This week my pal Lucy and I met for our annual “birthday lunch” (hers is on the 8th, mine on the 7th) and this time I asked Lucy if she wanted to try somewhere new I’d been meaning to visit. And yeah, she was up for it. I had high hopes because this is a second location of a restaurant I’ve known for years, and this was supposed to be their “tapas bar” version. And well, it started off fine, we had a nice table and proceeded to order a couple of snacks to start. But things went a bit downhill after that. Our waiter was obsequious the point of being both fawning and rude at the same time (you know the type) and obviously thought we were tourists, so when we later made a couple of comments about the food he very rudely/politely put us in our place. I mean, in the end it was okay overall, nothing great but nothing awful. UNTIL THE BILL CAME.

You know me – SHAWN OF THE BREAD –  I almost always send back bread that is immediately brought to the table because 1) I usually don’t want bread and 2) I don’t want to be charged some stupid amount for something I haven’t ordered. I do know a few places that offer amazing bread and I am very happy to order it when I actually want bread (they ask first) and pay the price on the menu. Fair enough.

To be clear… it isn’t legal to charge for any food brought to your table that you haven’t ordered. Things like bread and olives, etc need to be listed on the menu as a food item and, if you order it, you pay for it. Just like anything else on the menu. No problem. But if it shows up on your table when you sit down – and even if you eat it – you are not obliged to pay the charge because you didn’t order it. Fact.

Which brings me to fucking service charges. Most places these days do the sneaky BREAD/SERVICE CHARGE addition to their menu and so even if you send back the bread (like me) the bill will still show the charge and if you question it the waiter will often say it’s a service charge. ILLEGAL.

I mean FFS… bread is a fixed cost, like ice and napkins, all bars and restaurants know what they pay for bread each month, and it always used to be factored into the price of the overall bill. Until some greedy smart ass came up with the idea of using a “bread charge” like an entrance fee. And suddenly everyone was doing it. I mean, why not? You get people to pay an extra 1-3 euros per head just to walk into your bar or restaurant and FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING EXTRA.

That’s where the law comes in handy. Except so few people seem to know about it. And they also don’t know (especially tourists) that this “service charge” is not given to the hard-working staff, it goes straight into their pockets. So people come here going OH WOW, EVERYTHING IS SO CHEAP, except it’s not cheap for us, because we don’t make as much money as in other countries. Then they go AND YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE TO TIP IN SPAIN. Honestly, I despair sometimes. Anyhoodle, this rant is shooting off into a few directions here when the point is to let people know they do not have to pay for anything they haven’t ordered and especially not for a illegal service charge. Hope this helps.