How to Eat Well in Europe: Dining Tips and Smart Splurges

I'm Carol Cram, novelist and arts travel writer, and founder of Art In Fiction, a curated database of 2,700+ novels inspired by the arts. Artsy Traveler contains affiliate links for products and services I personally use and recommend. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read the Disclosure for more information.

My family still reminisces about meals we’ve enjoyed in Europe over the past four decades: the Gorgonzola gnocchi in a tiny trattoria in Florence, my birthday dinner in Paris, an Indian meal in Berlin, an Indonesian Rijsttafel in Amsterdam, and so many meals in Italy that they blur into one long, happy memory of pasta and wine.

None of these meals happened by accident. They happened because over the years I’ve developed a few strategies for eating well in Europe that I return to on every trip.

The framework is simple: spend intentionally. Save on breakfasts and lunches so you can splurge on the dinners and food experiences that become the stories you tell for decades.

You don’t need to eat at Michelin-starred restaurants every night, and you certainly don’t need to survive on grocery-store sandwiches.

What you need is to know where to look, when to splurge, and how to avoid the tourist traps that separate travelers from their money without giving much in return.

This guide covers all of that, with a few food memories thrown in along the way.

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Skip Hotel Breakfasts and Eat Like a Local

Hotel breakfasts have become ludicrously expensive. At €20 to €30 per person on top of the room rate, even a decent buffet is hard to justify, particularly when better options are waiting a few steps outside the door.

I recommend you keep breakfast simple and eat it partly in the room, partly at a local café.

At the start of each trip I pick up a few supplies from a local grocery store: individual cartons of yogurt, a small bottle of milk, a box of granola, and a piece of fruit or two. I carry everything in my collapsible insulated bag, along with a couple of plastic bowls and a set of real cutlery.

A light breakfast in the room takes ten minutes and costs a fraction of the hotel buffet. And I’ve yet to stay in a hotel room that didn’t include a coffee machine that delivers a mediocre jolt of caffeine to get me out the door.

Thus fortified, I head out to a neighborhood café for a good coffee. Ideally, the café is one where the regulars are reading newspapers rather than consulting guidebooks.

The coffee is always better than anything produced by a breakfast buffet or in-room machine, the croissants and pastries are fresher, and the experience of sitting outside watching a European city wake up is something no hotel dining room can replicate.

For arts-focused travelers, that morning café stop is also a useful planning moment.

Check your museum timed entry times, confirm your afternoon concert booking, and decide whether the weather calls for an outdoor market or an indoor gallery day.

Some hotels charge a lower rate for a continental breakfast of a few croissants and coffee, but even these can be overpriced.

I eat the hotel breakfast only if it’s included in the room rate or if I’ve arrived in a destination very late and haven’t had time to get to a grocery store.

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Picnic Like a European

A great way to eat well is to enjoy picnic lunches.

A market-assembled lunch of fresh bread, local cheese, charcuterie, seasonal fruit, and something sweet from the patisserie costs a fraction of a restaurant meal and is often more memorable than anything served at a table.

Start at a local market. Buy a few hundred grams of charcuterie and one or two local cheeses, pick up whatever fruit looks best that day, and then stop at a bakery for a fresh baguette or a couple of rolls.

And always pick up something sweet: fresh baklava in Greece, a raspberry tart from a French patisserie, a slice of something sticky from a Sicilian pasticceria.

These are the small pleasures that make a travel day feel like a celebration rather than a chore.

Pack everything into your insulated bag.

If you’re driving, rest stops along European routes almost always have picnic tables in pleasant surroundings. If you’re on a train, find a seat with a tray table. If you’re in a city, find a park bench, the edge of a fountain, a quiet square, or a patch of grass with a view.

For arts-focused travelers, a picnic pairs beautifully with a morning at a museum or gallery. Pick up your supplies at a market on the way, spend the morning with the art, then find a nearby park for lunch before an afternoon of wandering.

That combination of cultural immersion and simple outdoor eating is one of the most satisfying ways to spend a day in Europe.

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When (and Why) to Cook While Traveling

If you’re staying in an apartment or holiday home, cooking a few meals during your stay is worth doing, and not only for the money it saves.

Shopping for ingredients at a local market or supermarket is a cultural experience in its own right. You learn what’s in season, what the locals are buying, and how a region’s food culture works from the inside rather than the tourist-facing outside.

