more in the comments below.
Denise says
Great article! I learned some of these the hard way! 🙂
Cyra says
Thanks Denise! Me too – haha. But luckily we both learnt from our mistakes 😀
Alexa says
These tips are wonderful! I completely agree–some of the best meals I’ve ever had have been in the types of establishments you mention here. Once in Rome, our hotel was right next to the Pantheon, so there were several restaurants and cafes right outside the front door. Instead, we wandered the smaller alleys and came upon an open door to a stairway leading down to a restaurant below that was about to close, but they invited us in, the staff stayed late, they made us a wonderful meal and one of the cooks (I think) even played the piano for us! I’ve also had some of the best paninis in Venice and Corneglia and amazing focaccia in Santa Margherita and Monterosso, all at tiny, hole-in-the-wall places you really have to go searching for and might still miss even if you’re looking closely! Many of these experiences were pretty lucky though since at the time I didn’t really know what to look for and avoid, but if I had had your tips in hand then, I’m sure every meal would have been one to remember. Thanks!
Cyra says
Thanks Alexa! Italy is a particularly bad country for serving up tourists bad food, especially in places like Rome, Venice and the Cinque Terre, so I am glad that you managed to find your way and have some good eats. When it’s good there, it is amazing for food. My favourite place is Rome is a hole in the wall bakery that serves up focaccia with toppings, it’s in a very “ugly” area of the city away from the big tourist monuments. I’m glad you got to have the same experience 😀
Emiko says
Your tips are so true! My worst and most expensive meals have always been in touristy areas, with English menus. I try to avoid those at all cost now. I think not only do those places have bad food, but they have no incentive to improve since their tourist customers will never return. I also try to avoid empty restaurant. I know that probably keeps me away from some gems, but I figured they is probably a reason the restaurant is empty!
Cyra says
You are exactly right Emiko. They have no incentive to improve. In the historical centre of Madrid there is a bar that was on the Spanish versions of “Hells Kitchen”. When the TV crew went back a month or however long later to check the improvements, nothing had changed! They asked the owner what was going on and he said “well the tourists are going to eat whatever crap I serve them anyway, so why bother?!”
Anna | The Blonde Banana says
Love these tips! I also have the skill of always finding a good restaurant… although sometimes I hate it since when I’m traveling with family + friends, everyone relies on me the whole time to choose where we eat!
Cyra says
Thanks Anna! Haha, I am used to always having to choose a restaurant so I don’t mind, I only mind if they are someone who is going to get upset if they didn’t like it. 😉
Emma Dodd says
The best ceviche I ever had was bought from a woman selling it out of a cool box on a bus in Panama. My companion said I’d get sick and I thought I would too, but it turned out to be delicious.
Cyra says
Oh, I love ceviche! That would have been so good. I’m glad you went ahead and experienced it anyway even though your companion wasn’t so supportive of the idea. 😛
Emma Dodd says
Yeah, it turned out to be a great experience, but I do understand his point of view, since he would have been the one holding my hair back!
Cj says
Great tips,Cyra! I usually follow most of these when traveling but last May in Morocco I went to the biggest tourist trap themed restaurant and got so sick from raw tomatoes. It was awful. It’s key to find where the locals go, they’ll lead you to the right place.
Cyra says
Oh no! Yeah salads are the worst when you are in countries where you shouldn’t drink the tap water, as the raw salad ingredients may have been washed in it. I’ve also been sick from salad ingredients before, it happens. 🙁
That’s another the problem with tourist restaurants, as they often serve non-local food. As their local dishes would usually be cooked, these problems wouldn’t occur. 🙂