Why is dining out in Germany generally cheaper than in the US?

Culture, Media, General Culture, Chains, General Discussions
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Yep. And CA - is it the 2-letter US state designation for California or the 2-letter international designation for Canada?

Regarding “LA” for “Los Angeles” - I have a German friend who has worked now in US for some 20 years. One day I bought her lunch as a business thank you because the department she managed had worked hard to replicate chemical compounds we needed for evidence in a patent case.

I offered to drive us to the lunch and back but she said “No thanks, I’m going to stop off at Lah Fitness after lunch”. It took me a while to figure out the pronounced “Lah” was for “L.A.” in “L.A. Fitness”, a fairly popular workout spot in some states here in the US, founded of course in Los Angeles.

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maybe the boonies bagel-wise not otherwise.

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Did your German friend work in LAH at any point during those 20 years? Although - even if not, I’m having a really, really, realllllllly hard time believing that she’s not once heard Los Angeles being referred to as Ell Aye. A really hard time.

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Sorry about that; struggle to your heat’s content. It’s no skin off my nose as the saying goes. :slight_smile:

However, I never made any claim that she’d “not once heard” that people call Los Angeles “L.A.”; you seem to be reading things into my comment that I did not post.

But apparently she had not made the connection between the “LA” portion of the name of the gym which then, and still now, is emblazoned “LA FITNESS” (allcaps, no punctuation), and that particular city on the opposite coast from where we were.

For that matter, if I had not heard their radio adverts pronouncing the name when they first opened that store here locally, I doubt I would have made the Los Angeles connection. With our large Hispanic population and plenty of local small businesses being called “LA THIS” or “LA THAT”, why would I jump several thousand miles for an association?

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Or maybe she was familiar with the Golden Girls episode where Rose refers to the show L.A. Law as “Lah Law.” I’ve certainly made that joke, and if someone was neither familiar with that particular epi (or me, for that matter), they might think I’m just an idiot, too :wink:

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Again, what a fantastic recap of this thread. #AIFTW

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It looks like there is just 9ne minimum wage law in Germany, or are there state and city variations like we have in the US?

ETA I found this;

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Minimum wage is 12 Euro nationwide.

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I wonder whether the meals in the US an Germany are “comparables”: what kind of places are you eating in. For example, is it the high end adventurous dining, middle class type german cuisine with good ingredients or thai/turkish or such?

Could there be a different mix of dining choices which accounts for some of the perceived difference. Are you drinking the same thing? We at least look for different things at home and abroad.

For example I had a recent meal here in Brooklyn (not my choice) at a very popular but not superior restaurant for which I paid $107 including one $17 (!!) glass of wine and half a dessert. Our recent dining in Europe (Italy, Munich) clocked in at closer to our US current average, about $50 per person with one drink and no dessert. Unlike the one meal cited, we tend not to eat out the types of food we can prepare at home. However when in Europe we choose to eat local food at good places, not upscale Michelin recommended types (in Munich most of such places seem not to cook recognizably German fare). We normally drank beer (still a relative bargain in Germany) not wine or cocktails; mostly carafe wine in Italy.

So aside from drink costs and “social” factors which drive prices up, Im not seeing a big difference in average meal costs for the two of us travelling in Europe vs eating on home ground at the good mid level (perhaps increasingly hard to find in some places due to corporatization of dining).

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DollyDolly, can you tell me how much Trinkgeld I should leave after a meal? You seem to know a lot about dining in Germany.

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To the original question, I’ve got to think that real estate costs - whether renting or trying to get the funds required to buy a commercial space - as well as insurance costs (especially workers comp which varies state by state in the US but, for example, here in California is very expensive) may be factors.

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Prenzlauer Berg, where our favorite French bistro is located, has one of the highest rents in the city (which is likely still cheaper than CA, but what isn’t? ;-)).

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Fairly comparable. We don’t do fine dining much anymore (save for special occasions), but we do drink a lot. The beer / wine / cocktails we have with dinner out usually make up for about 50% of the bill, so we’d spend far less if we were teetotalers :smiley:

I do think the 20% tip adds a LOT to the final bill. Like, at least 20% :crazy_face:

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This is an interesting point around costs. I’m not sure this is about a foodie emphasis as much as the amount of food Germany can source from the EU nations (and its neighbours) keeping costs down because 1) the EU is comparatively small in relation to the US/North America so shipping is less costly and 2) the economic community and its arrangements mean other costs are controlled.

