Reply With QuoteAlways tip something, but make sure it gets to the person who served.
If the service is really bad, leave a detailed and accurate/objective review on Trip Advisor, their Facebook page or the like. Usually that is more effective.
Yes
No
I tip if the service and food has been good, I don't do a set percentage, the better the food and service the more I tend to tip, some of my friends have food allergies and if eating with them, if the staff and kitchen can and are willing to accomadate then the tip can be Fairly large.
If the food isn't great but the service is I speak to the server and see who gets the tips, if it's the server then they get a tip.
If the foods great and the service poor then I don't tip, as the chefs get paid more than the front of house staff in my experience.
If it's asks for a tip on a card machine I normally won't tip, but recently I've down a few places that just press enter for you so you put your pin in then when it prints you see gratuity £0.00 I then leave a cash tip if I've been happy with the service.
Always tip something, but make sure it gets to the person who served.
If the service is really bad, leave a detailed and accurate/objective review on Trip Advisor, their Facebook page or the like. Usually that is more effective.
It's definitely a minefield, particularly if you have a strong sense of fairplay.
I've worked as a waiter when I was a student, so I always go for about 10% for average service, more if they've been exceptional. The recent trend for tips to go to the restaurant rather than the sever really irks me, but on the other hand so do automatic service charges that are "optional", but only if you ask for them to be taken off. It's also a bit cheeky when they set the machine to ask for a gratuity when it's already been put on the bill. Ideally I'd pay any tip directly to the server in cash, but that's just not practical.
In the US, the whole system is crazy. Admittedly service is general much more efficient than over there (even if the "have a nice day" culture is a bit fake and nauseating), so I don't have a problem in principle with the expected 15%, but in practice the system is flawed. Most noticeably, if the service is crap, you are still expected to cough up 10%, and I think 15% starts to get a bit greedy when eg you order an expensive bottle of wine (and wine always tends to be crazy expensive in upmarket US restaurants). There also seem to be a lot of "non-jobs" that seem to have been created purely to generate tips for some gurning kid trying to be my "buddy".
I watched an episode of hotel secrets with Richard E Grant. He ate the most expensive burger in New York and it was over $5000. I'm sorry, but how does bringing one burger to a table warrant a tip of over $750 ! Bonkers.Originally Posted by mtagrant
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I usually tip 10% rounded up to something whole. I've seen bad behaviour by colleagues before where they look for every little problem in order to justify not giving a tip. That's rude and pretty blatant skin-flint behaviour if you ask me. When you go to a restaurant in a country with a norm to tip, you should do so unless there was something really wrong with your experience. You should see this as part of the whole price.
About 6 months ago I found the best barbershop I've been to - I usually tip a few quid on top of the haircut price.
Always confused about 'service charge' - in London you usually find 12.5% added onto the bill and I'm never sure whether this is a tip or not. I went to a cocktail bar the other week and the (very overpriced) drinks had a 12.5% service charge.
If the service warrants it then yes. If all I get is 'enjoy your meal' - probably not. Always tip in the USA but over there the service is fantastic.
And the simple way around this is to give the tip to the person(s) that served you......discreetly.
So the theiving owner doesn't get it.
Good Thread!
Like many I now like to leave only Cash - too many stories of the Staff not seeing the benefit of their work.
10% for good service...sometimes a little more if I think the staff have exceeded expectations or gone the extra mile...it's likely to be considerably less if the service is below expectations.
I really don't like carrying cash. Much prefer apple pay or a card. Usually, before dining out, this means I'll have to visit a cashpoint. It's quite outrageous that the 'gratuity' option from the card machine isn't always given to the staff. That's theft IMO and there should have been more of a scandal about this.
It's either really good,or over the top fawning and obsequiousness,or complete 'can't be arsed but you have to tip me anyway'.
Food and service good - 10%
Food bad, service good - 10%
Food good, service bad - zero to 10% depending how bad the service was
Almost never more than 10%.
Question - do you feel that tipping keeps wages low? If so, should we collectively stop tipping to create higher wages and competition in the industry?
As long as the service was good, then nearly always.
Front of house staff should be there if you want them, but invisible otherwise IMO. I really don't like what I heard labelled once, "a fifty thank you meal".
Often tips are a significant part of their annual salary.
I remember sharing a cab in Vegas. I'd paid for the outbound fare and a tight-wad colleague was paying for the way back. He paid but didn't tip. We got chased down the street by the cab driver as if we hadn't paid at all.
Yes,I tip regularly.
