Hi Everybody,

My husband and I just returned from Italy last Friday. First, thank you for all your help and advise. They are really helpful. We have a fantastic time and love Italy immensely.

I would like to share our little embarrassing lesson we learned from this trip.

We were in Venice and we stopped at a self-service restaurant next to the Rialto Vaporatto stop. Basically you pick up a tray, point to the food you want, they spoon you the food, and you pay at the end of the line.

At the beginning of the line, there was this little appetizer session where you get a small plate and you fill it up with the appetizers you want yourself for 5 euro/plate.

So, we thought, that's great. Let's get some. We piled our plate with about 2 layers of appetizers, some tuna, some eggplant, etc. Then when we were about to pay, they charged us double (10 euro) for that plate. They explained to us that the portion we had was for two persons........

We were a little shocked, embarrassed,... and never went back there again.

clok

Sounds about the right price to me, you did have two layers of food, lol.

Sounds like a bargain to me, but I'm curious if you did a meal as well or just that? I remember a place in Rome where they said it was one price as an antipasta before your ordered dinner, but double if it was your meal.

Like a salad bar in the US. Cheaper when you order a main course. We had the same kind of problem in Turkey. They would come around with plates of goodies & we didn't know how much it cost or if it was part of dinner.

I actually like the high expectations that NE Italians show towards tourists to uphold dignity and behave right. Not only for portion sizes, but I notice dissapointment when I dress too sloppy for an occasion or behave too frantically rushed in some interaction. I get an attitude of "what a surprise, I thought you would be above that" which is hard to argue with.

We get so used to a relationship of pushing boundaries (even while staying ethical and legal), that it can be refreshing to find a place where relationships (tourist/consumer) are expected to be dignified and considerate of one another's interests. I liked hearing of a recent fodorite being scolded by a hotel for shortening their stay without being absolutely sure the hotel had advance notice in high season.

P.S. those Rialto self serve restaurants were highlighted in guidebooks (and my long past experience) to be awful values - tourist traps. Maybe better now?

viking, give it a rest. Indirectly slamming the poster for putting too much on her plate is over the top. Most of your honored NE Italians are out to make a buck and nothing more.

Viking, if you were actually "upholding dignity and behaving right" you wouldn't have posted your rather pompous message in the first place.

For clok. I am sorry you were treated rudely on this board. I thought your initial post was iteresting as I had had a similar confusing situation. There are customs in all countries that the indigenous take for granted & are a mystery to the visitor. I ended up without the roasted chicken in Paris because I didn't realize that they weren't already cooked & ready for carry-out immediately. Ah, the haplesss tourist.

I really appreciate clok's message; it certainly helps to know little things like this. I also doubt "dignity" had anything to do with it, having myself observed some NE Italians steal food (bread rolls) from a self-service cafeteria. More likely, as someone else said it, it's an easy way to make a buck off the surprised tourist.

Europeans in general are shocked and amazed at how much food Americans eat. Let's be honest here for a minute, our portions are way beyond what they should be and we live within a "Super Size" equals more value mentality (Quality be DAMNED). We are so used to being overserved in restaurants at home that we see nothing wrong with "splitting" antipasti or entrees while abroad. Eventhough clok was not splitting I must say that the truth be known, it makes you look cheap. While you may not care and rally to protect your right to do so, "splitting" is also considered rude. I am not at all surprised that the poster was charged for two instead of one. Restaurants are not in the business to loose money if they can avoid it and it does not sound like they were eating the usual American slop offered at those self serve places. Although it was in the Rialto, was it as bad and tasteless as say a Soup Plantation near a lovely American strip mall? Sounds like tuna and eggplant costs a bit more then soggy cornbread and iceburg lettuce drenched in chemicals. I am only sorry for the embarassment she must have felt although no fault of the restaurants.

I don't know anything about the self-serve places near the Rialto bridge in Venice, but I do think that 10 euros for a plate with two layers of appetizers on it is not a bad deal.
Clok learned the hard way that fair is fair when it comes to loading up at buffets in Europe (unlike in the USA, where you can pile a truckload worth of food on your plate and no one will bat an eyelash).
It was an embarrassing lesson, as you say, and, well, there you go...another country, another lesson. It's all part and parcel of traveling in Europe.

If you eat near the Rialto, you eat at your own risk. There are very few reputable places in the Rialto area to eat and they're all well documented. Venice's Rialto is NYC's Times Square - a tourist mecca. I think StCirq hit it best: for 10 euros you got yourself quite a bargain.

To me, this was a case of the terms of service between buyer and seller being ambiguous. Had the appetizers been sold by weight or even by number clok wouldn't have been confused. But a 'plate' worth is a rather hazy definition. If I buy salad in a self-serve bar, does a 'plate' worth mean that the layer of lettuce be exactly one leaf thick? Two layers? Three? How about the case where I top the lettuce with a single olive - does that count as a layer? The point is, buyers in this situation need an objective reference in order to make an informed judgement. How can we judge what is a good bargain if we have no way of meaningfully comparing the product on sale between one establishment than another?

On the other hand, I also tend to think 'caveat emptor' - and we all know from what country Latin arose! So I suppose one could say, when in doubt, ask. But to hold clok solely responsible (let alone morally culpable) for this incident is unfair.

10Es for one plate - some deal. It had better be a BIG one. Sounds like the terms of service were too vague. I bet the management rips off plenty of tourists with this little scam.

It always amazes me how a few posters ALWAYS slam and blame fellow Americans for EVERY incident or misunderstanding, no matter what the situation.

Its almost like they are spring loaded to defend the wonderful Europeans and assume the worst about the dumb and uncivilized Americans who they feel should just shut up and be humble and eternally grateful for just getting a chance to a visit Europe.

Americans don't have a lock on being rude, sneaky and unethical. In fact, didn't most of our relatives come from europe? Oh, I'm sorry - the imagined storyline is that only bad europeans came to America!

Dumas remarks

>...the imagined storyline is that only bad europeans came to America! <

As Mark Twain once mentioned, "My family tree has only one branch, and that's horizontal". (or words to that effect)

Is it dumas or degas? Does fodors know?

Is NYCFoodSnob also Uncle Sam or maybe Pixie?

At the beginning of the line, there was this little appetizer session where you get a small plate and you fill it up with the appetizers you want yourself for 5 euro/plate.

If that was the exact terms of the contract between you and the restauranteer I would say as long as it fitted on a plate then it should have cost 5 euros. It could have been leaning off your plate like the Tower of Pisa. Nowhere did the restauranteer state only one food item per plate for 5 euros. Under Italian law this is termed 'Gorda Turista'. I would take them on with an oily no-win no-fee Italian lawyer to get your 5 euros back.

"Is NYCFoodSnob also Uncle Sam or maybe Pixie?"

ABSOLUTELY NOT! I have no desire and no need to be anyone else on fodors. I know why I'm here. And while I am, I intend to respect fodors' rules. I also know that fodors can see IP addresses. I wonder if they've checked yours?