THHIISS!!!

be nice. Tip on whole check.

One little tidbit : when you work in the industry, it's customary to leave the price of almost the entire check, as you're saved "the tip".

In other words, if your bill should have been 200 and you get a check that says 50 bucks, you leave 200.

I thought of this thread as I came home from my anniversary dinner. We did $120 tasting each, bill came it was 160 (only charged for 1 person), left 260. Still saved over 70 dollars. (Tax, a few drinks). Server was very happy.

Yeah this is super common, and a lot of people worked one of those jobs when they were young. My first job was as a busboy, I used to get something like $3/hour + I think 15% from each waiter or waitress's tips at the end of the shift. One side of the establishment was a diner with up to 3 servers, maybe 4, the dining room side would have one or two. It was done on the honor system and some were much more honest than others, but it worked out about right at the end of the week.

They liked me and used to always put me on Sunday mornings in the diner (very desirable shift money-wise but you had to hustle). I'd get up to maybe $15 per server but there was this one bitchy old lady who'd hand me a $5 bill like clockwork.

[Sigh - I remember when netting $150 was a great week as a kid, and then having my Mom show me that I have to declare tips as income and be taxed on them.]

But for anyone who doesn't know, yes, servers, dealers and similar often tip out to buspeople, bartenders, the cage and so forth. Sometimes required, sometimes not.

This has to be one of the lamest, most well known things ever "revealed" after starting a post with "Here's a dirty, dirty little secret."

Either way, my answer to OP is $100. I've always tipped the same percentage on food and alcohol for a meal, had no idea people did otherwise.

I think if you're out at the sports bar drinking cheap drinks, eating chicken wings, and watching the game tipping a percent of the overall bill is the right play, but I don't see anything wrong with splitting up the bill before calculating your tip when you're spending that much on the alcohol. 20% for the food portion seems reasonable.

Threads like these are always entertaining because tipping can be a touchy subject.

Although I don't serve, I've delivered for about 3 years and its really eye-opening how stingy people are. For example, I took 11 deliveries today and was tipped around $20 total. This is of course very area dependent I'm sure.

When I came from France to Canada, I felt totally lost regarding tipping.
I tip 20% for an excellent service (not rare when you go to a really good place)
I tip 15% for average service.
If I have a bad service, I talk with the server. If he answers in good faith, I still give like 13ish?. If he is disonhest, I will give him no tip.

I always included tip on the wine bottle too but if I'm helped by a sommelier, I give it specifically to the guy.

Once I was in an average sushi place. We waited a really long time for our plates. The girl was not even busy or whatever. We tell her we are still waiting after like 20 minutes and we see her ordering our food. She was not smiling, we had to ask her regularly to refill the water glasses...
I gave her no tip because I considered she didn't deserve any. While we were leaving she was holding out her hand. Worst experience ever.

And I'm really a generous tipper for small amounts.

Well, sure.

Servers quickly learn that other servers tip very well, and there's only so much product you can steal per shift to give away to your best customers and friends without getting caught. Obviously you're going to hook server-customers up to get the big tips, and you'll make sure the grumpy old lady customers get charged for everything.

To be honest, I actually like this. I don't know when it happens, but if I did, I would be happier that it did.

If I had a choice on who to tip for a good meal, it would be the cook/kitchen first and foremost. And as far as work goes, it's the runners and bus boys usually that are doing most of the work.

*Note, I don't frequent places where wine selections or food selections depend heavily on the recommendation or quality of the server. If I did, I would feel like they are earning their money more.

**I also tip about 20% usually, and feel like a fish for doing it. I struggle between the "am I seriously paying this person this much for the work I just saw" and "if I can't pay the 20% I should just go home and cook" (and I do cook a lot).

Wish I just lived in Europe. Besides breweries/bars, I've never noticed a difference in service between regular joints and new joints that I frequent. Would rather the owners just pay the employees and put that added cost into the food/drink.

Sounds like op is a baller. Then realized he's just another guy faking it.

I've never heard of people randomly deciding that x doesn't deserve to be tipped on. If you're not comfortable tipping at least 15% on an item then don't order it or don't go out to eat.

If I get something free I'll give back a substantial portion of it. Like if they don't ring in a $5 dessert, I don't leave $1 extra, I leave at least $3 extra and often the full $5 (still saving money on the tax and tip).

You'd better have a really fantastic reason for leaving 0%. It's not the server's fault that they're understaffed that night, the kitchen is way behind, the bartender making the alcoholic drinks sucks and the kid at the table next to you keeps spilling his drinks that the server has to help clean up. You should never leave less than 15% unless the server was undeniably a dick or blatantly inattentive. If you've never been a server you probably can't even grasp what "busy" means and how to judge it, so forget about the "blatantly inattentive" thing too.

Plus if the manager came over he probably fixed something.