[dogbyte12]

Tipping by percent of meal cost is absurd. If ya order the $25 steak, instead of the $6 appetizer, that entitles the waiter $4.50 instead of $.90? You should tip on service period. Not on the food quality. Most restaurants don't split the tips with the kitchen grunts. I feel for the waitresses at greasy spoons who bust their humps, and an order for four comes in at $20, and they get $3 or 15%. Somebody at an expensive restaurant, who is only passably attentive, gets a $20 tip on a $130 bill just because the food is more expensive?

We have to remember what exactly we are tipping. I encourage everybody to tip the service. Even if the food is cheap, if you got served well, tip well. If ya get served crappy at an expensive place, why should that waiter get 5 times the amount of tip as the worker at the cheaper place?

[Lijahsbubbe]

Some good common sense!

[Guillermo]

Then the waitresses should get a job at a more expensive restaraunt, if they want bigger tips.

They're not forced to work where they are.

Also, the guy who's spending $25 on a steak may sit there for an hour and a half, while the guy at Waffle House will be there for 30 minutes, or less.

[Political Junkie Too]

We have to remember what exactly we are tipping. I encourage everybody to tip the service. Even if the food is cheap, if you got served well, tip well. If ya get served crappy at an expensive place, why should that waiter get 5 times the amount of tip as the worker at the cheaper place?

I'm with you. Also, nice restaurants by me have also started taking take-out orders, too. I will sometimes phone in an order and drive to the restaurant to bring the food home. In those cases, I do not tip at all, since I'm buying the food but not partaking in the service (except the kitchen service which I assume is factored into the menu price) even though a waiter still rings up the bill.

-PJ

[VermiciousKnid]

A couple of things:

1) You make an interesting point when you mention that a $20 steak will net a waiter $4.00 in tip, whereas an entire meal served at a diner -- with numerous trips to refill coffee cups, etc. will only cost about $7.00, and therefore the waiter gets only a $1.40 tip. In my experience, some of the very best wait service I've ever had comes from the neighborhood diner, and I always felt like a heel leaving such a small tip or such excellent service. So I don't. I usually go overboard and leave $3.00 (I just leave a $10 on the table and leave it at that) on that $7.00 bill. It just seems like the right thing to do.

2) I live in NY, and the sales tax here was 8½% for many years (it's more now). A fast way to calculate the proper tip had always been, "double the tax and you'll come out OK." Anyway, my husband and I took a trip to Block Island, R.I. one summer, and we went to numerous restaurants while we were there. On the third day, I realized I'd been stiffing waiters all over the island because I'd simply been doubling the tax. Unfortunately, the tax in Rhode Island was only 4%. I went back to each and every restaurant to apologize to the waiters and make up the difference. I don't think any of them could believe that somebody would actually come back just to leave a bigger tip (don't think my hubby could believe it, either...LOL).

Regards,

[jlogajan]

Tipping by percent of meal cost is absurd. If ya order the $25 steak, instead of the $6 appetizer, that entitles the waiter $4.50 instead of $.90? You should tip on service period.

Yeah, my wife is a stickler for exact math. Seems to me the reward should be for effort. When we were in Mexico, I just wanted to tip the same as up here. But my wife insisted on tipping at the lower rate. Doesn't make a lick of sense to me.

[Vinnie]

Even if the food is cheap, if you got served well, tip well.

Hear, Hear.
I always tips generously at inexpensive eaterys.
My wife worked at one of those 'smorgasbord style' establishments for a while. Many people tip little or nothing because the waitress doesn't actually bring the food to them. Her stories convinced me to be very generous.

[I_dmc]

I tip on service, but will mention the food to my waitperson. Their tip depends somewhat on how they respond if I do complain about the food. I've been known to visit the kitchen and tip the staff when food is excellent. I tend to go higher when the meal cost is low, all things being equal. In my experience, the one who waits on me has a pretty good idea of how I'll tip, and the service I receive reflects that. One hand washes the other, I suppose.

[BADROTOFINGER]

Many times servers are taxed on a percentage of total sales for any given shift. It is called the 'tips allocation' method. It rolls at around 8%. Basically, if you were to ring up a $30 tab, the server gets taxed as tho they made $2.40-$3+, depending on how the sales spread out (on an average, it is kind of confusing). Basically servers pay income and payroll taxes on their customers food...JFK

[visualops]

Most restaurants don't split the tips with the kitchen grunts

I never worked anywhere where you didn't give the busboy and/or the bartender a cut. Guys in the kitchen are paid more, and aren't considered part of the floor staff to get any portion of tips.

[tru_degenerate]

GOOD POINT!!!

[timydnuc]

We go to our cabin in northwest Wisconsin from our home in a suburb of St. Paul Minnesota. The prices in the Twin Cities are in line with that of a large metropolitian area. The prices in some fine little places in the area of our cabin are outragiously low.

We had dinner one night at a local popular little place on the lake near our cabin. It was a Saturday night and the place was packed but they were famous for their food and we picked a spot at the bar and waited with our guests. When we finally got to the table the poor little girl had to bus the table her self, rush to get our drinks while we decided what to order, and apoligize for the crowd while taking our order. She told us that our order (2 large & 2 small orders of slow cooked BBQ babyback ribs) might take a while. I told her that I'd take care of running the bar orders to our table so she could do her job. She protested at first, but I told her that I used to tend bar and I knew what she was dealing with' she smiled and reluctantly agreed.

We did wait a little longer than I'm used to but we were having such a good time talking, watching the night lake boat traffic and enjoying the people next to us, so we didn't mind.

When the meal came it was beautiful, and so was our little Wisconsin 'weegie' (short for Norwegien) girl. She was so proud of the food she was serving it made me proud to eat it. She gave all of us extra napkins (cloth) and instructed us that eating these ribs with a knife and fork was a 'no-no'. She, again, apoligized for her neglect of us during the 'rush' and to make up for that she would buy us a BIG Lienie (beer) to go along with it. She explained to the ladies, that both drank beer but not out in public, that beer was the ONLY beverage to have with these special ribs. From that point forward we were friends. She came back 5 times while we were eating, my future brother-in-law had another full rack of ribs. This is getting too long, so I'll cut to the chase.

The entire bill, for all of us, and one of the best meals I have ever eaten, was $48.00. We had invited my lady's sister and brother-in-law out and I was going to buy. I was flabbergasted! 48 bucks? WOW, I'll take the deal. So I put a 50 dollar bill in the little leather folder and 30 bucks on the table on top of it. We were easily ready to spend 175 to 200 hundred dollars that night. As we were leaving the place she ran out behind us saying that I had left 30 dollars at the table, trying to give it back to me. I said, "I left it for you darlin', you did a great job"! She stood there for a second, then smiled and said, "Thank you sir, PLEASE come back when I'm working", then laughed as we all did.

My future brother-in-law, Mike said that that was probably the record tip in that place in years. He also said I'll get a name around town as being a pidgeon. My reply was, "but I'll get good service".

You tip what you what and I'll tip what I want, don't bitch about it, and we'll all be better for it.