How to avoid a $935 bill for beers and calamari
Photo by Jason Blackeye on Unsplash

Today’s tip, like this one about gelato in Rome, is about knowing the price of your food before you order. Earlier this month, a man from Brooklyn and five friends were charged €836.20 (about $935 at the time) for a quick meal at a Mykonos restaurant. Per the Daily Mail, the bill included €591 (about $661) for six plates of calamari, €150 (about $168) for six beers, €59.40 (about $66) for three Caesar salad appetizers with chicken, €17.80 (about $20) for two bottles of water, and €18 (about $20) for a single glass of tomato juice.

The man—a soldier named Francisco Tajeda—posted a photo of the bill along with his review on TripAdvisor (“AVOID THIS PLACE, THIS PLACE IS A TRAP”). First, if you’re ever in Mykonos it seems smart to avoid the restaurant, which is DK Oyster. A concerning number of reviews on the site echo Tajeda’s.

Second, when you’re traveling in a well-touristed destination like Mykonos, you should know that this sort of thing happens all the time. In the Daily Mail story, Tajeda says “he was walking across the beachfront with five of his friends when a hostess from the DK approached them, and lured them into the restaurant with the promise of special offers. The 38-year-old maintains that he and each of his friends repeatedly requested to see a menu to look at the prices, but the server never brought one and instead asked what they wanted.”

The group was hungry and so decided to order without seeing the menu. If you’re ever far from home, you should always insist on seeing a menu, no matter how much (and maybe especially if) the servers resist and are pushy. You might even consider taking a photo of the menu so you have evidence if they try to change the price after you’ve ordered. And you should be wary from the start if a restaurant actively tries to bring you to its tables. Something like this happened to me in Budapest in 2006 (see the story here), and I’ve had my eyes open ever since!

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2 Comments On "How to Avoid a $935 Bill for Beers and Calamari (as These Guys Did Not)"
  1. Seminolerick|

    Greedy episodes like this have forever changed our world from loving & trusted, to initial scorn & negative distrust. It happened worldwide… sadly so.

  2. Ronni|

    When my husband and I were in Mykonos on a sailing trip some years ago we noticed all the seaside cafes filled with tourists. After checking the menu prices we decided to walk further into town through small winding streets and found a tiny restaurant which looked like it had great food at reasonable prices. We asked the chef/owner if we could sit outside and he moved 2 chairs and a small table for us. We had a delicious, tasty, simple meal for a fraction of what it cost on the waterfront.

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