What's the usual tip to give at restaurants in the US?

[Hooffenstein HD]

Never Tipped in my life.

Australia...

This. Only tip when you don't want a bunch of shrapnel in your pocket. Just throw it in the jar.

[Massimo]

Never Tipped in my life.

Australia...

Unlike most places if you work weekends or if you work at night or early morning you get loading on your pay, anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 times your standard amount.

So that is why you do not tip in Australia

[15Michaeljoseph]

Amen to that. I shall always tip the server who pays attention to my liquid to food ratio more :)

--Mike

[e30onBBSs]

A fuck up to me is having to ask a different waiter or something for water after my meal has been lesser quality for 12 minutes because it's spicy and I've been walking around boston all day with friends or the gf or something and I'm thirsty as balls. Then when we want to leave I ask for the check and like 8 minutes later I get the check then I give the card and another long time we wait until finally we can go because Paul is a dumbshit and was asking for a crap tip it seemed. Plus the fact he goes "I'm so sorry about the water" or whatever and then he lets them get empty again. Paul was unusually bad but that meal was much less enjoyable because I had to worry about my next sip of water for like 30% of the meal when there were pitchers 15 ft away and he would ditch and go hang in the kitchen and return with no food or anything in his hands 5 minutes later.

On another note, I didn't go get water from the pitcher myself but is that acceptable? I'm 99% positive it's like a "safety" concern if I were to do that?

[15Michaeljoseph]

It all comes down to doing a job correctly. Why should the quality of service be different at 50 dollar steak place versus a 150 dollar steak place? You have a job to do, you should be doing it as best you can. Yes you're not getting paid as much, but you should do your best anyway.

--Mike

[HennaE30]

I mean like screw up the order in some way, never come by the table to check up, stuff like that. A little slip up here or there I'm not gonna eat your lunch.

Overall if you do your job correctly, I'm not gonna screw you

[z31maniac]

Overall I tip well, unless you fuck up.

What's your definition of "fuck up?"

Having many friends in the industry from GMs of large chains, to GMs of small boutique eateries, bar managers, bar tenders and servers, many people have completely unrealistic expectations of what service they should get at an average restaurant.


People seem to expect the service they are going to get at $50 plate steakhouse at crummy chains.

[HennaE30]

What's the usual tip to give at restaurants in the US?

So I work at a Chili's. Host, not a server, but still, I deal with this dilemma every day.

My stance on this is if you give me good service, drink full, foods correct and on time, not having to wave you down for something because your a retard, you get 15% give or take. If you entertain me, chat/joke with me or whatever the case may be. If I enjoy my experience, you'll get 20%+ largest tip I've ever given was $30 on a $20 tab (percentage-wise) because it was me and a buddy shooting the shit with this really cute server for the better part of an hour.

Overall I tip well, unless you fuck up.

Every time this conversation comes up I think about the awesome scene in the diner at the beginning Reservoir Dogs.

[SubDad]

In Canada, I tip +/- 15%. In the USA the same, unless I discover I'm in one of the Crap Pay/Right to Work States, where I tip more.
Lousy service gets no tip.
I tip in cash, mostly.
When my kids were rude, loud little food scattering a**holes I tipped hugely, apologized a lot and tried to clean up after the little vandals.
Serving people are people too.

[jhaurimn]

20% at restaurants (more if service was nice)
5-10% for take out

[Herr Faust Schinken]

im a barista and a 20 for every latte and a 50 per cap seem reasonable to me ....

[BraveUlysses]

I always felt is was an incentive / motivation for servers to be truly customer centric vs simply going through the motions.

Nope.

Any half-decent restaurant should already expect that of any front of the house employees, why would they need special, preferential laws to accomplish that?

They're cheap fucks.

[markseven]

Not really. They compensate for a artificially low wage system because restaurants just can't seem figure out how to run their businesses (in many states) without paying people below minimum wage.

It's bullshit, through and through.


edit: to be fair there's a lot of jobs that make more than minimum wage and should be tipped, but the restaurant biz rubs me the wrong way.

I always felt is was an incentive / motivation for servers to be truly customer centric vs simply going through the motions.

[BraveUlysses]

TIPS ensure they do, quit being a cheap ass.

Not really. They compensate for a artificially low wage system because restaurants just can't seem figure out how to run their businesses (in many states) without paying people below minimum wage.

It's bullshit, through and through.


edit: to be fair there's a lot of jobs that make more than minimum wage and should be tipped, but the restaurant biz rubs me the wrong way.

[barbierij]

Hey it's my philosophy. In fact it's not tipping I believe in, its over tipping.

I love that movie.
I also love tips.

And, if you find me some arugula, I'll give YOU a tip.

--Mike

I love that movie too.