High Priced Café

After Louvre, we decided to try out another Starbucks, this time located on the street of Champs-Elysées, formally named as Avenue des Champs-Elysées. Here, cinemas, cafés, and luxury specialty shops can be found.


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With that said, we found that a Grande Mocha at the Starbucks on this Avenue des Champs-Elysées cost 5 euros, which was approximately equivalent to $7.72 at that time. I claimed right there and then, that I had just bought the most expensive Grande Mocha ever.

At least that was Starbucks. Shortly after, we decided to eat dinner, since our stomachs began to growl excessively and loudly. Not wanting to travel far, we went into the nearest place to eat, which happened to be the same café we stopped by to get a crêpe with Nutella chocolate spread before we had our Starbucks. In the display case they had several types of paninis, all happened to look good, and each at a price of 5 euros. We also decided to sit in to eat. Upon looking at the menu, right away I noticed that the price for each panini rose to 7 euros. Astonished and a bit dumbfounded, I had to assume that the additional 2 euros meant for the service. Already hungry and tired, with the addition that it was cold, windy and raining outside, we went ahead to order 2 paninis. I ordered an orange juice, and Sheilla ordered a cup of tea, Lipton.

First of all, the paninis were not at all tasty. As a matter of fact, it was hard on some part, soggy on another part, and the meat just tasted refrigeration, as if they couldn't find anything and decided to use leftovers that dropped at the bottom of the fridge. A bit turned off and highly unsatisfied, we just had enough and ready to simply go home. We got the bill and were even more astonished. The prices were absurdly high. The 2 paninis, disgusting and distasteful came to 14 euros as expected. Surprisingly, a small glass of my orange juice cost exactly the same as 1 panini. Even more surprisingly, the tea of simply Lipton bag in a hot water cost 6 euros. To put into common understanding, the tea was around $9.25, while the orange juice and paninis were each $10.80. The most unbelievable was the tea, I thought. I couldn't argue much, because the menu was in front of us, and we had time to look at the items and prices. We decided to stay and order, therefore we were compelled to pay. To sum up, the dinner cost us 27 euros, or around $41.67. Absurd!

We headed home unhappily, mostly on the fact that some establishments just had the nerve to serve low quality food with triple the amount they ought to be. As we were near the hotel, I recalled seeing a Chinese restaurant around a block away. I asked if Sheilla would be interested in just seeing what they have. She was, and so we went there.


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The restaurant was called Savasie. The food they serve were mostly Chinese. The price, decently cheap. We ordered a 1-item combo consisted of fried rice and chicken. The cost, 5 euros. The food was plentiful, enough for two people. The taste, at least 20 times better than the paninis we had earlier. Had we restrained ourselves a little longer, we would've saved our money. I guess it was a lesson for us. Never grab something you see first. We were satisfied with our second dinner, which on the downside made us more full. Nonetheless, we were a bit more satisfied. Tomorrow, we planned, we would buy some more food from this Chinese food to take in the train for our breakfast.