I also wonder about the kind of state support for its local agricultural industries, and the size of Germany that allows for it to be a solid producer. I mean, I don’t know enough about this, but I am interested by factors beyond those that project foodie values. (Not that those don’t count, but these other issues are probably more prominent in cost issues.)

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Yes, “CA” is the 2-letter int’l designation for Canada as well.

I used to be a travel agent and “CA” would sometimes cause problems for myself, my clients and travel industries such as airlines because there’s a city in San Bernardino County (a county east of Los Angeles) called “Ontario”.

When it’s written on an address it’s usually written as “Ontario, CA”. People unfamiliar with that city/area and have a need to go there will inquire about tickets there thinking they need to go to Ontario, Canada.

This especially became a problem for a short time when Air Canada flew between Ontario International Airport in Ontario, CA to Pearson International Airport in Toronto, ONT, CA and people some got confused.

I mentioned it was for a “short time” because the flights never became popular (I could have said they “never took off” to mean that, but I didn’t want to make that bad of a dad joke or be that purposely confusing) and the flights were soon discontinued.

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I’ve follow this topic with some interest - did a year exchange student stint mid-60’s in Germany - Bodensee.

spent two summers there late-60’s, worked for three multi-nationals and spend many months on business travel and also three years there “with family and dog” in Auslandsdienst - UnterBayern.

in the 60’s there were no “chains restos” like USA - no Sizzler, no Bonefish Grill, no Red Lobster, no Denny’s, no Golden Corral . . . etc etc etc

“fast food” at that time was Wimpy’s and WienerWald (chicken)

when we - family & dog - landed in 1985, there was a big sign as we taxied to the gate:
“McDonalds Welcomes You to Frankfurt (a/M)”

weekends of business trips I would simply drive out to some place that sounded interesting, and walk the town to see what’s there. I ate at anyplace that looked interesting - I selected any dishes that sounded interesting . . .

so, 1960’s thru 2015 , , , I also have noted the cost of ‘dining out’ to be extremely reasonable vs. USA
(non-fast food…fast food ala McDonalds/Wendy’s/etc is definitely more expensive in Europe - Norway to Malta . . .)

and the curious part is - most restaurants are family owned / operated. they don’t have a mega-hammer on provisioners.
and since not many of the family run places are into “remove wrapper, nuke for 10 minutes prior to serving” - that’s likely one reason (a) the food is way better (b) the prices are local, their suppliers/butcher/baker/candlestick makers - are local.
and, , , I also sense that the local population ‘eats out’ more often than in USA - and I also have witnessed, the locals are really really picky - German friends have said ‘we prefer x because of their tableware’ (i.e. knives/forks/spoons/plates…)

I’ve been shopping on a Saturday morning with German friends who went to three different bakeries - one has better pretzels, one has better ‘white bread aka Toast-Brot’ and the third has better ‘daily bread’

watching (many) USA chain locations it’s hard to suggest they are ‘starved for customers’ - so the “Germans eat out more” argument does not hold up. . . . .
sorta’ - we had an Outback location that was so bad, they folded; also another chain, name escapes me at the moment.
a ‘local family run’ resto in Germany/Sweden/Italy that does not put out excellent food and excellent service will not survive a week . . .

the cost of real estate does not hold up - Europe has had a real estate ‘shortage’ for +/- 1500 years . . .

living/working there/paid in DEM, it was still a reasonable thing for us to eat out a decent restaurants regularly.
the “exchange rate” appears to simply “not apply” - when in Rome, all things are/were measured in Lira - what seems ‘cheap’ to a tourist with a strong currency is ‘quite normal’ to a local who lives in Lira.

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I’ll just leave this here as a point of comparison.

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SOURCE:
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/region_prices_by_city?displayCurrency=USD&itemId=3&region=155

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Most frequently referenced:

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I did consider the cost of food, though, when I went from Milwaukee to country. Found out , once find your farmers, you can save mucho buying meat from them.

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The CH stands for Confoederatio Helvetica, the Latin name for Switzerland.

Look in a Swiss coin. You’ll see Helvetica.