Pwns,

Please put 180 on this card and split the rest on the other two, thanks!

nowadays I mostly either CCR for the whole bill or just pay for what I ordered

most people don't like to CCR tho except a few family members of mine

Don't know if this has been covered but at some high end hotels there is a 18% tip added on to room service and they are basically just pushing a table on wheels to your room, then there is a spot on the bill to write in "additional tip". And sometimes the servers give attitude when you put 0 in that space.

Sweep,

Haha, I've seen delivery fee plus autograt plus additional tip lines at a hotel before.

Thing is a lot of people don't know how much work it is if they have never worked in the service industry before. I always just figured there was a system and it was easy (never really gave it much thought). Of course now knowing it is a lot of extra work if a bill needs to be split then I'd ask at the outset. I can't recall a server ever in my life asking at the beginning of a meal with a bunch of people whether or not they should have the bills separate. I've only been asked at the end of the meal. Since it is so much work, I'm surprised more servers don't ask prior to the meal.

EDIT: I have been to places though (mostly pub type places) where they automatically split the bill into individuals for large groups. Then at the end ask if anyone is together.

If it is just two couples it should be easy enough to figure out how much each person owes based on one bill. Either one couple adds the wine on their tab and the other couple the beers or they just split down the middle if everyone is cool with that. Either would be fine imo. Not sure what you mean about not having enough cash. Individual bills can be split up in payments of cash and card.

As for the assumption of splitting, it really depends on the people. Splitting is fine, but if one couple constantly got the most expensive thing on the menu and the other reasonable things and the "expensive" couple always thought the bill would be split this would be pretty annoying eventually.

My mind goes blank when it's time to pay the bill and I just put 20's on the table until someone stops me.

KoF,

All reasonable people figure things like that out if it matters. For example, vegetarians and non-drinkers always get screwed on bill splits. When everyone has lots of money relative to the amounts spent, people tend not to care. But when it makes a difference, it's easy to be considerate to people and make it up either by splitting unevenly or getting other stuff later or whatever. This stuff is not rocket science.

I'm a bit perplexed by those that call others nits for wanting to pay less in the event that they ordered less, rather than an even chop. I usually CCR for a bill or pick it up if I'm with my family or close friends, so it doesn't really come up. The last thing I'd think though if I was splitting a check, is someone was a nit for wanting to pay for their fair share.

It's just that it complicates things for such a small benefit. Unless there are somehow huge discrepancies, then it's easier to just split it up than take the time to go over the bill line by line.

It's basically the same thing as buying rounds at a bar. If someone is drinking $4 beers all night and someone else is drinking $6 beers, it doesn't change anything. Fwiw this would probably be a larger discrepancy as a percentage than you'd ever encounter at a restaurant under normal circumstances.

Chopping a bill up even by item is trivially easy and takes about 1 minute

SoCal,

What Brock said. If a couple of people get champagne, Caesar salad, filet mignon, lobster tail, expensive Cabernet, cheesecake and espresso, and a couple other people get burgers, fries and a couple budweisers, then it's not really reasonable to split it evenly four ways. But if a couple people are having the $22 entree and a $10 cocktail and a couple others are having the $28 entree and a $12 cocktail, it's like $5 extra to the first people if you just split it evenly, so whatever that **** all evens out in the end.

Nowadays I tend to alternate checks with people I see regularly and it's not like we keep an accounting of how much each individual meal was nor are we always sure who got last time. We just go wherever we feel like each time and figure it all works out in the end - same deal as above, just on a per check basis rather than per item. Of course, when texting about ideas for dinner later I do focus on talking about steaks and sushi and delicious wine and sake when the other person is gonna pick up the tab and when it's my turn I just talk about how delicious a juicy burger and fries would taste right now along with a cold beer.

This.

Lol, no you don't.

Yeah, I think I've said as much. The only thing different I'm saying is that sometimes you don't always know the financial situation of the person you are eating with. So if separate checks are preferred by them for a meal then I don't think it is a "lolnit" situation. I think it is worse if someone just assumes other people should cover their $100 bottle of wine even if everyone has lots of money.

