Who do you tip, how much do you tip?

[bdm860]

Always tip at a restaurant no matter how bad the service was, unless the server was exceptionally rude to you (which wouldn't happen because they wouldn't work there in the first place). Always 20% and up. My now separated wife and I would go to this restaurant quite a bit and would get the same waitress maybe 50% of the time we went. We'd always tip her well because she was great, and in turn you could tell she went above and beyond because she knew we would tip her well at the end of the night. Being a waiter or waitress is a tough job on top of being paid less than minimum wage. People who don't tip well don't understand that.

One other issue with tipping is that, by tipping as a percentage of the bill, how much are you rewarding hard work and service. Should a waiter get an extra $100 for opening a $500 bottle of wine? I'm not so sure.

Example: Our kids love Friendly's, so we are there more than I'd like. But the waitresses are being run all over the place, cleaning up spills, getting some kid the red crayons instead of the blue one, returning a grilled cheese because it was cut into triangles rather than squares, etc. Yet our bill for a family of four is usually around $35 because it's so freaking cheap. And that's before whatever coupon we use. How can I leave her anything less than $10?

Mike

So I actually worked as a waiter at Friendly's many years ago when i was in college.  There was a decent amount of college age kids who worked there, but also a couple of career waitresses (ones who actually had their stuff together).  I remember asking one, "why are you working here and not at a fancier restaurant where you'd make a lot more in tips?"  She replied with something like, "True you get bigger tips, but you also get fewer tips too.  At a nicer restaurant, people sit and sip coffee or wine and they'll sit at their table for 2+ hours.  Here at Friendly's people are in and out much quicker, and you can get a larger section (a section of 6 tables here vs a section of 4 at a fancier place).  So you can get one large tip from one table, or get several smaller tips from several tables.  So I actually make more at Friendly's than I did when I worked at a nicer restaurant."  Maybe you don't have to feel too bad for that Friendly's waitress after all.

[Cman]

I pretty much routinely tip 20% for food, alcohol, and taxis. ** but see below.
If I'm at a bar drinking beers, I put a dollar on the bar for each beer I drink.

**For the first time in my life, I gave a taxi driver NO TIP. We drove from Manhattan to JFK. My phone app showed a huge backup along the Grand Central parkway bc of an accident. I said "please take the Van Wyck, not Grand Central." He said no, he preferred Grand Central. I showed him the traffic on my app, and said "take the Van Wyck". He said no. I pointed to the Van Wyck as we got close and said "go there, go there, there, the Van Wyck. No, don't turn right onto Grand Central, don't do it." He turned right onto Grand Central. It took an extra half hour to get to the airport. I made it right to the gate as the plane was boarding.
NO TIP.

[mef730]

Always tip at a restaurant no matter how bad the service was, unless the server was exceptionally rude to you (which wouldn't happen because they wouldn't work there in the first place). Always 20% and up. My now separated wife and I would go to this restaurant quite a bit and would get the same waitress maybe 50% of the time we went. We'd always tip her well because she was great, and in turn you could tell she went above and beyond because she knew we would tip her well at the end of the night. Being a waiter or waitress is a tough job on top of being paid less than minimum wage. People who don't tip well don't understand that.

One other issue with tipping is that, by tipping as a percentage of the bill, how much are you rewarding hard work and service. Should a waiter get an extra $100 for opening a $500 bottle of wine? I'm not so sure.

Example: Our kids love Friendly's, so we are there more than I'd like. But the waitresses are being run all over the place, cleaning up spills, getting some kid the red crayons instead of the blue one, returning a grilled cheese because it was cut into triangles rather than squares, etc. Yet our bill for a family of four is usually around $35 because it's so freaking cheap. And that's before whatever coupon we use. How can I leave her anything less than $10?

Mike

That's pretty darn selfish if you ask me... Do you know why?

Because wine is alcohol, and ergo if your server is opening a bottle of wine that you ordered, that is 500 dollars worth, guess what? They are going to most likely be paying their hard earned tips to cover the tip you didn't provide them, because most restaurants go by sales as a percentage for tip out.

My restaurant does 2.1% of my alcohol sales as tip out, and it may not be bad, but inherently half the time, it ends up screwing me over if my table gets 200$ worth of alcohol, and don't even tip me anywhere near 15 or 20%, because my tips suffer at the end of the night.

If you are not willing to at least provide the sales cost that would've been rendered out of your servers tips, unless the service stinks, for anything you ordered, then don't order it. There is always the option of eating at home versus eating out.

Fortunately, I never order a drink that costs more than a few dollars, so it has never been an issue.

Mike

Always tip at a restaurant no matter how bad the service was, unless the server was exceptionally rude to you (which wouldn't happen because they wouldn't work there in the first place). Always 20% and up. My now separated wife and I would go to this restaurant quite a bit and would get the same waitress maybe 50% of the time we went. We'd always tip her well because she was great, and in turn you could tell she went above and beyond because she knew we would tip her well at the end of the night. Being a waiter or waitress is a tough job on top of being paid less than minimum wage. People who don't tip well don't understand that.

