Do you tip in restaurants?

stogiebear

Funny how most people in the poll do tip and tip around the 10% mark and most people on the forum who took the trouble to write about it did NOT tip!

First off - if the cook complains about the waiter getting tips then the cook should not be cooking.

Secondly - if you are a regular customer at a restaurant then you had better learn to tip and do it consistantly even if you don't want to. You'd be amazed (and frankly disgusted) at what can happen to a few fresh ingredients before you get to eat them if you are a regular tightwad in a local food pit...

Eating out is not about the food. Let's face it - if we cooked the same dish at home it would be a lot better. Eating out is about going out. It's a night away from home. So if you are going out purely to enjoy the taste of food then you'd be better off staying at home and slipping into an apron!

Being a good waiter cannot be learned or taught. Good waiters are very rare. They love their jobs and they want you to be happy when you leave. You can only be a good waiter if you like your job. It's hell on earth trying to do this job if you hate it. So, that said, good waiters deserve to be tipped.

But how do you define a good waiter? Do you really want a clown hopping around telling you jokes? Do you want him to ramble through 'the specials' when you already know what you want to order?

Do you want 3 different servers for different parts of the dining experience? Do you care if the food is served by the same person that took your order?

I tip 10% if the food is what I ordered and served in the correct order at the correct temperature and I like the person who serves it to me.

Luckily for me this almost never happens so I save a fortune in tips!

It would be nice if the managers spent more time out on the floor of the restaurant instead of smoking in the office watching the footy.

In the UK waiters are poorly paid as a rule so we don't really expect good service anyway. But when it happens it's a real joy and an experience not forgotten.

all4thekidz

Hi all.. i work as a waitress (in a chain restaurant) and i TOTALLY disagree with the comments made in an earlier post that not tipping would lead to a guest getting 'unthinkable' things done to their food or drink!! I personally would never do that and neither would anyone i know in the trade!
I really enjoy my job and take a pride in what i do and the service I provide to my guests irrelevant of whether they tip or not. I have looked after all manner of people and even faced with the most 'miserable' or 'rude' person I make it my goal to try to make them be happy & smile before they leave & to provide them with tip top service as far as humanly possible. (sometimes we are just given too many customers at once - by the management, to be able to feasably achieve this which is upsetting for those of us who really care and can see ourselves as the customer in that situation).
As for comments abouts the chefs not getting tips, in my experience:
a)they are paid a much better hourly rate.
b) they dont want to be front of house as to have to face the potentially 'irate' customer (or sometimes even a pleasant one)would be their worst nightmare.
c) It is the waiting staff who have final responsibilty for the food a guest receives..if it isnt right eg steak overcooked, not presented right or not hot enough then they have to get it sorted BEFORE presenting the food to the guest (you try telling a chef u dont wanna take a meal out coz its not right! they dont like it at all!!)
I am a part time worker, however NO we are not all students passing through.. I am a single mum who had a career before my kids and have now been waiting tables for several years whilst my kids are in school as it enables me to spend the necessary time with them.
In the Uk it is generally accepted to tip hairdressers, taxi drivers and for good service in bars & restaurants (many people will by a good bartender a drink too). All of whom I tip, hec even the guy delivering the takeaway gets a tip if its prompt & hot & I know im not the only one who does this.
In a restaurant situation many people dont see that your waiter /waitress may have to also prepare & deliver your drinks and personnaly make your chosen desserts as well as all other aspects of delivering / clearing your meal experience, your waiting person is essentially at your (and their other tables) beck & call for the duration of your visit and a good one will also find time to chat with you and make you relax & feel comfortable too. I hope that is the experience I deliver and if you choose to tip me thats great as it makes me personnaly feel Ive done a good job. If you dont I wont hold it against you, a sincere thankyou for a job well done is also great, especially if voiced to the management too.
One thing I find in the restaurant trade is that people are so much more inclined to complain than praise. A written letter of praise in paricular for a member of staff goes a long way as they are so very rare - we cant all be that bad can we!!!

SalexC

Hi all,

First off, first post here so be nice y'all...

I've been on all sides of this particular argument, having worked as a waiter, chef, bartender and shift manager in a chain restaurant. I now make a point of tipping wait staff, in cash, 10% because:

* as described above, they often lose part of their CC tips to the minimum wage make-up scam that restaurants employ (although there are cunning ways around this if you know how to play a system)

* they get ALL the flak that can be given. If the dish is below standard, either they give it back to the head chef, who chews them out before grudgingly remaking it, or take it out as is and expect to get complained at by an (understandably) miffed customer. Same with drinks - an irate bartender on a service bar on a Saturday night is not the most pleasant person to tell that they've just made the wrong cocktail by mistake...!

* chefs would melt if they actually had to deal with customers, because they couldn't just shout at them like they do with wait staff (I always used to bung the head chef a fiver at the start of a shift so he'd make sure that he got my dishes right, did them quick and didn't yell at me - used to guarantee me an extra £15-20 in tips on a busy Saturday night)

* wait staff are the face and reputation of a restaurant but get paid !!!!!!-all for it - as all4thekidz says, wait staff handle things like making drinks, desserts, sometimes even starters.

