Spain: Menú del día on decline after lunch breaks cut short to 1 hour

The shift in work culture in Spain has witnessed a slow decline in its iconic menú del día. The Spanish restaurants have been offering a fixed-price three-course menu to the urban dwellers for decades during their two-hour lunch break. However, in the recent wave of change, the employers do not prefer a lengthy break and instead feel that 60 minutes are long enough to spare for lunch. The restaurants serving these menus were low on aesthetics but high on value for money. They are now battling their existence with hiking rents, changes in preferences of people, and tourism. 

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The fixed price menu in Spain

As per reports, the menú del día was introduced in the mid-1960s as the 'tourist menu' in order to ensure that the visitors of the country can afford the meal and was also available to all Spaniards. Most restaurants were offering this meal until 2010 when the law changed. These specific restaurants in the country became fixed spots for the people who had working hours from 9 am to 2 pm, followed by the lunch break for two hours, and then 4 pm to 7:30 pm. The menú del día worked especially for those Spaniards, who could not go home for their lunch. According to the president of the National Commission for the Rationalisation of Spanish Schedules, José Luis Casero, people are realising that an hour is enough for lunch. 

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Restaurants are fighting back

The family-run restaurants which served the menú del día made enough to maintain their outlets with the catering services equivalent to subsistence farming. However, as the owners retire, the next generation will be reluctant to take over. The traditional Spanish restaurants will reportedly be revamped as a Kebab shop or a tapas bar near the tourist areas. According to the Times Out guides to Madrid and Barcelona, Sally Davies after the 'huge proliferation' of the Asian and South American restaurants, only a few Spanish and Catalan restaurants would serve three-course meals. 

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(With inputs from agencies)