There has to be some outlandish reason for my not doing so . Even if the food is mediocre,I tell myself that the server is not responsible for that and still tip - whilst remembering not to patronise that establishment again.Generally 15-20% in both restaurants and cafes.
That extreme case illustrates my argument quite clearly. Maybe it's deemed acceptable in US culture, but this is clearly where non-US diners feel ripped off and can end up clashing with waiters. They may argue that "you don't eat in a high end restaurant, with high end service unless you're prepared to pay for it", but paying $750 to have a dish carried the same distance as a cheaper meal, doesn't cut it for me.
There are endless discussions on US forums wrt tipping, and although there are fair viewpoints on both sides, I can't help the US service and wages model for waitstaff has created a bit of a sense of entitlement - especially now that in a lot of states waitstaff are legally guaranteed minimum wage (which they didn't used to be). To be fair, they used to be taxed on theoretical tips calculated on their total bills - so a low tip could actually cost them money in tax.
Truth is, the restaurant owners like the current model as it makes their food look cheaper, they don't pay their staff as much when they are quiet, and therefore keeps their costs down. They argue that tip culture encourages excellent service, but this does lead to the unfortunate situation where if service is poor, reducing the tip is stealing "their wages".
Another inconsistency is the paradoxical situation where is you've had the best food of your life, you,re encuraged to tip generously, but if the kitchen screws up you order, it's not the server's fault.
It seems the model creates an "all reward, no risk" mindset, where the customer is just expected to pay on top for service whether it is great or not.
Luckily, I would say that overall service is very good is the US. (Dare I say polar opposite to France and Italy?)
US forums really do make interesting reading though - there just isn't any meeting of minds wrt the fairness of the system.
Best one I saw on a tipping forum was "Fair tipping always used to be 15%, but with inflation, that should now be 20%" - you couldn't make that up!
Had the worst service I've had in a long time last night, and of a nature I've not experienced for ages. Not only was the waitress fairly useless in normal waitressing ways but she was the most sullen faced cow I've had the mispleasure of encountering in such circumstances. Not a single smile, walked away as we reached the end of our order, plates virtually thrown at us. Utter twat, being polite. Nae tip. Just bizarre when even a 10% tip, which I'll generally give for breathing, would presumably have been about a 50% boost to her hourly wage.
Not in poker games but blackjack, 3 card, let it ride, roulette etc, I generally tip if I win and get a bit of friendly banter from the dealer. Someone once told me I and everyone else who tipped were complete fools as the dealers sole job was to take my money! In other words I'm tipping them to make me poorer. True in a way but I still do itIn the first hand of Poker I played in Vegas many years ago I won a good chunk of cash and neglected to tip the dealer.
At the time it was not acceptable to tip in casinos over here, so I never gave it a second thought. Half a dozen hands later when another big pot was awarded and the winner chucked a $5 chip at the dealer I realised my cock-up, and while I tipped the odd dollar through the rest of the afternoon I never won another big pot so didn't get the opportunity to rectify my mistake. The next day the table was declared "full" (there were 6 players on a 10 seat table). They do hold a grudge...
If we're talking about bars I always buy the barman/barmaid one in smaller pubs, but rarely in chain pubs or franchises like Wetherspoons - no idea who gets the money.
In my old local (now bulldozed for flats) the barmaid used to take 20p when offered a drink. They hired a very friendly Polish lad for busy Friday nights and the first time he was on my mate said "get yourself a drink" then wondered why he had no change out of a £20 note - Chap had bought himself a double blue-bols and lemonade at about £8!.
As for restaurants I always tip on hood service. Funny though with cafes I don't always think about it until this thread gave me food for thought.
As an ex dealer I can tell you that the croupier's job is to try to make you enjoy your time regardless of the end result. Dealers are not trained to take your money, the house edge will.Not in poker games but blackjack, 3 card, let it ride, roulette etc, I generally tip if I win and get a bit of friendly banter from the dealer. Someone once told me I and everyone else who tipped were complete fools as the dealers sole job was to take my money! In other words I'm tipping them to make me poorer. True in a way but I still do it
As for restaurants I always tip on hood service. Funny though with cafes I don't always think about it until this thread gave me food for thought.
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I kind of agree with you and I kind of agree with what the guy told me. One thing that has always puzzled me is that of someone tends to have a run they pull the dealer off and swap them I've been told this is true and also it isn't true and it's just the usual swap for a break. I've played in enough casinos all over the world to think it's true as it 'appears' I've seen it many times. But is there any truth in it? Cheers.
