I think opinions on this one will vary a lot depending on where you are from, but all the same.

What does everyone think about asking the bar person to top up your pint when they have poured you an obviously short measure?

Last night the girl behind the bar produced two of the most sloppily poured and short pints I have ever seen. I mean it wasn't even close to right, like maybe a bit less than 80% full. I asked politely that she top them up, and my friend pretty much said to me that I need to ****ing relax.

For me it's less a case of wanting to get than missing 20% (although the price of a pint being what it is these days, why shouldn't I?) and more that I just really despise sloppy service like that.

What do you think?

you need to ****ing relax

Give me my ****ing beer you ****ing wench.

I can't really see making an issue out of this. If you were in the US I'd say just tip less, but I don't think y'all tip bartenders at all over there, so idk.

buy bottled beer in the future

I've never been in a situation where I'd need to ask that. Find a better bar.

top that **** up. i hate it, becoming an old stoggy fart but the fact is in todays environment you will take it in the shorts if you dont stand up for yourself as a consumer. id love to let it go, a little less beer, whatever, its that all these products are **** and over a lifetime it adds up. i would muchrather be doing something else, but when your constantly getting shorted with everything, andn the stuff you buy is all **** you gotta take a stand. i bought a bag of fishsticks at target, lol, that tasted like chum. i wasnt expecting great quality but i doubt a dog would eat this fish meal. back it went. sucks but gotta do it imo. want to do a fun experiment? go buy a bunch of **** at a grocery store and write the price down. then see what it gets rung up for. now think over a lifetime how much you got screwed. sucks, gotta do it.

In the UK I think you're more likely to get a 100% full glass in a terrible pub than a good one as the regulars in terrible pubs are more likely to hit you if you pour 95%

bollocks

Isn't it "top off?"

And no, I don't think it's nitty to want a full beer.

ETA that it would be nitty at a wedding reception, keg party, or other function w/ free bar, obv.

Angry Brits ITT

First time gets a pass, second time I say something, but its really dependent on the beer. If its a beer that comes out with a big natural head and its busy, **** happens. If she's just not filling it because she's half-assing it, then screw her.

But if you're wondering why we cling to the tipping standard over here, its well suited to these situations.

If the beer is about 10% short or more I will always ask to have it filled. Usually the bartender or waitress looks at me like I'm from outer space and they don't even understand what I want or why. If you don't want to pour full pints, don't call them pints of beer. Just call it a glass and be done with it.

This is such a systemic thing in my experience that I have to stand up against it. I'd say about 2/3 of the beers I order are short poured. I drink a lot of beer, so I am not going to tolerate what is effectively a 7-8% lifetime beer tax. Filler up cheapskate.

How would you feel if you won a hand and only got 80% of the money shipped....or 80% of a gallon of gas..... the painter painted MOST of your house?

If you pay for a pint you deserve to get a pint. If something like that happens to me I point and say "low tide"?

Asking for a top up is completely 100% standard IMO. That said, I rarely ask for one myself because I'm soft. I'll ask if there's hardly anybody in the bar and it's short by quite a bit and if the bartender has a friendly face.

Don't know if those are good analogies.

It's more like if you were getting a sub at Subway and the person working there gave you a lot less shredded cheese than you wanted on your sandwich.

I wouldn't say anything the first time cause it feels weird asking for "a little more cheese." I've seen some spray tan bimbo asking for "a little more" like four times in a row and I immediately hated her soul. Just seems weird.


I guess the other thing is you're probably going to continue being served by the same bartender for the rest of the night, so maybe a "Can you top this up please" might not come off as douchey and will solve that problem for the rest of the night...

That's not really a great one either. It's more like going to subway and getting 8/10ths of a sandwich.

Its never wrong to ask for a full pint if you are buying a full pint.

Btw, random factoid, a pint in the US is like 15% smaller than a true Imperial Pint. So when you go to the US on holiday take your own pint glass, lol.

Asking for more cheese is different given there is no defined amount to how much cheese a sub should have. A better analogy is them making you a footlong then chopping a couple inches off before bagging and handing it to you.

Or maybe ordering fries in a pub and getting 20% less fries than a normal plate would normally have?

In the case of this, would you ask for more fries?

Meh more like claiming them to be foot long subs but the bread that's cooked is less then a foot long, it's not like the bartender pours the full pint and then spills 20% in front of you and then gives it to you.

The Brits have a pretty big organization called CAMRA that deals with stuff like this. Demanding a full pint is totally standard there.

The diameter of the top of the standard US 'pint' glass is much larger than the diameter at the bottom. Something like 20-25% of the volume of the pint is in the top 1/8 of the glass. I think it's fine to demand what you paid for.

Yeah, not easy to get a good analogy, not food based anyway, lol.

But a pint in the UK is a legally protected measure that the bartender has to provide, they cant fill a glass, hand it to you and when you ask to be topped to a full pint shrug there should and say its close enough.

Im not a big pint drinker so its not something i run into often, but ive had pints topped up in the past and its the same with my friends. Its not seen as nitty or anything. Ive seen people have pints repoured because the glass was chipped, alcohol is srs biz over here

Edit to add i agree with the guy above who said this happens more in upscale bars and clubs than in lowscale pubs. Not so much because the regulars are rougher, though there is some correlation, but because staff retention is a lot higher in the local pub and taking care of the regulars is a huge part of the business when you dont have queues of over a hundred people behind the one complaining about his short measure. Upscale bars and clubs are usually staffed by hot student girls trying to get some money to afford to be at the other side of the bar more than it is actual professional mixers and they dont really give a **** about the job and the employer doesnt give much of a **** about how well they do it as its based around huge volume of customers.

Ive not gone to local pubs because of ****ty service, whereas clubs anywhere on the scale its expected service will be ****ty.

How do we know how much a normal plate is supposed to have?

Glass = full
Sub = 12 inches

nameen?