This isn't a menu reader or potted guide to great places I have eaten for next-to-nothing. The purpose of this page is to provide general guidance for those people who love eating out on their Spanish holiday and don't have an endless supply of spending money!

You don't need any help, if you're going to stay somewhere like Benidorm; there are any amount of cafés and bars that offer fish and chips (and similar food) at rock bottom prices. This web site hardly mentions such places, as the author is allergic to them!

The first, and most important thing, to know about is the menú. This is not what you might readily suppose it to be. It looks so much like the word we use in English that you might easily presume that the two mean exactly the same thing …down that road lies frustration for you and confusion for any café owner or restaurateur that you try it on.

The word "menú" is an accepted shortened form and way of referring to the "Menú del Día" or "Menu of the Day" (sometimes you will encounter the variation "Menú Diario" or "Daily Menu"). Both expressions refer to a set meal with a limited choice of courses (sometimes no choice at all). The Menú del día will have a set price that covers a starter, main course, sweet and water or wine. At the time of going to press, you rarely found a set meal like this for less than 8€. The menú is only ever served at lunchtime …evening meals are always more expensive. The Spanish lunchtime begins at about 1.30pm (the same time as the beginning of the Siesta).

If your Spanish isn't good, then do make sure you have a phrase book with a decent menu reader in it; one of the best pocket-sized phrase books is published by the BBC.

If you're looking to make a saving on eating out, then there are a couple of places you should avoid. The centre of any town will always have restaurants that charge more and any waterfront eating establishment tends to top up their prices. There is one important exception in both these cases …Chinese restaurants. You may not think of a Spanish holiday as including eating a Chinese meal …but I think you'll find their prices hard to beat. The menus will be in Spanish and might not have English translations. I have never got used to conversing with a Chinese person in Spanish …but this is what you may have to do. With some exceptions, the Spanish spoken will be on a par with the English spoken in Chinese restaurants in England …off-menu chitchat may prove futile.

At the beach, you would do well to move a few streets back from the seafront and seek out the more modest-looking eating establishments …ones crowded with men wearing workmen's clothes are a fairly reliable sign of good quality food at a reasonable price.

In a city or large town, it is worth driving out of town to the nearest much smaller town or village and just driving around its streets looking for likely cafés and bars.

Long ago, food at the average British Transport café was officially recognised as appalling enough that it was fair game for comedians to make jokes about it! Motorway service stations offer about the same quality food throughout Europe and the prices don't differ that widely either (expensive and not very nice). If you see a Spanish  roadside café, bar or restaurant with a large number of heavy goods vehicles parked outside, then this is likely to be a good place to stop.

Linen tablecloths and serviettes always denote high prices.

Cutlery, already laid out for several courses, is another warning sign

Waiters who really look like waiters, is a dead giveaway

No workmen

No truckers