My best friend (and sister) and I have been back for about ten days from our three week trip to Spain. Thank you to all the Fodors posters who gave us ideas and advice. I won't mention them by name in this post, lest I cause them grief by my comments about the food in Spain.

Per Sharon's suggestion, we studied Lonely Planet?s World Food Spain, and Marling's Menu Master. To no avail. The food in Spain was our greatest disappointment. Aside from tapas, we spent far more money than we wanted, on food that left us shaking our heads.

Initially, we thought that if we spent more, we'd get food that left us happier. No such luck. In restaurants, vegetables were uniformly overcooked, under-seasoned, unimaginative, and food was generally overpriced. Waiters were efficient but uninspired and uninterested.

My suggestion to folks who don't start salivating at the thought of "Oxtail Tartare," or at dishes containing "lard" as a featured ingredient, and who enjoy ham occasionally, but NOT EVERY DAMNED MEAL, is that you make a point to scout out some tapas bars early on, where you can SEE what you'll be eating before committing yourself, and where you won?t spend an arm and a leg on a meal that leaves you bemused at best.

For example, arriving in Caceres, we both decided to sample the famous roast suckling pig - this was before we1d seen the tiny beasts displayed dead and cole in numerous restaurant windows. We were presented with slabs of roasted piglets with seemingly impenatrable golden brown skins. We attempted to spear through the thick, crusty skins, fearing the slab would end up scooting across the table. A bemused British couple, seated at the next table, offered us encouragement, while I tried to acquit myself honorably in the duel with the small, dead, fatty pig, longing for my Mom's pork roast, gravy, mashed potatoes, with green beans, and PEPPER. Pepper in Spain is seemingly kept under lock and key, apparently accorded the same status stores here at home accord to ingredients used in making Meth.

Our first attempt at partaking of "tapas," was likewise less than successful. We were starved when we arrived at the Parador outside Toledo, town was some distance away, and the restaurant was not yet opened, so I interrupted the merriment going on among the four wait staff behind the bar, who seemed blissfully unaware of our presence for about twenty minutes, asking for a selection of four tapas offerings, which turned out to be leathery bits of ham and dried beef, with dry, tasteless little crackers, difficult to soften even with the lovely Roija wine I was enjoying.

There were exceptions to the famine, of course. We had a lovely meal at Hotel Colon our first night in Barcelona, and also had a bargain, lovely, meal at Restaurante Garduna in that city two nights later. Unfortunately, our meal on the patio at Restaurante Garduna was punctuated by a purse thief, who sprinted off around the corner with my purse, before we?d had a chance to order dessert.

We did have some nice experiences in tapas bars. We ordered drinks at Casa de Postas, at Casa San Segundo, 40, in Avila, and were presented with a couple of lovely small tapas we ordered more of, and Café Vergara Bar in Madrid, which we ducked into amid a rainstorm and enjoyed some lovely snacks that tided us over for dinner.

You may expect to have your meal graced with a big glob of mayonnaise, when you least expect it, but then to find the ham sandwich you order mysteriously dry. Go figure.

Liked your food report, pretty funny reference to the pepper.

You didn't get into the manchego (sp?) cheese tapas -- usually topped with an anchovy? Wonderful stuff, especially when drizzled with a little Spanish olive oil. You probably didn't hit some of the better tapas bars in Plaza Santa Ana in Madrid.

LOL, Mary Fran, that small dead pig sounds dreadful, I say as I laugh.
I am sorry to hear how Spanish food let you down, you and your friend and sister must get yourselves to Paris to wipe away that Trauma

I went to Spain last year, Seville and Madrid, and wouldn't say Spanish cuisine thrilled me, but even when I wasn't that excited by it, I never spent very much. It wasn't that expensive in any restaurant I went to. I did spend around 35-40 euro or so total (with wine) in a restaurant in an expensive area of Madrid (around Plaza Mayor), but that meal was actually pretty good (lamb, as I recall). Their wines are a bargain. I ate Italian a couple nights in Madrid which was quite good.