One other issue with tipping is that, by tipping as a percentage of the bill, how much are you rewarding hard work and service. Should a waiter get an extra $100 for opening a $500 bottle of wine? I'm not so sure.

Example: Our kids love Friendly's, so we are there more than I'd like. But the waitresses are being run all over the place, cleaning up spills, getting some kid the red crayons instead of the blue one, returning a grilled cheese because it was cut into triangles rather than squares, etc. Yet our bill for a family of four is usually around $35 because it's so freaking cheap. And that's before whatever coupon we use. How can I leave her anything less than $10?

Mike

So I actually worked as a waiter at Friendly's many years ago when i was in college.  There was a decent amount of college age kids who worked there, but also a couple of career waitresses (ones who actually had their stuff together).  I remember asking one, "why are you working here and not at a fancier restaurant where you'd make a lot more in tips?"  She replied with something like, "True you get bigger tips, but you also get less tips too.  At a nicer restaurant, people sit and sip coffee or wine and they'll sit at their table for 2+ hours.  Here at Friendly's people are in and out much quicker, and you can get a larger section (a section of 6 tables here vs a section of 4 at a fancier place).  So you can get one large tip from one table, or get several smaller tips from several tables.  So I actually make more at Friendly's than I did when I worked at a nicer restaurant."  Maybe you don't have to feel too bad for that Friendly's waitress after all.

That's fair. But they put in a lot of extra work for us when compared to the cost of the meal. I'm happy to overtip in this case.

Mike

[Emmette Bryant]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fJCjet2e3U

[Celtics4ever]

Depends on service,  20% for good, 10% for bad.

[mef730]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fJCjet2e3U

+1. A classic.

Mike

[indeedproceed]

20% on all food/drink, unless the service was outlandishly good or bad. If bad, never less than 12%. If good, it depends on if I'm drunk or not. If I have a great, like great bartender and I'm feeling my oats, anything is on the table. I might just leave my dog on the bar and tell them they earned it.

[dannyboy35]

20% on all food/drink, unless the service was outlandishly good or bad. If bad, never less than 12%. If good, it depends on if I'm drunk or not. If I have a great, like great bartender and I'm feeling my oats, anything is on the table. I might just leave my dog on the bar and tell them they earned it.

Ha!

[saltlover]

I always start at 20% and round up to the nearest dollar.  If it's noteworthy bad service I might round down instead.  I also add about 5% for every half hour I'm at a place over the first hour, especially if I've stopped ordering (at a bar/restaurant watching a game, for example.)

I generally don't tip much extra or worse due to service.  If I'm having an off-day at work, I don't get paid less, so why should my server?  There are exceptions of course (if my mother-in-law is in the party, she's certain to change her order at least once after placing it, so servers get a bonus for getting it right and no penalty for getting it wrong), but exceptions are rare.

[indeedproceed]

I generally don't tip much extra or worse due to service.  If I'm having an off-day at work, I don't get paid less, so why should my server?

I've thought this before, and rejected it. I'm assuming you're salary based if your pay doesn't change due to day-to-day performance. But if you can get a daily bonus because you hustled hard, did a great job, and got a little lucky, why would it not follow that if you don't have your head on straight, or aren't really hustling, or in the case of kitchen service, you get really unlucky, why wouldn't your pay change? If you (I mean a royal 'you' here) tip more for better service, why can't you tip less? If a tip is meant to convey your appreciation for the service of the person who waited on you, if you are not particularly appreciative, why not tip less?

[Clench123]

I don't tip.  I'm very giving when I see a homeless person but to tip someone who has a job is insane to me.  If you don't like your job or if your job does not pay well, get a another job.  To expect extra for a service I'd already pay for is stupid.  How did tipping even became a "thing?"  It's retarded.

[Donoghus]

At least 20%.  Usually more.

I grew up in a restaurant family which has certainly skewed the way I see the service industry.

[saltlover]

I don't tip.  I'm very giving when I see a homeless person but to tip someone who has a job is insane to me.  If you don't like your job or if your job does not pay well, get a another job.  To expect extra for a service I'd already pay for is stupid.  How did tipping even became a "thing?"  It's retarded.

Do you live in the US?  If you do, you're either ignorant or a jerk.  Tips are wages.  Without tips, nearly every server in this country would be making minimum wage.  Tips are paying for the service.  Whether it should be is a completely different story, but don't punish the person working hard because you don't like the system.  If you don't want to tip, just don't go to restaurants or bars at all.

I hope you have the decency to tell your server when s/he first approaches you of your no-tipping policy so that you can actually get the service you pay for.

[SHAQATTACK]

Depends on how sexy she is 😇

[LarBrd33]

I pretty much always tip 20%.  When I'm super annoyed with the service and feel like knocking off some percentage points, I typically just push the receipt over to my wife and she knowingly fills in the tip amount for me.  She usually just tips 20% anyways.  If she's as annoyed as I am, she'll knock it down to 15% at worst.  We are way too easy on bad servers.