8pm = early bird special

It’s no joke, dinner doesn’t start in Spain until 9pm. Tapas, yes, you can certainly enjoy a tapas dinner at 7pm or earlier but if you’re looking for a real dinner with starter, entrée and desert, don’t expect those restaurants (authentic Spanish restaurants) to open their doors before 9pm.

Last evening we worked in the office until 8:15pm, dropped off our bags at the hotel and headed out for dinner. We arrived at our destination around 8:45 and were the first patrons to walk through the door. At 9:05pm, the doors flew open and tables were full shortly after. How is this possible? How can people afford to have a full dinner, including desert and coffee (and at least 1 bottle of wine) starting at 9pm or later? Simple! Their day prior to dinner looked like this:

9:00 am – employees arrive in the office
10:30am 11:00am– employees leave premises to break for breakfast
1:30-2:30pm – employees leave premises to break for lunch
5pm sharp – employees leave premises for the day
At least 1-2 times within the day, employees gather for coffee and/or a game of cards.

When I find the time, I’d like to do research on the average life expectancy in Europe and I would put money on the average being at least 5 years higher than that of the United States. Stress levels, not to mention cancer and terminal illness, should also be significantly lower. As a psychology student in school, I would love to do a study on overall happiness of Europeans compared to Americans. Even with working 12+ hours days since I’ve been in Europe, the work-life balance is hard to ignore and the work-hard, play-hard philosophy has certainly been put into practice.

** The restaurant we ate at Monday evening was Market Hotel and was fabulous!! A proper dinner with starter, entrée, desert and wine (2 bottles) for 3 people was a total of 90 Euro (without tip). Be prepared, the entrée doesn’t include much of a side, but the meal itself is wonderful. http://www.markethotel.com.es/
Make reservations if possible, for anytime after 9pm. We called about 6 times throughout the day but nobody ever answered the phone, so we arrived at 8:45pm and they gave us a table anyway.