9 times out of 10 is because the dealers is due a break. When you are winning time flies ;-). The odd time might be the manager being superstitious or wanting to "irritate" the customer to make the wrong decisions. None of it would be the dealers fault anyway. On the contrary tips are very important financially for the dealers and, unless the customer is a ****, they want you to win so you'll tip them.
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Last edited by Deckard81; 10th June 2016 at 19:56.
Cheers :-)
We recently returned from Chicago, where the service almost exclusively was good everywhere we went. I normally work on a 20% for very good+ service and 15% for service that you would expect as a minimum - and consider those margins generous by most standards.
Conversely however, if service is poor then I'll absolutely not tip anything at all and we had one such instance of this. There is a mid-range Italian chain restaurant where on Memorial Day we dined and had a great meal and service, on a very busy evening. Returning a few days later, this time where the large restaurant was more than half empty, we had a terrible waiter (caught my nose with his elbow, knocked my wife's phone from her hand, brought out main course before we had finished starter, described the dessert options before we had finished our main course - list goes on and I'd started to wonder whether it was a hidden camera comedy type set up!)
When leaving payment, no tip was left and I didn't wait for what would have been 10c change, which didn't come anyway.
After I'd walked out, and my wife and young daughters had gone to the bathroom, I caught sight of him following so turned, with some intent, to face his direction to which he spinelessly looked at the floor, and returned inside without saying a word.
What he did do though was to hang around outside the bathroom for a softer target and when the family came out was muttering about a 10c 'tip' in a nasty and snide way. The tip was actually nothing and he'd misinterpreted the left change but that's by the by.
When they came out and told me then it goes without saying that with a temperament inherited from my Irish ancestors I couldn't prevent myself from flying back in through the doors, but luckily literally physically restrained by my wife as she grabbed and hung on to my arm, I asked for the manager instead and handled the situation in a grown up and responsible way (which subsequently ensured that I flew back home on time rather than spending unplanned time in a correctional facility)
A definite contributory factor was that he was an absolute dead ringer for James Corden.
His name was not Basil Fawlty by any chance BaBa?
I had a crap meal in South America a few years back, the waiter was useless but being soft I left a tip anyhow but only a few pesos / quid. Anyhow after the meal we exited the restaurant and the waiter came running after me as he had forgot to charge me for one extra beer. I ended up at his till and asked him to hand me the change that I had left, then I gave him the beer money out of it and told him to keep the pennys remaining. He was fuming but think he learnt the lesson to not punish the customer for the restaurants minor cock ups.
Ive also had a local restaurant have the nerve to telephone me the next day because they had forgot to charge me dor a bottle of 15 quid plonk. As a regular who spent huge amounts there over the years I found it disgraceful and unprofessional to hassle me for their error. I duly refused and never went back however they did damn good food
Last edited by kultschar; 10th June 2016 at 23:19.
I did wonder, yes, the whole thing was that farcical before it became unnacceptable.
In a cafe normally a couple of quid. In a restaurant about 10-15% but if its bad service etc then nowt. I try to give cash as some places don't give tips to staff especially if you pay by card and it asks if you'd like to leave a tip on the machine.
But do people really tip when service charge is added ? Here in London I'd say it's more common than not with service charge.
I will definitely start to tip in cash after reading this thread.
I don't tip in cafes. I only tip in a restaurant if no service charge has been added and both food and service were good. This means I very rarely tip in France.
I only tip if the service has been more than standard.
There are many jobs where you wouldn't receive a tip, I don't understand why it's expected.
I tip my hairdresser, she's excellent.
I usually tip a taxi driver but not if they just pick me up and drop me off without a word in between.
When 10% is expected just for doing your job where does it end?
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What is this "restaurant" you speak of? My servants cook for me and they get a good flogging if anything is not to my liking.
Ha this made me smile, as you say tips not expected here in China and I rarely tip in restaurants or bars here, high end restaurants add a service charge anyway but I always give my hairdresser a very healthy tip!
In the UK I will usually tip at least 10% in a restaurant if the service is decent but always cash, never on card as I don't believe it goes to the waiting staff.
There are a lot of very generous patrons here, tipping for ordinary or even mediocre food and service.
I expect the service and food to be good as a minimum and assume this is included in the price.
I'd only tip for exceptional service, and tbh don't come across that all that often in the UK. When I do, I'd round up in cash to a suitable amount rather than give a fixed percentage.
I'm more likely to tip on holiday abroad where service is usually better.
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