Tastecard / View Card / Toptable - Service Charge Saints & Sinners

sheer_vanilla

Caffe Concerto, Laya Lina, Mr. Wing (all London) charge 12.5% SC on the orig bill making it a hefty 25% on your discounted bill. Shame.

richardw

sheer_vanilla wrote: »

a hefty 25% on your discounted bill

How much was the service in £ and pence?

sheer_vanilla

richardw wrote: »

How much was the service in £ and pence?

not sure if that's a sarcastic comment or a genuine question but the answer, in any case, is.. Bill £40, SC £10 (much too much IMHO)

richardw

It is the service that you get and the amount you pay that is important, not the percentage.

I had a 50p pizza and a tap water the other day as part of a Pizza Express promotion and left a £2 tip, a 'hefty' 400% tip.

sheer_vanilla

richardw wrote: »

It is the service that you get and the amount you pay that is important, not the percentage.

I had a 50p pizza and a tap water the other day as part of a Pizza Express promotion and left a £2 tip, a 'hefty' 400% tip.

to each his own. there have been numerous discussions / opinions / arguments about this so i'm going to stay well out.

ideally we let this thread focus on the main issue i.e. identifying restaurants that charge SC on full v/s discounted bill as there are people that find this information useful (as we've seen). those that aren't interested can easily skip right past it. simples!

richardw

sheer_vanilla wrote: »

ideally we let this thread focus on the main issue i.e. identifying restaurants that charge SC on full v/s discounted bill

But perhaps the total restaurant experience is more important than just focusing on 'hefty' service percentages.

By total, I mean quality of food, ambiance, quality of drinks, and service levels.

Aanth

I understand people have had problems with refusing to pay the service charge, which is a different issue.
But to be fair, SC is added based on your original order, any discount, which on tastecard is always advertised as on the food cost, shouldnt apply to sc, drinks etc. I would therefore always expect the discount to be on the food cost only, and the sc charge a percentage of what the original price was. The service should be the same level discount or not, then you can decide if its reasonable. It's like buying half price tickets - the booking fee remains the same.
My rule of thumb for SC/Tips is 5% if its bad, 10% if average and 15%+ if its better than average.

lyster101

I've seen something different at a place in Chiswick called Quantus, rather than imposing a compulsory service charge. Quantus place had the audacity to display one menu outside the restaurant and offer a "TasteCard" menu inside with identical plates but 50% higher prices.

Utterly disgraceful.

As we all know, Taste censor what is written about a restaurant and only leave positive feedback. Hopefully I can redress the balance via the democratic MSE. This is what I wrote on the Taste website that they will surely intercept:

"Quantus is fraudulent. We looked at the menu outside the restaurant before we went it. Once seated, the Taste menu we were presented with listed the same dishes as the outside menu but priced 50% higher. So Tastecard is redundant. In actual fact, including tip and based on the inflated price, using Tastecard actually proved more expensive!

The food was ok, but neither justified in the praise here or in the prices charged. The waiter/manager was also rude.

We'll never go back there. Tastecard should put a stop to this dishonest and cynical practice to defend the integrity of their business."

sheer_vanilla

shame about Quantus. will avoid like the plague and hope tastecard do something about it (one can hope)

a few more to add to the list.
- chicago rib shack - they do 2-4-1 so my friend ordered 2 half ribs (spprox £10 each) and 2 burgers (approx £15 each). instead of taking off 1 ribs and 1 burger, they took off 2 ribs making the bill £30 + SC on the orig bill of course. shameful.
- mr wing, earls cout - SC on orig bill
- chettinad, soho - SC on orig bill
- shanghai blues - SC on orig bill
- mews of mayfair - SC on orig bill
- made in china - SC on orig bill
- the thai - SC on orig bill
- maximini - used to charge SC on the discounted bill as it should be but now charge it on the orig bill
- seventeen - one of the rare few that charge it on the final bill

Altarf

lyster101 wrote: »

Once seated, the Taste menu we were presented with listed the same dishes as the outside menu but priced 50% higher.

So presumably at that point you left.

lyster101 wrote: »

The food was ok, but neither justified in the praise here or in the prices charged.

So why did you stay?