You arrive to Italy and the first thing you want to do is to eat something. Okay, it seems legit. Here some quick suggestions a tourist should follow (even if unluckily, many tourist don’t follow them).
Pay attention to city centres → obviously prices in the city centres are high. But this is nothing. The real problem is that some cafes and restaurants in the city centres try to scam the tourists by proposing them different prices than those for Italian people. If it happens to you to pay more than what exposed on the menu (for example, getting to pay €5 for an espresso coffee instead of €1 or €2) because “you are a tourist”, don’t forget to leave or to be ready to call 112: this practice is illegal, even if many tourists are not aware of it. Don’t just pay and leave, try to defend yourself against injustices.
The general rule is: even three stops of subway going far from the centre may lead you to cheaper prices and better food and service. If you want to stay in the city centre, read reviews on Google Maps before entering a place: previous tourists (and also Italian people) report everything. It is not uncommon to find bars and restaurant with 2 stars average rating on Google Maps, just for the same reason, even if unluckily these reviews are posted by people who are unaware certain commercial practices are illegal in Italy. Anyway, if you spot a place like this, just avoid it. Bad reviews also are for unfriendly behaviors. At the end, if a restaurant or bar is in the centre of a famous city, they can ignore reviews and unhappiness of customers if they want: their position is enough to make money. A bar having honest prices and friendly staff in the city centre of a famous Italian city is the guarantee they really work with passion.
No, eating Italian is not expensive → you have been grown with the idea that Italian food is expensive. That you have to pay for a “coperto”, a sort of tax required just because you are sitting at the table of the restaurant. That a simple dish of pasta costs more than €10. If you look around many Italian restaurants, this is sadly true. The simple suggestion is: accept all of this only if you are going to try some complex recipes. Eating expensive and complex pasta dishes surely justifies all these prices. If you want to eat some special recipes, find an Italian restaurant providing them and happily pay these sums, because in this case they are well spent. But if you come to an Italian restaurant asking you for more than €10 for a simple pasta with tomato sauce and also €3 for “coperto”, your best decision is to leave and find another restaurant. Some honest Italian restaurants provide fixed menu price for lunch, so that with the average price of €10 you can eat a pasta dish and a second dish, usually also a side dish and coffee are included. If you want to eat simple Italian recipes, you can also rely to another option: go to Italo-Chinese restaurants or to Egyptian-owned restaurants, as they also have convenient prices for simple dishes of Italian tradition, most often made in a really great way (go without prejudices, because they have often nothing to envy to Italian-owned restaurants).
The three photos below can make you understand the concept. The Tortelli with butter & sage are a very tasty and cheap dish. They are served by an Egyptian-owned restaurant with the price €6. The price is fair. The second photo shows a more complex dish, as it involves the preparation of a sauce with basil and fresh mint (handmade by the chef) and it is also a particular dish you don’t find in any restaurant. If we also add the suggestions for what wines drink with this and the second dish, paying near €10 just for a pasta dish in this Italian-owned restaurant is also justified and it is fair. If it was a simple pasta dish, with no particular time-consuming preparation, like combining two raw materials like butter and sage, in that case the price would have not been honest, if in addition a high “coperto” was charged. But this is what may happen in other restaurants with everyday recipes just like pasta dishes. And then we come to the third photo: potato gnocchi with basil pesto sauce, from an Italo-Chinese restaurant. Cost: €5. The basil pesto sauce is bought, but it is still of high quality (not the same quality of common supermarkets, as basil pesto sauce for restaurants bought in cash & carry is made with more authentic ingredients in order to satisfy restaurant needs). Preparation is all but complex obviously and so the price is fair. Paying €10-€12 for the same dish in an Italian-owned restaurant would be fair only if they hand-make the sauce (if they also hand-make pasta it would be the top). But if you try the same dish in an Italian-owned restaurant, pay it €10 and feel the sauce tastes like the one you have had in the Italo-Chinese restaurant, then yes: you have paid €10, maybe also €3 of “coperto”, just to eat pasta with bough sauce. And in this case, this is unfair, but in some restaurants it happens.
Italy is full of discoveries when talking about food and drinks. But everyone tries to make money on what it is most famous for. Italy is famous for food, yes, so restaurants make their food amount of money. It is up to you to discover if you are going to a restaurant which really deserves your money, or if you are going to a tourist trap asking you to pay €10 for a frozen pizza (yes, also this sometimes happens). Google Maps is and will always be your best ally when discovering Italian food. My suggestion, for everyone who wants to visit Italy: don’t just enter the first place you see on the street. Search it on Google Maps, read the reviews and then enter and enjoy your Italian experience.