If it is friends and you are constantly going back and forth covering meals this is different of course. But I think splitting the bill (prior to the meal) everytime is fine here as well.

My main point is it doesn't matter as long as everyone is comfortable.

K,

All of my posts in this thread are in the context of friends, and with all of them while I may not know their exact savings, debt, and income situations, I tend to have a general idea. And more importantly, I know who blows a ton of money going out and who doesn't, which is the far more relevant metric here. It's hard to go out with someone more than a couple times and not get an idea of that.

When going out with other people's friends, I just go along with whatever payment scenario they propose (and of course judge them based on that).

As I mentioned earlier, the only time in recent memory I've had a wtf reaction to that was one time out with euro dbz and dbzfriends.

See that's the thing, it's not. It does take time and does give less time to other customers. Dinner service comes in a rush for a few hours and a minute here or there adds up when their section is busy. One, you're making X number of tickets, which they'll fumble through taking the order, then for any app or dessert or drink or coffee someone adds on, they're switching around tickets to do so.

In between they have to explain to the cooks that these 4 tickets are all the same table together and so she needs the apps ready together, and meals together. In a busy kitchen even those tickets hanging can get in your way if there's enough of them, and cooks can mess that up all kinds of ways if they're busy too. Just ringing up say 2 CCs and 3 bills cash is considerably more time than 1.

Even 30 seconds here or there probably doesn't sound like much I know, but during dinner when two new tables are waiting, you a have a drink order to get, and four entrees are about to come up... A party of 8 with 4 checks isn't much different than 4 small tables with 8 covers except you're expected to serve them all together.

The server's section might only be 8 tables which, depending on support, can be nonstop busy. Sometimes they'd give away a table or two to another server but that's not always an option, and it kind of sucks for them.

No, but these are necessary things that implicitly come with service. Having a bunch of separate checks can often be avoided. Fine to do but whether you believe it or not, it takes more time and generally makes for a high-maintenance table. As do special orders, last-minute changes, excessive nittery, not being prepared for the server when she stops by for whatever. Which individually are all fine as well, but again high-maintenance and just more absorbing when busy.

El Diablo,

I also alternate or just generally pick up the bill. I just wouldn't have the opinion that others seem to if I was splitting a check and they wanted to do it based on what was ordered. It actually leads to zero disputes, as can be seen by others in this thread who just split the total bill and have 2 kids vs 4 kids or vegetarians or non-drinkers etc.

Let's not forget the guy when he knows it's going to split evenly or everyone will gamble for the bill, to intentionally order 20% extra or 20-30% more expensive(an amount over that is just enough to not complain about). Sure, it's easy to say "that guy sucks! don't invite him again", but there are situations where they are a friend of a friend or they're an ok person that likes to one up people or a bit cheap.

In check splitting situations, if people paid for what they ordered as a standard, it seems to solve a lot of the problems that arise.

I've been to enough group dinners in college to know that while this may be true in theory, it's certainly not in practice.

Birthday/group dinners are always evenly chopped now among my friends and I find it to be much more pleasant for everyone involved.

I'd imagine large groups trying to chop one bill also leads to underpayment a significant portion of the time. Could also result in large overpayment. So bit of a lottery.

All of you who get upset about this *on either side*, there's an easy solution:

Dine alone.

No one wants to be with argumentative complainers anyway.

This works out great if it's you and another person, or a double date. If it's a celebratory dinner with 12-15 people at a nice place, most people aren't in a position to pick up the whole tab. Nevermind the fact that it might take a decade for things to even out and would be impossible to keep track of.

Question about Sushi restaurants. I sometimes notice a tip jar at the sushi bar. Are tips at a sushi place left on a CC distributed between waitress and sushi chef?

Brock,

Wasn't really talking about 15 person birthday dinners at a fancy place w that comment.

But also note that I don't expect things to even out with everyone individually. Sometimes I pick up a tab with a few people I never expect to see again, and sometimes I'm at a dinner where the reverse happens.

SoCal,

I've never seen that and just tipped for sushi bills like any other bill, and the only thing I might do directly for the sushi chef is buy him some beer or sake.

Diablo,

You're slow rolling the thread with the euro/dbz/friends story.