What percentage tip do you leave in full-service restaurants for good to excellent service?

:popcorn:

*cracks open a beer*

:beer:

I've found that people who have tend to tip better.

I usually tip 20%+, unless service was horrid.

I worked in a bar and the tips sucked. So yes, I always tip.

I've actually tipped as much as 50% depending on the wait person.

I normally tip 20%. For one, the math is easy. For another, I think that's fair for good or excellent service. The only time I have ever tipped less is when the service is bad and it's actually the server's fault. I do know that the server sometimes ends up looking bad over things he/she can't control (the kitchen is slow, they screw up the order, things like that). I always try to be understanding of that.

So I saw others earning 4 or less an hour and NEEDING tips to pay rent.

Even the pizza guy gets about 5 bucks every time he delivers. Waiters/Waitresses work their asses off, deal with some real dipshits, and barely get by for the most part. I'm broke, but I can spare a couple extra bucks for people like that.

20%+

Don't they make like $18/hr in salary?

They should be tipping me.

:hide:

:popcorn:

And no, I don't think that's code for,"Take me now, Big Boy!!!"

:eyes:

To steal a line, "it's not tipping I believe in, it's over-tipping"

:eyes:

Where's my tip???

aw, shut up. Tip for what? You already have the trophy wife.

... wait, I forget what I was going to say. Haruka is changing her clothes.

For excellent service, more then 25%. I've never worked in food service, but I know it's hard work. I try to stay in the 25% range most of the time.

I go 20% or more. I also will tip on tax and alcohol. I also will give 10-15% on my credit card and then make up for it with cash, that way they are not paying taxes if they don’t want. I have told wait people that is what I am doing and they always appreciate it.

One summer I had to get a job as wait staff when an internship fell through. As hard as retail is, that was 10 times harder. We had one couple who were regulars who NEVER tipped... money. They always left "Bible tracts" instead. Of course, they were demanding as hell. We hated them.

I guess I should just start praying for groceries.....:mad:

:eyes:

Oh goodie, bible tracts. I can pays me some rent with these. How about if when they order their food I stand there and tell them all about my last trip to San Francisco and end with - "This was a travel story brought to you by me... the person who can't afford to travel any longer. --- Now please go to McDonald's and enjoy the scenery on the walk over there where tips are not expected as part of the service."

Man... I hate dumbfuckers.

I always tip at least 20% unless the service is TERRIBLE.

Today I took my kids to lunch - the bill was $47.50 - I left an $11.00 tip - (20% would have been $9.59.) I like going to this restaurant and I like being welcomed with a smile - not a :"Take your cheap ass and get the hell out look."

working on Sunday sucks too.... 10% is good enough for the church it should be good for you too. I have also been badgered for having the gall to WORK on Sunday. "When do you go to church?" DO they not realize how stupid that is.... I work because people like YOU like to come to brunch after church!! :)

Thank you to all the big tippers out there!! We DO appreciate it. 2.15 an hour doesn't go far.

Would management been supportive if you gave poor service to this couple?

TIPS used to mean, “To Insure Prompt Service”, maybe if that were respected, bible tract people would take their self-righteousness elsewhere.

(the tipping with cash part)

I hadn't thought of that.

Basically, I just double the total and move a decimal place to the left, rounding up to the nearest half dollar or so.

If it's excellent, then 25%, similar technique :D

I've worked food service, too, just not in a position where I would be getting tips (cook, baker, pastry cook.)

They are always shitty tippers.

People who have ACTUALLY WORKED HARD and know what it's like are always excellent tippers - and are usually liberals.

those who've worked hard/had shitty low-wage jobs at some point in their life being better tippers - it's all about an appreciation for the effort required to do that kind of job...

Not often has that happened, but it does.

I believe in overtipping. Those jobs are hard and the servers generally make nothing.

while going to college, he appreciates all you nice liberal tippers:thumbsup:

:scared:

Other than that, I can go to real seafood restaurants around here for the same price or cheaper.

Make them at home for those laptop ruiners I birthed.

Had a fabulous meal tonight, salmon with lemon sauce and capers. :woohoo:

I much prefer yours.

I would easily have check totals of $1,000 and would be happy to come out with $60 for a shift :evilfrown: People suck, except for you good tippers out there!

Sometimes they even wind up owing me money.

More if especially good service.

if the waitress kept my coffee cup full I would tip 50%. I was a single truck driver,I could afford it. I loved my coffee too!!

Olive Garden.

Otherwise, it's 20 percent .. give or take depending on service.

We took pictures outside of it, then we walked two blocks over to a real Italian restaurant. That place was good and not any more expensive.

in the French Quarter, if the service is really good, which it usually is. We go down about once a month and try to eat in a different restaurant each trip and we like to think we are stimulating the economy. The vast majority of the wait staff down there is excellent.

Even if the service isn't all that good. Folks who work for tips need 'em.

If they do an awful job, I leave 10%.
If they do an amazing job, closer to 25-30%

but I should have voted for "I start at 20% and it goes up or down depending on service".

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Barbara Ehrenreich shed the safety net of her comfortable life and worked for a time in several low-wage jobs to see what it was like. One - the one I remember best - was as a waitress. It wasn't so much what Ehrenreich experienced that moved me as it was the stories she told of the women she worked with.

Great book, really gave me some insight.

I'm an excellent tipper.

Adequate service gets an automatic 15% from me-- that's merely adequate, food is decent and warm and what I ordered. The minimum is never less than 10%-- even for the worst service in the world in which I leave before the food even has a chance to arrive. For spectacular service, my tip can go as high as 35% (as Billy Joel once wrote, "I'm the last of the big time spenders...").

I waited tables at Bennigan's for one summer in the mid-eighties and it allowed me a grudging respect and a new perspective for a horrible, horrible, horrible (did I say 'horrible'?) job.

Bennigan's -- eek!

20+ for exceptional. If you can't afford to tip, cook it yourself or use the drive-through.

I'm generally an excellent tipper. I know what its like to work with douchebag customers so I generally try not to apply that rule when I go places.

(I'm part of a huge group of people, etc.) Then I tip about 20%.

And then I slap my waitress in the butt, grab my cane, and walk out to the limo while lighting my cigar with a 5 dollar bill. If the service was REALLY good, I'll stick the remain of the fiver in my cup of wine.

Let's look at the following scenarios:

Breakfast at Denny's where the dining room is packed with screaming kids, the server is doing a heroic job, and the bill comes to $6? I tip $3.

Dinner at Chez Alonsos where the dining room is almost empty, the server is nowhere to be seen, and the bill comes to $30? I tip $3.

Got it?

(And on edit: I've only ever conspicuously undertipped about 5 times in my LIFE. Usually it's 15-20.)