When we home-base in a city for a week or more, I make a point of visiting the nearest market or supermarket every few days, as much for the pleasure of it as for the practicality.

The meals I cook on the road are simple by design: omelets with whatever local cheese caught my eye, pasta with a sauce assembled from market ingredients, salads, and the occasional dinner built around a fully cooked dish picked up from a supermarket deli counter.

In many European supermarkets and markets, you can buy the components of an excellent meal that requires nothing more than setting the table.

My rule of thumb for a week’s stay: cook in two or three times and eat out the rest. That balance saves money without turning your apartment into a full-time kitchen, and it leaves plenty of room for the restaurant meals that become great memories.

There’s also a less practical but equally valid reason to cook in occasionally.

After an intense day of museums, galleries, and cultural sightseeing, there is something deeply restorative about a quiet evening at home with a glass of local wine and a simple meal you’ve made yourself.

It resets you for the next day in a way that another restaurant meal, however good, sometimes doesn’t.

For more on home-basing as a travel strategy, see Step 2 of my European trip planning guide.

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When to Save and When to Splurge on Food in Europe

The framework is simple and I’ve already outlined it above: keep breakfasts and lunches inexpensive so you have room in your budget for the dinners and food experiences worth remembering. Here’s how that plays out in practice.

When to Save

Breakfasts and picnic lunches are covered above. For casual daytime eating, bakeries, café counters, food halls, and market stalls offer excellent value and are where locals eat during the workday.

A sandwich from a good bakery, eaten on a bench in a sunny square, costs almost nothing and is often more enjoyable than a sit-down lunch in a tourist-area restaurant.

When to Splurge

Splurge on regional specialties without hesitation.

Seafood in Galicia, bistecca in Tuscany, bouillabaisse in Marseille, moules-frites in Brussels. Eating the local specialties where they’re made best is part of understanding a destination, and this is not the time to economize.

If you’re on a budget, consider making lunch your main splurge meal of the day. Many excellent restaurants, including Michelin-starred ones, offer lunch menus at significantly lower prices than dinner. You’ll enjoy the same kitchen and the same atmosphere for considerably less money.

The trade-off is that you’ll be too full for serious sightseeing for a few hours afterward, but finding a sunny terrace to digest on is not the worst problem to have.

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Practical Dining Customs Worth Knowing

Tipping

Many travelers from North America wonder if they should tip servers.

In most European countries, service is included in the bill and tipping is minimal. Rounding up to the nearest euro or leaving a few coins is standard in France, Germany, and the Netherlands.

In Italy, a small tip is appreciated but not expected. In the UK, ten percent is customary if service is not already included.

Check your bill before tipping since many restaurants add a service charge automatically.

Tap Water

You will usually not be offered tap water. In France, ask for une carafe d’eau. In Italy, acqua del rubinetto will get you tap water, although some restaurants will steer you toward bottled.

Usually, the server just assumes you want bottled water and asks if you’ll have sparkling or still. I always opt for bottled water, which is what the Europeans do.

Cover Charges

Cover charges appear on bills in some countries without warning. The coperto in Italy and the couvert in France are standard practice and not a scam, but they can add €2 to €5 per person to your bill.

Factor them into your budget rather than being surprised by them at the end of a meal.

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How to Find Good Restaurants

The single most reliable indicator of a good restaurant is simple: locals are eating there. If every table is occupied by people with guidebooks and rolling luggage, keep walking.

A few blocks away from the main tourist thoroughfares, you’ll almost always find quieter streets with better kitchens and more reasonable prices.

I avoid restaurants in iconic high-rent locations: the terraces overlooking the Eiffel Tower, the trattorias on the Piazza Navona in Rome, the posh cafes lining the Piazza San Marco in Venice where a cappuccino will set you back ten euros.

We’ve made the mistake of eating in these places and regretted it. The food is tasteless and overpriced, the service is rushed, and you’re surrounded by other tourists. In recent years, servers in these “high-rent” restaurants even ask for a tip at the end of the meal.

Yeah, you’re a tourist too, but it’s more fun to be surrounded by locals, even if you can’t always understand what they’re saying (sometimes even in English-speaking places such as England and Scotland). When I was in Birmingham, I sat next to a couple enjoying their dinner and my eavesdropping efforts were poorly repaid. I couldn’t understand one word in ten of their Brummie accent.

