17:33, 16 Jul 2025Updated 17:35, 16 Jul 2025<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Spain-Madrid-Plaza-de-Santa-Ana-people-outside-bars-and-restaurants.jpg\")
A British woman has warned of a ‘common restaurant scam’ sweeping Spain (stock)(Image: Gary Yeowell via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
A British holidaymaker has sounded the alarm for tourists about a “popular restaurant scam” she claims is rampant in Mallorca. Octavia, a self-proclaimed “travel guide for foodies”, took to TikTok to offer her guidance after her pal was duped by the ruse<\/a>.<\/p>\n “If you are a foreigner visiting Mallorca, or Spain<\/a> in general, you will want to watch this video as it happened to a friend just two days ago,” she began in a video. Octavia elaborated on the alleged con, explaining: “A waiter will come over and will tell you that they have this really special ‘dish of the day’ that isn’t on the menu – and it’s usually seafood.”<\/p>\n Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n She said her friends were tempted with what were described as “really special” Mallorcan prawns, touted as a local delicacy that had “just been caught”. However, Octavia contested that these dishes are “intentionally” left off the menu and customers aren’t told the price until the end of their meal – only assured that they are worth the expense<\/a>.<\/p>\n “You’ll then get your food, which will be very normal prawns in this case – nothing terrible, but nothing particularly special,” she said. “And then you will get the bill and it will be double the price of any other main dish on their menu.”<\/p>\n Octavia urged her viewers to Google ‘Spanish restaurant tourist scam’ to see the extent of the issue. “This exact thing will come up,” she concluded.<\/p>\n “They see that you are a foreigner and they offer you this ‘special dish’ that’s not on the menu just to make money out of you. Don’t fall for it!”<\/p>\n In the caption for her video, Octavia further noted: “I know you’ll be thinking, ‘Who in their right mind would order something they don’t know the price for?’ but when you’re in holiday mode and they make it sound so good\/special\/authentic you wouldn’t believe how many people say yes and then quickly realise they’ve been scammed!<\/p>\n “And of course if it really were a super unique\/rare local delicacy the restaurants would be well within their right but we’re talking about ‘normal’ every day, readily available produce being sold to unsuspecting foreigners under the guise of something special.”<\/p>\n Reacting to her advice, one TikTok user added: “What they do is illegal. Spanish consumer laws state very clearly that what they cook must be stated in the menus with prices inclusive of VAT. If you smell [a] rat ask them for ‘libro de reclamaciones’ that by law they must give to you.”<\/p>\n Another person added: “Happens all over Spain, but it normally states to ask price as such fishes fluctuate in price… most normal people would check price!” Whilst a third shared their experience: “This happens in Malta also, and I am a local and I still get scammed.”<\/p>\n Others brushed off the cautionary tales though, declaring they’ve never encountered such problems. “Been coming for 15 years and I have never had that happen to us once,” remarked one individual.<\/p>\n A second pointed out: “Red prawns are an expensive delicacy in Mallorca, everyone knows they are expensive it’s not waiters’ fault if they have no culinary knowledge!”<\/p>\n And a third detailed: “We have lived in Palma for 25 years, we have never ever had a problem in any restaurants, the daily catch is always priced at the market price on that day. Just ask the staff as they are always accommodating. Shellfish is always expensive.”<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage <\/strong>here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> here.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A British holidaymaker has shared a warning for anyone dining out in Spain after her friend allegedly fell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,349,104,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-267447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-fraud","11":"tag-spain","12":"tag-travel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114864740418492836","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}