Spaniards worry about state of restaurants

24 March 2004

MADRID – Spaniards are among the most hygiene-conscious restaurant-goers in Europe, according to a study published Wednesday.

The study, carried out by Kimberley Clark Professional for the pollsters MORI, spoke to 1,000 people across Spain.

Eighty-eight percent said they would not go back to a restaurant which was not clean enough or if  the food was not good enough in terms of the price-quality ratio.

Sixty-three percent of those questioned said in recent years, restaurants had improved in terms of terms of the quality of image and cleanliness.

But two percent still thought that not enough had been done to improve Spanish local restaurants.

The work that has been done to improve these restaurants is highly prized, according the study.

Fifty-five percent of those surveyed said Spaniards would chose a restaurant where they could see where the food was being prepared and judge hygiene standards.

Forty-six percent said the worst thing in a restaurant was when waiters did not clean their clothes or had dirty nails.

Meanwhile, if the cutlery was not clean enough that would be enough to stop 38 percent of Spaniards returning.

Dirty kitchens or bad smells came third and fourth place after the other problems. The state of the customers did not matter as only one percent said this was important.

The décor of the restaurant only bothered four percent of those questioned.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news