The thing I found bizarre in Seville was this thing about served small round crackers with ham as some kind of a dish at dinner time. I forget what they were called (began with a "c&quot, but really could not understand why this was considered something you'd serve with a meal or as a side dish. They were just bland little boring crackers, like oyster crackers.

I must say, Scarlett, the food in France left us overconfident. I remember a stop in Falaise, at a truck stop, where we had a quiche to die for. In France, you don't have to go to Paris to find food that is a revelation.

Surfergirl, I have no doubt we didn't hit some of the really good places for food in Spain, or the really great dishes.

One thing that really blew us away was the premium price charged for bread. In the US, we usually receive a basket of bread, to keep us busy until our meal arrives.

In spain, the bread was generally great, but you are charged for it - 2 or 3 euros for the two of us.

Of course, our American table wine (coke lites) cost us 1.80 euros for a teeny 6 oz. bottle that barely woule barely wet a thirsty traveler's whistle.

Excuse the typos. I'm eating those leftover Almond Joy treats as fast as I can, and the sugar high is obviously taking its toll.

Mary Fran, I'm so sorry you had such awful experiences with the food in Spain. Neither my husband or I eat "little piggies" and rarely eat red meat (wouldn't ever think of Oxtail Tartare), but we had several fine meals in Spain, very often fish, and some good salads and excellent paella as well. And we've never been disappointed with the wine...

While I like French and Italian food best, we didn't have any trouble eating good and healthy meals in Spain. It just goes to show, we all have different experiences.

What's strangest to me is that everyone raves about the tapas, and we haven't been overly impressed with them. Mabye we just haven't gone to the right places on our last two trips--will have to give them another chance on our next trip in May.

Mary Fran, meet Scarlett, M&M junkie

I know what you mean about a Truck stop quiche ~

Mary_Fran writes: "The food in Spain was our greatest disappointment. Aside from tapas, we spent far more money than we wanted, on food that left us shaking our heads."

Nowhere do you mention fish or shrimp or any type of seafood which I think comprise some of the tastiest meals one encounters in Spain. Don't you like seafood?

Your culinary adventure sounds like someone going to Portugal and not eating the Croquetas de Bacalao.

I make the midday meal (around 3 PM) my main meal of the day and I shop around for small restaurants (or Tabernas) with chalkboard in front listing their daily special. Only once in my most recent trip (Jun'04) did I spend more than 10-Euro (wine, dessert and service included). The evening meal is going to cost much more than that; so I do tapas for it.

It sounds like you had a 'Turista' sign on your back ...

Aside from your disappointment with the food (I don't call it 'cuisine' because what you describe is not what I consider typical Spanish cuisine), I hope you enjoyed your visit to Spain

OK, you are trying to be "nice" and not mentioning anyone by name who apparently "recommended" places to eat and I suspect you went to them and got what you feel is bad food...always a problem with "recommendations" as they can be chancey at best (assuming this IS what happened).

I'm glad to hear I am not the ONLY person who has had a decent meal in the Hotel Colon.

I'm a bit mystified about your complaint re the prices (assume you didn't bother to look at posted menus first or is your complaint about price-quality ratios?)...anyway, hopefully your next trip will bring a wiser traveler.

Hi MF,

Sorry that you were disappointed.

>One thing that really blew us away was the premium price charged for bread. <

They do that in Italy, too. It's a way to collect a cover charge.

MaryFran: I share your pain. In four forays into Spain from France I have yet to have a meal I remember fondly, or even remember at all. I have been left with the same impressions you seem to have - the food is overpriced and unimaginative. And no, I never went to "recommended" places - we've been all over the Costa Brava and Andalucia and went primarily where it seemed the locals were going. Even the seafood, in places right by the sea, was underwhelming. We've learned to appreciate Spain for attributes other than its food, although I suspect if we spent huge amounts of money there we could find a good meal.

