Pay What You Want Restaurants

One way to save money while travelling is to frequent restaurants that allow you to choose what you wish to pay for a meal. This concept seems to be spreading, and there is a list of a number of these restaurants at in a story in the San Jose Mercury News. Unfortunately the link to it does not seem to work, so you may have to search for it yourself if you are interested. You can also reach it from a link on my Facebook page, which is public.

In a story reprinted from Britain's Guardian newspaper, they discuss restaurants in Melbourne, Australia; Killarney, Ireland; Denver, Colorado; Red Bank, New Jersey; Vienna, Austria; and Amsterdam, Netherlands that follow this concept. All are in the moderate price category.

There used to be a restaurant like this in the Notre Dame de Grace area of Montreal, but it closed quite a while ago. It didn't attract tourists, being aimed at lower-income people of that generally affluent part of town.

The idea is interesting, but I wonder whether for most people it actually saves money. I have read studies that generally show that when people are allowed to choose their own price they often overpay because they don't want to look cheap. In any case, if you happen to be in or passing through any of the cities listed, it might be worth a look.