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I found this to be the opposite in Barcelona. I had a discussion with people who live there who said that since the majority of restaurant customers are tourist

I found this to be the opposite in Barcelona. I had a discussion with people who live there who said that since the majority of restaurant customers are tourists (a lot of whom travel on a budget, i.e. young backpackers) and will never come back, most (~70%) restaurants can get away with okay or even substandard food and bad service and still make a profit. So tourism is actually lowering the quality of restaurants. I think because Oslo is so much more expensive than a city like Barcelona, it has a much higher percentage of well-off tourists who are a lot more demanding and have more money to spend, so you end up with more and better restaurants.

Scoundreller 7y ago
That’s what social media sorta solved: bad service will tank a restaurant. Bad food won’t. I’m thankful that one of my favourite French dishes (aligot), while looking like a pile of whipped vomit, is presented in an entertaining manner.
ACow_Adonis 7y ago
Interesting... here in a relatively touristy part of Melbourne, anecdotally, it's pretty much those backpackers who are working the tables in half of the trendy restaurants and cafes. There's definitive trends on making food 'instagrammable', but the overall quality and competition between all the restaurants is undeniably good. Although now that I think about it, you take somewhere like Lygon street famous for its Italian, and the local advice would be to never eat there if you want good Italian (with maybe one or two notable exceptions).
- vkou 7y ago
  That's because Australia has incredibly easily accessible tourist working visas. It's what makes it attractive for a broke college kid to bum around in for a few months, in a way that would never happen in Canada, or the United States...
  - 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
    Wages are also far higher than the US or Canada: the legal minimum wage is $19.49/hour, and many industry unions have negotiated higher rates. This means a backpacker can do menial labor and still save meaningful amounts of money to use for travel, even when accounting for the higher cost of living.
    - bigger_cheese 7y ago
      I believe in US/Canada if you work in a restaurant Wages are subsidized with tips we don't tip here in Australia so the higher minimum wage probably accounts for that.
rmc 7y ago
In that vein, I'm always optimistic about restaurants in non-touristy places where there's a choice of restaurants (i.e. not just the only one). Those places live and die on local traffic. And people won't go back if it's rubbish.

Scoundreller 7y ago

That’s what social media sorta solved: bad service will tank a restaurant. Bad food won’t. I’m thankful that one of my favourite French dishes (aligot), while looking like a pile of whipped vomit, is presented in an entertaining manner.

ACow_Adonis 7y ago

Interesting... here in a relatively touristy part of Melbourne, anecdotally, it's pretty much those backpackers who are working the tables in half of the trendy restaurants and cafes. There's definitive trends on making food 'instagrammable', but the overall quality and competition between all the restaurants is undeniably good. Although now that I think about it, you take somewhere like Lygon street famous for its Italian, and the local advice would be to never eat there if you want good Italian (with maybe one or two notable exceptions).

vkou 7y ago
That's because Australia has incredibly easily accessible tourist working visas. It's what makes it attractive for a broke college kid to bum around in for a few months, in a way that would never happen in Canada, or the United States...
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
  Wages are also far higher than the US or Canada: the legal minimum wage is $19.49/hour, and many industry unions have negotiated higher rates. This means a backpacker can do menial labor and still save meaningful amounts of money to use for travel, even when accounting for the higher cost of living.
  - bigger_cheese 7y ago
    I believe in US/Canada if you work in a restaurant Wages are subsidized with tips we don't tip here in Australia so the higher minimum wage probably accounts for that.

rmc 7y ago

In that vein, I'm always optimistic about restaurants in non-touristy places where there's a choice of restaurants (i.e. not just the only one). Those places live and die on local traffic. And people won't go back if it's rubbish.