Notes: If you've missed it, page one of this article explains howI use the term"typical" along with the breakdown of transportation costs for a 7 week European Vacation.
Food and Restaurant Expenses in Europe -2003
My Criteria (yours, of course, may vary): Restaurants featuring a sit down meal. Snacks, tapas, and the like are available everywhere in Europe, allowingyouto eat far more cheaply than I describe here, but this section is about getting a good, sit down restaurant meal in Europe--but keep in mind thatIcan't affordmany top-rated food emporiums either.
The most expensive restaurantfood, in general, we found in Belgium. The typical main course in a nice restaurant therefell between 14 and 24 Euros. Oddly enough, cheaper food was found in bigger, tourist friendly cities.We found that, insome rural areas, restaurants could be prohibitively expensive for us.
The most food served in a restaurant and cheapest food overall: Portugal. Here is a country where you can get "half-orders" of almost every main dish at most restaurants, and I saw people complaining that they got way too much food even then. Ordering a half-order got you half the meat but a full portion of everything else. And everything else could be formidable, since Portugal is a place where you'll often get potatoes and rice together on the same plate. Portugal wins in frugality as well, with the cheapest average restaurant meals on our trip. Prices in Portugal for a sit-down dinner for two with wine ranged from 13 to 52 Euros (Highest price at the Restaurante Barao Fladgate in Porto, and it was worth it(review).
Least amount of vegetables on a menu: Spain, hands down. See my article: Eating in Spain for more.
Best food at reasonable prices: Italy takes it here, but mainly because that's my personal preference. France is a close second. What I really like are regional cuisines, so that when you travel across a country the typical dishes of the region change. The typical meal in Italy is priced about the same as you'd expect in the US, but table wine is much, much cheaper, as it is all over in Europe.
Best snacky foods: Tapas in Spain. Nothing better than a tapas crawl when you're feeling hungry and gregarious. Many times the best places are crammed together in the same area (as in Lagroño) so you can go all night.
Best cured ham: Bellota from Spain. Beats most Italian prosciutti hands down (but that doesn't mean I don'teat prosciutto when I'm in Italy!). Fattening the pigs on acorns is the key (you can find other cured ham fattened on acorns in Italy, especially in Sardinia, and most famously in Corsica). A "racione" (large plate-full) of Iberico de Bellota in a restaurant ideally situated in the plaza major in Salamanca, Spain was pegged at 12 Euros, but came with enough bread that you could have made about six sandwiches out of it.
So what about language, didn't that make ordering in restaurants difficult?
We know enough Italian and French to get by in a restaurant, but relied on a couple of pocketbooks to get us by in Spain and Portugal:
Lonely Planet World Food Portugal 
Lonely Planet World Food Spain
Not only will these books tell you how to read a menu (but not so efficiently as the Menu Master series) but they'll tell you the history of the local cuisines and includepictures and recipes. Each is written by different authors, and the Spanish guide is the better written of the two--but both were valuable.
So that's it. I hope these stats from my European vacation made sense to you and make your travel planning easier.