Mary Fran, so sorry about what sounds like a bad food experience practically from start to finish. Food is really important to us and we spend a lot of time getting recommendations and ideas before we travel. We returned from Spain about a month ago and before we left, I was a bit apprehensive as I heard from some on this board and elsewhere that the food was not great in Spain.
So it was a pleasant surprise that we were delighted with the food. We had some great meals and some very good ones. The only one that we didn't care for was a meal cooked by the British expatriot owner of an inn where we stayed for a couple of nights. It wasn't bad, it was just too English and unimaginative.
We ate seafood everywhere and it was fresh and delicious. The only meat we ate was in a Moroccan restaurant in Sevilla, one of the very best meals of the trip.
Despite my concern before we went, we didn't have ham even once. And I'm not certain but I don't think we were ever charged for bread. We had delicious salads for lunch some days and made picnic lunches other days with wonderful bread, cheese, fruit, etc. The avocados and figs were the best I have ever tasted.
The food was not as good as that in France or Italy, but no food is as good as France and Italy.
I feel lucky that we had such good food, it seems it could have been otherwise.

Any discussion of Spanish dining rooms is incomplete without mention of the INCREDIBLE dining and tapas in San Sebastian. You must increase your geographic area before you draw conclusions about Spain!

On the subject of paying for bread -- we call that a stupid card trick. They did that in Austria too. Fortuniately, we learned to wave the bread away when they came at us with the basket. In Italy, the sitting vs. standing up cover charge thing got old fast.

TopMan, no, our restaurant choices were not the result of recommendations from Fodorites. We blundered into them all by ourselves, with a recommendation or two from our hotel desk clerks, or from guide books.

NedsIreland, I do like fish, and did eat it in Spain, although perhaps not often enough. The fine meal we had at Hotel Colon featured salted cod. I also had some nice shrimp at Restaurante Amaya, on the Ramblas in Barcelona.

However, the presentation of the shrimp, with all the little legs and eyes and antenae in tact, resulted in a bit of kitchen drama. Remembering a post here on Fodors by someone who reported being shown how to "dehusk" shrimp, I inquired of my waiter if he would show me the secret surgical strikes, whereupon he snatched up my plate with a great flourish and proceeded to attack the shrimp, scalpel in hand, grumbling loudly to passing waitstaff, and causing at least one to roll her eyes heavenward. I don't know if the eye rolling was directed at the dumb American tourist, or at the emotionally overwrought waiter.

My shrimp ended up being quite tasty, but the rest of the meal was lackluster and expensive. $109 US for the two of us, which covered a 3/4 size bottle of house wine.

Surfergirl, we too quickly learned to wave the bread away if we weren't willing to pay the premium price.

It's probably true, NedsIreland, that we telegraph our status as American tourists who deserve our culinary fates. However, with a little elbow grease, we do clean up nice and can occasionally pass for civilized enough for European dining establishments.

I LOVED this message. We too just returned from Spain and had very similar experiences. Dying of hunger and nowhere to eat open then ending up eating very ordinary tapas etc. Also standing waiting for people in hotels to help us and they would go off and chat to friends or on the phone while we waited patiently. I still Loved Spain more than France which felt more twee and touristy and dare I say it we had some awful meals in France when we were out sightseeing and starving and didnt have my lengthy list of recommended restaurants. I love travelling but isnt it great to come home {esp when we live in Australia where food is fantastic and cheap and you can even park your car-forgot Europe is So crowded}

Mary Fran,
Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience, but I'd hate for people to think that that's always the case in Spain.

We've been there twice and LOVED the food, especially the tapas. We did eat a lot of seafood, lots of grilled vegetables, and very little ham.

I had roast suckling pig twice, and once it wasn't too good, but the other time it was wonderful. (I think you can expect it to always be fairly high in fat, though)

As far as Coke --It's a lot more expensive all over Europe than in the US. I solve that problem by just drinking wine instead.

Anyway, please don't give up on Spain. There really is good food to be had there.

I couldn't agree more Mary_Fran, although we were fortunate, as I guess you were, to have some excellent dinner experiences. Tortilla was my saviour for lunch and sometimes even later. The HAM thing made me laugh, as I had the same impression. Did have wonderful paella and agree the wines were fine.

We found a place in the Santa Cruz in Seville where we had mediocre pizza, but it was welcome in light of the lack of things I enjoyed. On the other hand had a lovely lunch there with delicious shrimp and great salads.

I love Spain and hope someday to return, but have to agree the food overall leaves something to be desired!