[RinaseaofDs]

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.

[Sloth]

As long as we're on the topic of tipping, how does it make any freaking sense for the amount of the tip to be based on the cost of the food? We have a local place that offers a great breakfast deal, including drink, for $3.75. Even if we order an extra side item, you're looking at ten bucks or so after sales tax for my wife & I to eat there. If I tipped 15%, I'd be leaving $1.50. Then later that day we go to Red Lobster, spend $33, and the 15% tip would come to five bucks. But the server at the cheap place does about the same amount of work. Why should they be punished for working at a place that has better prices?

[RobRoy]

You make some interesting points. I confess that I recently started going to a place in Renton called The Terrible Beauty that I love. I’ve even gotten to know the owners quite well. I actually like tipping there. It is one of the very few times I do it willingly.