Like everything, the popular daily menu has increased significantly in recent years. Finding something for less than 10 euros in big cities is practically impossible, so we had to increase our budget to eat out. Something that seems to have encouraged some to share a single menu between two diners. But is it necessity or a bit of a nose? And can you demand it as a customer or does a venue have every right to deny this option?
“We let them share the menu, we have never denied it to anyone, but we have the option of half a menu and we offer it as well. Although there are people who have a lot of face and say that they are not interested, that they prefer to share one,” Felipe Correia tells us. It was he who a few days ago and through his TikTok channel (@soyfelber) put the issue on the table and ignited a debate in which it does not seem easy to reconcile the opinions of some clients and hoteliers.
Correia works at his parents’ bar, Tabernalia de los Estudiantes, located in Zaragoza and where they offer a daily menu for 13 euros, with the option of a half menu for 10 euros. Four or five dishes to choose from as a first and as many as a second. “Everything homemade and lots of it. That is another debate that I have with my father, we put so much into it that more and more people order half a menu and others want to share it,” she explains.
The reasons for your concern or complaint are obvious: the ticket corresponds to a single menu, but the space and service is for two people. “I wouldn’t care if it weren’t for the fact that people have come to eat and there was no room for them. And looking at the business, this practice is not profitable,” she tells us.
Alberto García Moyano strongly agrees with this reflection. He can talk about the subject from both sides: as part of the business of several bars in Barcelona and also as a regular customer of daily menus in the city. “If there is a menu for 12 euros and I pay 6 and the other pays 6, you are having the attention of a waiter for two people for the price of the attention of one, and that is unfair.”
The very concept of the menu of the day – he defends – already implies that it is for one person, who has his own dishes, table, drink, dessert, coffee or whatever it includes. Furthermore, he points out, the margins in this type of offer are already very tight, so resorting to splitting the menu can be a problem for the business.
But can we really talk about a fashion? Moyano assures that the buzz has reached him through social networks, but other businesses consulted in Barcelona claim to have not noticed anything. Gerard Sucarrats, director of Pepa Tomate – with stores in the Gràcia and Sant Antoni neighborhoods – comments that they do not have a policy on this in their restaurants because it has never happened.
“We have the menu at 15.95 euros, which is quite well priced, and the half menu at 10.95 euros. If someone wants to eat less, take the half menu, make a dish, drink, desserts and that’s it. Sometimes they make a menu and complete it with dishes from the menu and share everything, but it does not affect us negatively because the average ticket is the same or even higher,” she details.
However, in the Correia bar in Zaragoza it seems to be quite common. ”It happens occasionally every week, the customers who usually come to eat are teachers from a nearby institute and many factory workers. As they usually repeat, to whom we have already told that if once, if he comes back the following week, we will allow it again.”
Each menu and each client will be different, so it is difficult to trace the sociological or economic reasons for the matter. Beyond the obvious: spend less at meal time. “If there really is a need and people are very tight on money, I can understand it, but I get the feeling that in most cases that is not the case,” says Alberto García Moyano.
“You have to keep in mind that there are people working and that the margins are very fair in many businesses. Furthermore, I am convinced that in most bars, if there is a need, they will serve you without any problem,” he defends.
Fashion or not, the fact is that for years many bars and restaurants have specified that the menu cannot be shared. A way to stay healthy, avoid having to give explanations and avoid uncomfortable situations.
In the absence of specific regulation on the matter, informing beforehand and clearly is the key. But could a minimum consumption be required and, in this way, prevent a table from sharing a menu? We transferred the question to Facua, which confirms that it is a very complex issue.
“It could be done,” explains Rubén Sánchez, head of the organization, “but always indicating it beforehand.” In any case, he points out, it is an uncommon practice and not recommended for businesses, because setting a minimum figure for consumption can be very frowned upon by the customer. “If I didn’t reach that supposed minimum ticket, would I have to order dessert or coffee from you to reach it or can I wait until later?” He asks himself out loud to exemplify the absurdity of the matter.
Martín Habiague, director of the Mescladis Foundation, joins those who have not noticed any change in the customers of the daily menu of the four restaurants in Barcelona that now make up this social work integration project.
Sharing it is not common, but it ensures that if it happens there is no major problem, and that there are even those who in some of the establishments bring the container from home. And nothing happens. “There is no policy on this, nor do we encourage a table to order a menu for two because it is true that the margins are very fair, but if someone wants to do it, there is no problem,” he explains.
Although prices have made the topic topical again, it really does not seem that sharing the menu – or trying to – is something new or normalized. Nor is it an easy issue to solve when it arises, because in contrast to the client’s logic of wanting to pay as little as possible, there are the numbers and the profitability of the business.
The increasingly common half menus, the dish of the day option – which still sounds somewhat exotic in a country given to abundant and long meals – and adjusting quantities to avoid temptations seem the way to follow so that peace reigns at the time. from the menu.
