A British holidaymaker has issued a warning to fellow tourists over a “popular restaurant scam” she claims is sweeping Mallorca. Content creator Octavia, who describes herself as a “travel guide for foodies”, took to TikTok to share her advice after her friend fell foul of the scheme.
“If you are a foreigner visiting Mallorca, or Spain in general, you will want to watch this video as it happened to a friend just two days ago,” she began in her clip.
Explaining how the scam is allegedly pulled off, Octavia continued: “A waiter will come over and will tell you that they have this really special ‘dish of the day’ that isn’t on the menu – and it’s usually seafood.”
She said her friends were offered these “really special” Mallorcan prawns that you could “only get locally” that had “just been caught”. Octavia went on to claim they “intentionally” don’t include this option on the menu and customers aren’t usually told the price until afterwards – just that it’s worth the cost.
“You’ll then get your food, which will be very normal prawns in this case – nothing terrible, but nothing particularly special,” she said. “And then you will get the bill and it will be double the price of any other main dish on their menu.”
Octavia instructed her followers to search ‘Spanish restaurant tourist scam’ on Google to discover just how prevalent the problem appears to be.
“This exact thing will come up,” she closed ahead of her summary. “They see that you are a foreigner and they offer you this ‘special dish’ that’s not on the menu just to make money out of you. Don’t fall for it!”
Octavia added further details in her video’s caption, writing: “I know you’ll be thinking ‘Who in their right mind would order something they don’t know the price for?’, but when you’re in holiday mode and they make it sound so good/special/authentic you wouldn’t believe how many people say yes and then quickly realise they’ve been scammed!
“And of course if it really were a super unique/rare local delicacy the restaurants would be well within their right but we’re talking about ‘normal’ every day, readily available produce being sold to unsuspecting foreigners under the guise of something special.”
Writing in reponse, one TikTok user claimed: “What they do is illegal. Spanish consumer laws state very clearly that what they cook must be stated in the menus with prices inclusive of VAT. If you smell [a] rat ask them for ‘libro de reclamaciones’ that by law they must give to you.”
Whilst a second person added: “Happens all over Spain, but it normally states to ask price as such fishes fluctuate in price… most normal people would check price!” And a third said: “This happens in Malta also, and I am a local and I still get scammed.”
Others dismissed the warning, however, stating they have never witnessed the issue. “Been coming for 15 years and I have never had that happen to us once,” one TikTok user said.
Another commented: “Red prawns are an expensive delicacy in Mallorca, everyone knows they are expensive it’s not waiters’ fault if they have no culinary knowledge!”
And a third individual replied: “We have lived in Palma for 25 years, we have never ever had a problem in any restaurants, the daily catch is always priced at the market price on that day. Just ask the staff as they are always accommodating. Shellfish is always expensive.”