Euro 450 for a meal in a small shack-like eatery (note I did not say restaurant) in Brussels.

Clearly won’t be the most expensive food most people would have eaten and neither is it the most expensive bill/check I have ever seen or been a part of eating experiences.

But this one is special.

The year was around 2003, I was working in Brussels for a while (Monday to Friday things, travelling from London). Our finance team from London came over one week and I finally got company, as most of my Belgian colleagues had family and lives of their own, so I used to spend a lot of my time alone in the evenings. So that made a refreshing change. We went to the part of Brussels which has a lot of alleyways and small eateries etc. It was around Grand-Place or at least walking distance from it. We had had some nice beers (Leffe Blonds and Bruins and some other nice ones) and were in a good mood.

We got smooth-talked into one of the eateries which looked good, with maybe only a table or two occupied (it was a weekday night after all). The menu looked attractive and reasonably priced.

We ordered several things off the menu and on our charming waiters’ suggestion, a special seafood platter, which had every type of seafood on a platter and about a bit larger than the largest pizza you can buy out there today.

We enjoyed our meal and when asked for the bill, got the shock of our lives when we saw the total at 450Euros!

Upon asking, we were told that the seafood platter was the bulk of it - we immediately saw that we were scammed as it is not on the menu and we never asked for its price, given it is a special item and would be priced along the same lines.

Anyway, arguing got us nowhere as all the scamsters closed ranks and even a couple of onlookers from nearby eateries joined in and we knew we were outnumbered, British, not very good at the local lingo and were stuck.

So we reluctantly paid, chalked this one up to a lesson learnt and discussed how this would pass expenses.

I drew the short straw and was told to claim expenses and whatever the balance was would be shared amongst all.

I claimed the expense and got it all paid, but I haven’t forgotten the scam, the bill or that incident since!