Set daily menus for one euro

A restaurant in an industrial estate – Fuente del Jarro de Paterna – in Valencia has decided to offer all its dishes at a price of just one euro each. The decision to launch this initiative was taken by the owners of the establishment after they noticed that the number of their clientele had significantly decreased over recent months, a situation they put down to the economic crisis.

According to Silvestre Méndez, the initiative has proved an immediate success and the number of people having lunch in the restaurant has doubled.

The restaurant offers ten different dishes such as paella, noodles, pasta, chicken in breadcrumbs, hake and a choice of desserts all for just one euro which means that people can have a lunch for two or three euros.

Méndez pointed out that the quality and quantity of each dish is exactly the same as before.

He said that he had been forced to reduce his profit margins but that the objective of the initiative was to maintain his business during difficult times. He said that the restaurant earned the same now with 120 clients as it had done with 60. The owners of the restaurant decided to take action after they noted a significant decrease in the number of their clients because they could not afford to pay 6 or 7 euros everyday.

The results of the initiative have been better than expected and the restaurant now has new clients from all over the industrial estate as well as other clients who after hearing about the price of lunch decided to try it out. A retired couple from L’Eliana (Valencia) who had lunch in the restaurant said that they didn’t understand how the restaurant could offer dishes at such low prices adding that ‘everything is expensive in the shops’.

Clients who used to eat in the restaurant for 6 or 7 euros are also very pleased saying that people now had to look for good offers. They also said that it was cheaper to eat in the restaurant than at home and said that other restaurants should follow the example of Silvestre Méndez.