Kitchen

[gkelly]

Listing how much a tip is...15%, 18%, etc. that may be listed on your bill is only a suggestion and may help some but I never pay attention to it. Every service/server is different and I tip accordingly. I tip 15-20% for good to great service maybe more for excellent service. Will tip less if poor service! How the food is prepared and how long it takes to get the food has nothing to do with how much I tip the server.

[espree]

I always tip 20% if it is good to excellent service.

[Moonchilde]

On 9/20/2014 lilypadfrog said: I went to a local Olive Garden today, first time in a long time. There was this thing called a tivosk on the table. The hostess told us that we could order our food from this. My daughter did order for us by pushing buttons. Someone brought our food, did check on us once during the meal and did remove our plate. We paid via this thing which sent the receipt to the email address connected to my daughter's card. Different people did separate things for us. So what would you do for a tip? My daughter went ahead and put in 20%. I don't like this set up, didn't even get my mint or a thank you for coming as we left.

I would consider that "service" the same as the service at Sizzler, and tip accordingly. They get $1 for bringing my food to the table. I add another $1 if they come back during the meal to ask if I need anything.

[Moonchilde]

It's been common at many places in my area to have suggested tips printed on the bill, and becoming more so. We have tens of thousands of international tourists visiting, and 95% of them are from countries who do not tip at all, or tip minimally. Putting the suggested tip on the bill lets them know we in the US DO tip and it's not nice to stiff the server, even if they don't like the idea of tipping. And of course it also aids those who don't figure in their head.

[Campion]

On 9/21/2014 gkelly5744 said:

Listing how much a tip is...15%, 18%, etc. that may be listed on your bill is only a suggestion and may help some but I never pay attention to it. Every service/server is different and I tip accordingly. I tip 15-20% for good to great service maybe more for excellent service. Will tip less if poor service! How the food is prepared and how long it takes to get the food has nothing to do with how much I tip the server.

Thank GOODNESS you put that last sentence about "how the food is prepared" in there. Because I have a friend who is well off, indeed but dings the server if everything isn't exactly as she likes. The poor server had to listen to her, transmit the info to the kitchen who may or may not do what is requested, then trudge back, deliver the food and oh, my, the bacon was in crumbles, not in strips. Or whatever. The server relies on those tips. I sneak a few dollars onto the table after her, but sometimes she catches me and gets mad because she wants to ding the server. I hate that.

[Jaspersmom]

IF you are in a large party, the tip may be automatically added. I recently held a birthday luncheon for about 15 women. The tip was in the bill when I received it. It's sad that restaurant management has to do that, but there are some CHEAP people out there who would leave $5 on a two hundred dollar check.

What I have learned is tipping etiquette often varies in different parts of the country. When my mother lived in FL, she met a lot of people from certain parts of the Midwest. Their standard tip was anywhere from a 25 cents to 2 dollars regardless of the bill. That is quite different from what we are used to here in NY. If you left 25 cents here, I'm not sure you would get out of the restaurant alive. LOL! By the way, if you are from the Midwest, please don't be offended about my comment. It was just my mother's experience with a large group of people from MI.

I've noticed that the suggested tip is often included in the bill nowadays and that's okay. Saves time from pulling out the iPhone to find the tip calculator. Yes, 20 percent is easy to compute, but then dividing up the bill can take a bit more time.

I think the bigger question is who should get a tip nowadays. Restaurant workers for certain, but I'm finding I'm expected to tip a lot of other people too. For example, do I tip the guy who works on my car but is not the owner of the shop? What I've done is to give him a few bucks for coffee money when he does maintenance work on my car. If it is a costly job, I just pay the bill. I know my mechanic expects nothing, but I feel somewhat obligated. Not sure if it's me or today's etiquette.

[kitty60]

I don't mind the tip amounts being printed on the bill as a suggestion. I have a choice as to what I wish to tip based on service. It does seem though we are getting less ""service"" when we have to place our order and pay our bill via the table kiosk and that just may be reflected in the gratuity. At Chili's when we were hesitant to use the table machine the waitress handled our order and bill as she had done so in the past.

