tipping at restaurants...

[cm8883]

I've spent about 10 years involved in the restaurant industry, from line cook to server to bar manager.
I get my hackles up over this subject.

This stuff may sound harsh but it's business:

In MA, restaurant minimum wage is around $3 per hour. It's typical that restaurant minimum SUCKS and is NOT a liveable wage. No tip=no food on the table at home.

A really SHITTY waiter should be reported to the manager, ask to have a new server. It's doing the bad one a favor. Trust me on this. I've told a waitress, VERY early in the meal, that it's in her best interest to just hand me over to someone else simply because I wasn't going to be worth her time in the end. Often it's a new waitress who just doesn't GET it yet, and needs more training. If not, she should probably find another line of work.

An average waiter gets 15%.
A cheerful and helpful waiter gets 20%.
At a diner, where the food is cheap, it's not by % of the check, it's by how much of a pain in the butt my order was. Like, a buck for a coffee, 4 for a full breakfast. Diner waitresses bust butt and get the shaft on the regular.
Bar staff starts at a buck a beer or mixed drink, less per-drink if you're ordering multiples of the same thing or a round of just beers.
Sushi/tappan/Mongolian grill chefs should also be side-tipped, but there's no set rule for this- they are paid better than waitstaff and tipping is courtesy rather than an expectation.

And don't give me that bullshit excuse ooooh the food is too expensive, I can't afford to tip. THAT'S WHAT MCDONALDS IS FOR! If you can't afford to tip, go to a counter-service restaurant where you have to bus your own tables.

Okay there's my morning rant. Hope you found it edumacational.

Well said.

cm8883 Reviewed by cm8883 on 11-12-2007. tipping at restaurants... you just had a 100$ dinner... what do you tip, if any at all? just wondering... i can't consciencly walk out of a resturant without leaving a tip, but the wife, on bad service, prefers to just get up and walk out.... even if the quality of food and service was complete shit i just can't leave without feeling guilty if i've left nothing at the table but dirty plates... so do you tip? and if so how much? Rating: 5

[WEsmokeED]

If you go a commissary which is just a grocery store on a U.S. military base they got these people that bag your grocerys and put them in your car for you. All they work for is tips from people, they dont even get paid by the store. :stoned:

[Call Me Steam]

I always leave 20% plus. I never get horrible service, really can't remember the last time. I leave at least 20%, and usually a few dollars on top of that, or more if the service is great, or if the meal was really cheap. I used to save fortune cookie fortunes in my wallet, and leave the good ones with the tip if the server was great. One time I had one that said "You will inherit a large sum of money," and left it on top of the pile.

[geonagual]

If you go a commissary which is just a grocery store on a U.S. military base they got these people that bag your grocerys and put them in your car for you. All they work for is tips from people, they dont even get paid by the store. :stoned:

Yeah, I have seen them..I wonder why they dont pay them?

[Innominate]

I worked in a restaurant for about 3 months. The way this place is set up was that the cooks were there to cook, dishwashers there to clean dishes. The servers mostly did everything else that had to be done besides the manager would take over cook before EVER taking serving. Greet/seat guest,take beverages/orders, put orders into the computer system (Which mostly took a long time to figure out), make milkshakes or salads before meal, keeping strict attention at the front entrance to make sure if any guests have arrived, answer the phone if it rings, perform all side work cleaning because that place got dirty quick, and make sure all floors were clean.

This might not be a lot but the demand and stress really adds up in about 15 minutes of being the only server through a busy majority of each night. For as much time strain I endured, I appreciated it when people admired how hard I worked for my customers, I've seen very generous tips and the unfair tips, I wouldn't mind if a customer didn't leave a tip at all, but when they would rather be rude about it, it really disgusted me. Especially when people would say I did something wrong when I really didn't, what I did wrong was take the job, but I've already fixed that.

Rate your waiters through your tips, if you have nothing nice to say, or anything remotely truthfully terrible, keep your mouth closed and not screw up someone else's night. Every night.

[ncnavguy]

For a hundred buck meal I'd tip about 15$. But I don't buy the percentage thing. Some times I'll have a 8$ meal but I'll still leave at least 2 bucks even though thats more than 15%. When my grandfather passed, the rich side of my family came to america and we rang up a 6000$ meal between us (15 people) in a resturant in DC. The waiters did not get a 900$ tip though and really they shouldn't. They had good service and all but its not like the quality of the food or the price of it made it harder to do their jobs. There was a team of 3 of them and the total tip was 400$.


edit: as a side note they day we buried my grandfather was also my birthday, how about that for conflicting emotions.

[CheebaMan]

even a $10 tip can make your entire day.

Yep. Thats definitely going towards a dime.

[Purple Banana]

I always tip at least 20%. I know a lot of trouble is people on the grill, so I take that into account. Even if the waitress messes an order up, it's okay- everyone makes mistakes, and if she's polite about it, I'll tip her even more. It's karma.

I was at a bagel place today, they messed my order up 4 times. That's okay- I wasn't in a rush, nor starving, and my pleasantess was mirrored by the staff each time they brought a wrong order out. It happens. I left a 25% tip, and everyone was happy. In perspective, it's not that big of a deal. If you're waiting forever for you food, they get it wrong, you're pressed for time, it's cold, you're starving, yeah I can see getting upset about it. But if I'm in no rush and am treated with respect, you deserve the same amount of tip.

[beachguy in thongs]

I would tip $15 to $20, but, I wouldn't spend $100 in the first place.

[r0k]

I'm with you slip, I can't leave without giving at least something. Generally, I give a fairly large tip, because waiters (and waitresses) have to put up with a lot of shit their whole day, and I think my tip might improve their day a tad. If the service sucked, the tip would be much less. The quality of the food has very little impact on the size of my tip, because it's not the waiters fault the food sucks..