Read Reviews

Before choosing a restaurant, check reviews and look for a 4.5-star average or higher. If the most enthusiastic reviews are written in the local language, that’s a strong signal the restaurant is frequented by locals.

Read what people say about the food and the service rather than just the star rating.

Use Translation Apps and QR Codes

It used to be that a restaurant displaying its menu in multiple languages was the sure sign of a tourist trap. If you wanted to eat local, you had no choice but to struggle through the menu and hope for the best.

Sometimes this didn’t worked out too well. On a trip to France several years ago, I ordered what I thought was steak and received stuffed sheep’s stomach swimming in a thin gray gravy.

I managed one bite.

Now, you can use Google Translate on your phone to translate any words you don’t know.

Even better, many restaurants provide QR codes you can scan to view the menu in English.

Ask Your Hotel

Ask your hotel to recommend a local restaurant and make a reservation on your behalf. Every time I’ve followed a hotel recommendation I’ve eaten well.

Hotels have a stake in keeping their guests happy and rarely point you toward a tourist trap. Hotel managers know their neighborhoods and sometimes have relatives who run local restaurants, which adds an extra layer of motivation to send you somewhere good.

Go Off the Beaten Path

The best restaurant discovery of a recent two-week stay in Rome came from simply wandering a few blocks from our apartment near the Colosseum. We found a small family-owned restaurant on a quiet side street with a short menu, nightly specials, and prices that reflected the neighborhood rather than the tourist circuit.

The food was wonderful and the ambiance was everything a Roman dinner should be.

We loved it so much we went back three times. By the third visit we were welcomed like old friends.

Dining Solo

Dining alone in Europe is one of the many pleasures of solo travel. Some of my most enjoyable meals have been solo ones: unhurried, observant, and relaxing. You notice more when you’re not managing a conversation.

For more on the pleasures and practicalities of solo travel, read my solo travel tips post.

What Does a Splurge Meal Cost?

For two people, a splurge dinner of three courses plus wine typically falls between €90 and €130 in a well-reviewed local restaurant with good service and atmosphere. That won’t get you into Europe’s most exclusive restaurants, but it’s more than enough for a memorable evening.

Sometimes you’ll pay more than expected for an underwhelming meal. That happens at home too. Chalk it up to experience and move on.

Make Reservations

Once you’ve chosen a restaurant, book a table. Good local restaurants fill up quickly, even on weeknights. Fortunately most now accept online bookings through their websites.

If you need to call, a few simple phrases do the trick. In France: “Réservation. Ce soir. Deux personnes. Huit heures, s’il vous plaît.”

Learn the equivalent in whatever language applies, add a polite please and thank you, and you’re done. If calling feels daunting, ask your hotel concierge to call for you.

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Explore New Cuisines

Yes, hamburgers are readily available in Europe, as is Starbucks coffee, Pizza Hut, and KFC. But why not try something new?

Seek out restaurants serving food typical of the region and ask your server what’s worth trying. In my experience, servers are happy to make recommendations, and following their advice rarely disappoints.

One of our best gastronomic experiences in Europe was the evening we spent cruising the pinchos (pintxos in Basque) bars in San Sebastian in northern Spain.

In every bar we picked out one or two pintxos, washed them down with a glass of local wine, and moved on to the next place. The variety, the quality, and the sheer pleasure of eating standing up at a crowded bar with locals doing exactly the same thing made it one of those evenings that sets the standard for every food experience that follows.

You don’t need to eat the fermented shark in Iceland to enjoy local cuisine.

Start with whatever the server recommends and order a shot of the local liqueur at the end of the meal. Every European region has its specialties, from limoncello in Italy to port in Portugal, and finishing a meal with the local digestif is a small ritual worth adopting.

Enjoy World Cuisines

Every major European city has excellent restaurants representing cuisines from around the world: Indian curries in Berlin, Thai food in Rome, sushi in Paris. Sometimes after several days of pasta in Italy or bread and cheese in France, a detour into another cuisine entirely is exactly what’s needed.

One of my more memorable meals on a recent trip to England was a curry at a Himalayan restaurant in York that I still think about.

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How Much Should You Budget for Food in Europe?

There was a time in my life when I ate cans of baked beans in youth hostels to save money. Those days are long, long past.

These days, I budget about €110 to €150 a day for the two of us for food and about €80 if I’m traveling on my own and not staying in apartments.

