🚀 go-pugleaf

  M.> From: dovebar@wam.umd.edu (M.D.B.)

  M.> The question I have is:  When you go to a restaurant where there is
  M.> the person who takes you order, the food server, the busboy etc - how
  M.> is the tip divided, or is it divided?

I agree, and I wish it was specified.  If the food is bad but the service is
good, it's NOT FAIR to halve the tip in places where the tip is strictly for
the wait staff; and if the food is great and the service is terrible, I don't
feel good about leaving a big tip just in case the kitchen staff gets a
percentage.

I wish that was standardized, and I wish BOTH tips could be indicated on a
check or a credit card form.  in New York, it's not uncommon for a tip to the
maitre d' and a tip to the waiter to be separately written in (by hand) on the
check, and then a combined tip appears written in on the credit card form.  I'd
just like that extended to kitchen staff, as a general practice.  Or else for
the kitchen staff to always be salaried, end of discussion.


  M.> eventually left something like 10%.  What say you all?

The other problem is, what if you're with another person or couple that you
know tends to tip minimally (or extravagantly)?  I once had lunch with a large
group of people, a typical farewell luncheon.  The large table, at which I say,
got decent service; apparently (we found out back at the office) another table
with about 1/3 of the people got what they perceived as terrible service.  They
didn't tip much (or anything), but nobody over there saw fit to even mention it
to the large table.  We ended up making up the different, not knowing that they
were trying to make a statement, and we were all irritated with them --and they
with us!

We sometimes eat out with people who tip much less than we do.  Should I always
tip 30% on those evenings, so the waiter or waitress comes out even?  Is that
fair to me?