Really? I admit that this is anecdotal, but as an American when I studied abroad in Europe I was consistently pleasantly surprised by how much less expensive eating out was. In particular I felt like it was much more affordable to get healthier food at restaurants compared to the US, and also much cheaper to get alcohol drinks at restaurants. There were a few exceptions (Copenhagen, Paris) but even major cities like Rome, Munich, & Barcelona had pretty well priced restaurants (which included tip).
I’m talking groceries, not eating out. Eating out in cities has high costs due to high cost of living in cities. Average wage of a waiter or waitress in the whole of New York State is $23/hour (including tips), vs about $8-10/hour in Spain/Barcelona. So no doubt you’d have a cheaper experience eating out in Europe, the wages are much lower! And this is also why it’s bad to use eating out as a benchmark, because it’s dominated by labor costs and by its very nature (and sociocultural expectations), it’s labor-intensive. So as overall wages increase, so will the price of eating out. So Americans, with our much higher average wages, are able to get a much better deal eating out in European nations with their lower labor costs.
But actual food (grocery) prices tend to be overall higher in Europe than the US. Milk (easier to compare than most things) costs $1.03/liter in the US compared to $1.14/liter in France, $1.35 in Italy, $0.96/liter in Spain, $1.28 in the UK, and $1.85 in Norway. https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings...
Really? I admit that this is anecdotal, but as an American when I studied abroad in Europe I was consistently pleasantly surprised by how much less expensive eating out was. In particular I felt like it was much more affordable to get healthier food at restaurants compared to the US, and also much cheaper to get alcohol drinks at restaurants. There were a few exceptions (Copenhagen, Paris) but even major cities like Rome, Munich, & Barcelona had pretty well priced restaurants (which included tip).