[Moonchilde]

On 9/21/2014 Campion said:

On 9/21/2014 gkelly5744 said:

Listing how much a tip is...15%, 18%, etc. that may be listed on your bill is only a suggestion and may help some but I never pay attention to it. Every service/server is different and I tip accordingly. I tip 15-20% for good to great service maybe more for excellent service. Will tip less if poor service! How the food is prepared and how long it takes to get the food has nothing to do with how much I tip the server.

Thank GOODNESS you put that last sentence about "how the food is prepared" in there. Because I have a friend who is well off, indeed but dings the server if everything isn't exactly as she likes. The poor server had to listen to her, transmit the info to the kitchen who may or may not do what is requested, then trudge back, deliver the food and oh, my, the bacon was in crumbles, not in strips. Or whatever. The server relies on those tips. I sneak a few dollars onto the table after her, but sometimes she catches me and gets mad because she wants to ding the server. I hate that.

I do, in one particular way, ding my server if my food takes a ridiculously long time to arrive. I have had experiences where it was taking a long time, others around me who ordered st the same time I did had their food, etc. and I was trying to ask my server about the delay. It really annoys me (and I find no excuse for it) when a server very deliberately avoids you - does not come near your table, refuses to make eye contact, even ignores a call-out). I assume they just don't want to deal with the issue and think it's easiest just to ignore me, OR - they screwed up my order somehow and don't want to admit it. For that, I very definitely ding the server. However, if they indicate to me they know it's taking too long, they will check, and tell me it's coming soon, I am satisfied that they at least tried to do what they could, and I do not penalize them. I don't penalize them for the long wait, but for not checking/not keeping me informed.

[shoekitty]

I don't mind them listing the tip amount, but I don't pay attention to it. We don't eat out often, when we do it is in the Los Angeles or San Francisco area. I have never seen them list this. I have seen a notation on the bottom of the ticket referring to parties of 7 or more being charged a mandatory 18% for service. I usually tip 20 % or more. Tipping used to be just doubling the tax. Not anymore, I have to do real math, LOL!

My pet peeve is people ordering expensive meals, getting a bill of 300 or more. Then they don't want to tip 20% because the bill is too high?

[spenditallbaby]

On 9/21/2014 Jaspersmom said:

IF you are in a large party, the tip may be automatically added. I recently held a birthday luncheon for about 15 women. The tip was in the bill when I received it. It's sad that restaurant management has to do that, but there are some CHEAP people out there who would leave $5 on a two hundred dollar check.

What I have learned is tipping etiquette often varies in different parts of the country. When my mother lived in FL, she met a lot of people from certain parts of the Midwest. Their standard tip was anywhere from a 25 cents to 2 dollars regardless of the bill. That is quite different from what we are used to here in NY. If you left 25 cents here, I'm not sure you would get out of the restaurant alive. LOL! By the way, if you are from the Midwest, please don't be offended about my comment. It was just my mother's experience with a large group of people from MI.

I've noticed that the suggested tip is often included in the bill nowadays and that's okay. Saves time from pulling out the iPhone to find the tip calculator. Yes, 20 percent is easy to compute, but then dividing up the bill can take a bit more time.

I think the bigger question is who should get a tip nowadays. Restaurant workers for certain, but I'm finding I'm expected to tip a lot of other people too. For example, do I tip the guy who works on my car but is not the owner of the shop? What I've done is to give him a few bucks for coffee money when he does maintenance work on my car. If it is a costly job, I just pay the bill. I know my mechanic expects nothing, but I feel somewhat obligated. Not sure if it's me or today's etiquette.

I'm starting to wonder the same thing when it comes to who to tip. I picked up a pair of Ferragamo shoes I had resoled and there was a tip jar on the counter??? After I just paid $40???

I frequent a take-out place and always order the #1 option on the board. I pick up the food at the counter and place the empty dish and utensil in a bin in the back. I've seem people come in and alter the options six different ways. leave a mess, and never leave a tip. Under those circumstances, I think personalized service deserves a tip and/or if the person went out of their way to assist.

I recently had a piano moved down two flights of steps. The original quote was reasonable, so I tipped each of the three guys $20 and told them to buy lunch. I think they were surprised and pleased. They earned and deserved it.

I'm not sure employees expect anything to be placed in a tip jar. Most I see have a few singles and pocket change.