This budget covers a simple breakfast, a picnic or casual lunch, and a decent dinner with wine. Some days I spend less when we’re cooking in or picnicking both meals. Some days I spend more when we’ve chosen a splurge dinner or eaten out for both lunch and dinner.

A few things that push the budget up: coffee and pastries during the day, wine with dinner, and the occasional mid-afternoon gelato or local sweet.

You’ll spend less if you don’t order alcohol with your dinner but let’s be real: that rarely happens in Europe.

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Join a Food Tour to Taste a City Like a Local

A food tour is one of the smartest things you can do on the first day in a new destination. You get oriented to a neighborhood, learn what dishes are typical of the region, and come away with recommendations for bakeries, markets, wine bars, and family-run restaurants that will serve you well for the rest of your stay.

Good food tour guides combine local knowledge, regional specialties, and cultural context in a way that’s hard to replicate on your own. These guides are almost always locals who are passionate about their city’s food culture and enjoy sharing it with visitors.

The value case is also strong. Food tours often replace one or even two meals since the tastings are generous, which means the cost is lower than it first appears. By the end you’ll be well fed, well oriented, and considerably better informed about where and what to eat than if you’d spent the same time wandering and guessing.

Food tours are particularly good for solo travelers. The social dynamic is easy when everyone is focused on tasting and learning. It’s one of the most relaxed ways to meet fellow travelers.

Look for small group tours that focus on local businesses and regional specialties. Market tours, wine and cheese walks, and neighborhood food crawls tend to offer the most authentic experiences. GetYourGuide has a strong selection of food tours across Europe, filterable by city, group size, and type of experience.

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Take a Cooking Class

A cooking class is one of the most immersive ways to understand a region’s food culture, and considerably more interesting than reading about it in a guidebook.

You spend a few hours in a kitchen with a local chef, learning techniques specific to the region, and you leave with skills you’ll use long after the trip is over.

I’ve taken cooking classes in Rome, Paris, Madrid, and most recently in Nafplio in Greece, and every one has been a highlight. In Rome I learned to make fresh pasta. In Nafplio I made a traditional Greek meal from scratch in a beautiful kitchen, drank excellent local wine, and ate everything I’d cooked. In Paris I learned techniques for making sauces I still use at home. And in Madrid I made and then devoured a cold tomato soup to die for.

Beyond the food, cooking classes are a great social experience. You meet fellow travelers from around the world, work alongside them in a kitchen, and sit down to eat together at the end.

The conversation flows easily when everyone is focused on the same task, and the shared meal at the end of the class has a warmth that’s hard to replicate in a restaurant.

For arts-focused travelers, cooking classes that connect food to regional culture and history are particularly worth seeking out. A class focused on traditional Provençal cuisine, Venetian cicchetti, or Greek mezze is as much a cultural experience as a culinary one.

Here are posts about some of the cooking classes I’ve taken:

• Explore Greek Cuisine in a Savor Nafplio Cooking Class
• Pizza, Gelato, Suppli, Oh My! A Fantastic Cooking Class in Rome
• Take a Cooking Class in Paris

And here are some cooking classes you can book through GetYourGuide:

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Relax and Enjoy!

Europeans live to eat rather than eat to live, and sitting at a European dinner table long enough to understand that is one of travel’s best revelations.

We’ve shared many dinners with Europeans over the years and have marveled at how many courses they get through, how much they drink, and how long they linger over the table.

Nobody is checking their phone. Nobody is asking for the bill before the last glass is poured.

What’s the rush?

And should you take a picture when your beautifully prepared and presented food arrives? Absolument.

Good food, like good art, rewards the traveler who slows down long enough to properly appreciate it. That’s as true in a family trattoria in Rome as it is in the Uffizi.

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FAQs About Eating in Europe

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Keep Traveling Smart with Artsy Traveler

Continue building your travel skills with these practical guides from Artsy Traveler:

• How to Plan a European Trip: 9 Easy Steps for a Perfect Itinerary
• Finding the Best Accommodation in Europe: My Top Tips
• Driving in Europe: Top Tips for Happy & Safe Travel
• Best Travel Gear for Europe: What I Pack and Why
• Smart Green Travel: Practical Ways to Travel Sustainably
• How to Travel and Stay Healthy in Europe: Practical Tips for Avoiding Illness on the Road
• Airalo ESIM Review: The Best Way To Stay Connected Abroad