>>You get to decide the percent based on the experience, but service is NOT part of the price of a meal at a restaurant.<<
I assume you are joking. I have been in restaurants where I can see my meal sitting under a heat lamp for five minutes or more, waiting for the wait person to bring it to me. I’ve actually considered going up and getting it myself.
I believe it would be frowned upon.
Service IS part of the price of a meal at a restaurant where a waitress takes your order at your table and brings the order there.
You must be thinking of buffets...
I’m not joking. In your case, you ask the waitress why you had to stare at your meal for five minutes and then tip accordingly.
You’ve got choices, and so does the restaurant. Waitresses SHOULD be waiting on their best tippers. That’s where their and their owner’s best interests lie.
If that’s your first meal at that restaurant, then you likely won’t return. If you’ve been dining there for sometime and you haven’t been tipping, then little wonder why your meal was a breeding ground for flies for five minutes.
As an owner, I service all clients, but not all clients are equal.
Why would I expect my waitress to give the same level of service to some service thief when I have other clients tipping up to 30%?
If my waitress has to explain the economics of that situation to me in order to back her play, then I don’t deserve to be in business.
This owner handled it completely wrong. I would have invited the idiot back. I would have waved a friendly hello to him as he came in. I would have then told my waitstaff, including the bar, to forget he existed. Fill the salt and pepper first, clean the menus, then take a break - if he’s STILL there, then bring him water and ask him what he wants to drink.
The man’s getting exactly the service he’s willing to pay for.