Good waiting is an art form that can take years to pick up - it took me long enough. I knew chefs and bartenders that wouldn't wait tables for love or money because it was such hard work, but wait staff hated to be used anywhere else because they lost out. Tip, and tip well!

Jersy

personally i dont like tipping.. but sometimes a i feel tight so leave like a quid

phantomwhale

Often a lot of my tipping choice is based on group preference - many of my richer friends will tip regardless of service.

Left to me, I'd tip if I got vaguely half-decent service. But living in London it's been a loooooooong time since I got anything approaching that.

Last three meals I can recall, I was against tipping because:
* A drink I ordered (a simple bottle of beer) as the main course arrived was finally brought over after I'd finished my main course
* Food took over 45 mins to arrive, no apology made, other diners who came in after us were served food before us. This is in a pizza restuarant, quite quiet, around lunchtime.
* Having to spend over 10 minutes with head turned trying to get the attention of staff everytime I wanted anything, all of whom are deliberatley avoiding eye contact to prevent speaking to me until they are ready.

I'll tip for friendly, hard work. I won't tip for unenthused, "just getting through the day" attitude. When I go for a meal, I am paying money to have food and drink served to me - a certain basic level of service should be a given thing, not a luxury.

TA#6

If the service and food are ok then I always tip 10% rounded up, if its very good then I would tip up to 15% ish.

Making comparisons with other jobs not getting tips is not really relevant, You tip for a personal service, wether its a waiter or a hairdresser or a cab driver...you dont tip a shelf stacker or a street sweeper as they are not directly serving you, they are serving the public in general.

ianaddisonuk

wait on you hand and foot for a few hours??
the waiter makes your night what it is??
going all out on customer service??

surely those things are in the job description? you SHOULD be waiting on the customer and providing a service...thats your job! same as taxi drivers have driven you from point A to point B...that is their job.

i went out tonight, had dinner, few drinks, didnt tip. The waiter did his job, took the order, brought the food. job done.
noone tips me in my job, i work bloody hard and don't get tips. I've worked in factories, shops and now as a teacher. Why should a waiter get a tip but noone else?

SalexC

Oh, and to all those saying "I don't get tipped in my job, boo hoo..." - I expect you do, it's called end-of-year bonuses, performance-related pay, sales commission, and the like...which, bear in mind, come out of company profits, i.e. the money they've taken off the customer, so one way or another those customers are paying that bit extra to reward those who do a better job. Believe me, wait staff don't see such things as these - hence tipping for great personal service.

Consider this: imagine your favourite restaurant closed down for a week for 're-branding'; it re-opens with a revamped menu and new pricing structure. Strangely, although the new dishes are similar and the drinks menu pretty much identical to the old fare, your favourite sirloin steak is now £10.99 instead of £9.99, and your pint of Stella is £2.85 instead of £2.60...

You go in for your meal, it's as good as you remember it having been, and when you come to pay the check the same waiter that used to serve you before the rebranding says "don't worry about leaving a tip - we're not allowed to accept them as we all get a 10% commission on sales now." Fine - IF your waiter's done a good job - but what if the service had been below par, or the food or drinks had come out cold/flat/inaccurate? You have no recourse apart from part-paying or not paying your bill, which is exactly what you can do now.

So at least with wait staff, tipping means you have some discretion over whether to give that little bit extra, instead of having that decision removed by the company that just builds the tip(commission) into the sale - think on that the next time you buy a car from a used car dealer or, if you're really flush, that Porsche you keep seeing in that dealership window. I wonder how much of the £75K asking price goes on sales commission?

(On a tangent, is it wrong to want a pint of Stella at 7am in the morning?? I but mention the name and I can fairly taste it...!)

Mark7799

Tipping varies for me.

I tend to start off at 10% of the bill, rounded up to the next £1. I have left no tips (said to DW in a Toby Carvery 'what the **** are we tipping for - all the waitress did was find us a table and bring us a glass of water each:D ')

I will give extra for good service, difficult to define - it's like an elephant - you know what it is when you see it - the most I think I've tipped was £40 on a £210 bill - family party and we were looked after VERY well.

carloswhizz

Yes I tip and yes I used to work in the service sector on low wages but NO I will not be ripped off by restaurants! If I'm going out for dinner I ensure that I have plenty of cash on me with change. That way I can tip cash to the waiter rather than see it get whisked away by the management. Credit card scams by restaurant management are legendary and all service staff have been ripped off in this way.

Other notable scams are "senior" waiting staff and management receiving a higher percentage of the tips. Pay cash and ensure that the waiter knows it is for him or the team. Also pay cash so you don't have your card "skimmed" which is very common in London.

As for service charges don't be fooled for a moment. The same applies to that so pay cash at what you think it is worth for service. I've walked after paying for the dinner without paying the service charge if I've complained but I wouldn't walk without creating a fuss. Makes them realise what they are doing wrong. I've had the "calling the police" line before but just laughed it off. Restaurants cannot enforce this and if they attempt to assault you they are liable for a charge.

Otherwise I'm happy to pay 10% for good service cash-wise but no more. Minimum wage applies now.