Tipping in restaurants

CaptainWales

Is tipping in restaurants still done or is this now an out of date tradition? (Not clear to me why it was ever a tradition)

Personally i cant see why i would tip anybody (not just catering staff) unless i had received a good service. Surely tipping everybody is counterproductive i.e there is no difference between staff. 

elsien

You probably don’t want to visit the states then. Not only are tips expected, they are also a lot larger than we would tend to give here. 

CaptainWales

I agree. I meant tipping here in the UK.

littlegreen

I do tip most places where we have table service. Usually round up but its circa 10 %. But we have small children who are messy eaters. I clean up what I can but for me the tip covers the extra hassle for the staff.

I also tip if we are a large group of adults due to more drinks orders etc.

Tips go out the window if service is not great, average that's fine, but moment a waiter starts clearing a plate when the whole group hasn't finished, we'll I'm afraid for me, that's the tip gone.

oldernonethewiser

It is entirely up to you whether to tip or not.

I sometimes tip and I sometimes don't tip.  Depends on the service I get.

TELLIT01

Tipping in restaurants does still seem to be done, but in line with @CaptainWales I don't see why there should be any tipping.  Everybody has to be earning at least the Minimum Wage as laid down in law.  We don't tip shop assistants, bus drivers etc so why do we still tip those in the 'service industries' like waiting staff and hairdressers.  It should have stopped when the Minimum Wage started.

oldernonethewiser

TELLIT01 said:

Tipping in restaurants does still seem to be done, but in line with @CaptainWales I don't see why there should be any tipping.  Everybody has to be earning at least the Minimum Wage as laid down in law.  We don't tip shop assistants, bus drivers etc so why do we still tip those in the 'service industries' like waiting staff and hairdressers.  It should have stopped when the Minimum Wage started.

  If you don't agree with tipping then don't do it then as far as you are concerned it will have stopped.

CaptainWales

Interesting point about minimum wage. Lots of people on NWM aren't tipped. Wonder why traditionally its been restaurant staff, taxis and hairdressers get the tips?

Voyager2002

If a restaurant imposes a service charge than I absolutely do not tip.

vacheron

It's certainly still done. But thank god not like in America.

I remember Stephen Fry once saying that if you don't tip in the USA (and they "expect" 20-30%, and apparently tipping 10% is akin to complaining!), waiters had chased him down the street shouting "hey buddy, you forgot to tip"!

When out with my family I'll sometimes tip a rough specific percentage if the place or server warrants it. I also prefer to leave the tip as cash to make sure it will go directly into the employees pockets. 

When I go out to meet up with 5 or 6 of my male friends. At the end we'll split the bill and everyone will just throw cash rounded up to the nearest paper money denomination in the middle of the table. (nothing worse than those groups that ask for 6 different bills all split exactly based on what they ordered, and then all proceed to pay on credit cards!) We always tell the server to keep the change (whatever that may be) as we don't all want to be sharing out and carrying £3.78 in loose change back home!
Plus the place we usually go, the servers go out of their way to be fun and friendly, so nobody has a problem with that.

The only time where I certainly will NOT tip is where I get the bill and they have already added an "optional" service charge to the total. In these cases I specifically ask them to remove it and then refuse to tip on general principle.   
 

Plasticman

Confession - the amount that I tip is often associated with the volume of alcohol consumed.