Do you tip consistently a certain amount in restaurants, or do you tip according to the service you receive (big amount for good service, not much tip for bad service)?

I tip 20%. But the round up or down on the dollar is service based. Good service gets a round up, bad service a round down.

In England I tip depending on whether I’ve been given good service or not. Usually 10% if so.
In America I try and aim for at least 15% every time (since they practically get paid based on their tips)

20% for table service.
15% for table service at a buffet.
Leftover change for counter service.
Nothing at drive-ups.

Service has to be horrendous for me to withhold a tip.

I tip based on the level of service I receive. Here in Canada most if not all food and drink servers make minimum wage plus tips, so I don’t feel guilty if I give no tip due to receiving bad service. Of course, if there is a problem I will attempt to have it fixed it before resorting to giving no tip, in addition to rarely if ever going back to that place.

I was actually tipped once while working fast food. And I was the one taking the order and money, not even the one with the food. The person had just came back from Vegas with big winnings, they liked my bubbly personality so they handed me a crisp twenty dollar bill. While it did feel a bit awkward, it was nice to be recognized as being enthusiastic for a crappy job.

Watch the Reservoir Dogs diner scene for my take on the tipping process. Automatic tipping is for the birds…

@steveprutz: You should totally be required to provide the appropriate YouTube clip.

@empress: How about the actual script? http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/reservoir.shtml

Search for: “I don’t tip”

Thanks.

But it’s wrong. They don’t generally make minimum wage. They make waiter/waitress minimum wage. Last I checked, that was maybe $2.15/hour (in Louisiana, it changes depending on the state you are in). I also have a problem with the “they can quit” quip but at least it isn’t flat out untrue. I also take issue with leaving my waiter or waitress to pay the government the tax on the tip I didn’t leave.

@EmpressPixie: You are absolutely right; I don’t know any servers making minimum wage. I follow the same rules @cprevite. And for the record, I waited tables in college, and it’s hard work.

I go entirely by the service I receive. Usually, 15–20%.

I have on occasion tipped pennies just to round off the bill. Only when my order was wrong, the food was cold and I had to get up from the table to find the waiter.

Adequate service gets 15%. Excellent Service gets %20. Poor service gets %0, but that’s fairly extreme and my rule is that I let the waitperson know why they got no tip (if I don’t think it’s obvious).

I tip based on service. If you don’t write my order down and you mess it up you get nothing.

I did once tip a cafe counter clerk $100 when I ordered pie and a coffee. She had like 15 tables all on her own and still managed to make time ask how I was and if I needed anything. She was stressed to the max but kept it to herself. I had just gotten the $100 bill as a holiday bonus and left it for her. Made me feel better than anything I would’ve bought with it.

I keep a “base amount” – usually about 15–20% depending upon the calibur of the restaurant. Then, I tip above or below this based upon the service. Good service is usually about 25%, bad is about 12%. I did, once, tip about 133% – but it was kind of a flirting/joking gesture made by myself and my friend towards the waiter.

I’ve always wanted to try the tipping process displayed by Dick Solomon (John Lithgrow) in an episode on 3rd Rock From the Sun in which he takes Mary Albright (Jane Curtin) out to dinner. He puts something like $100 down on the table and tells the waiter that if he dislikes something the server does, an amount will be taken from the pile – and if he likes something the server does, money will be added. Therefore, the amount of the tip is completely dependent upon and known to the waiter. It’s really quite hilarious on tv, but I’m guessing that in real life it would not be so…

If the meal is 20–40 dollars, tip 2 dollars plus whatever is left on the bill if you subtract a dollar higher. So, if it was 24.52, the tip would be 2.48. If there was a really friendly waiter, then I give a lot.

If it’s 50–100 dollars, I’m usually with more than one other person, so we each pay 4–6 dollars.

With taxis, I use the same system, but I give at least 1 dollar, not 2.

@Mtl_zack—So you would tip $2 on a $40 bill? Maybe $2.99 if the bill was $40.01? All I can say is I hope I never wait on you, cause that’s ridiculous.

I teach and wait tables/manage a restaurant a few nights a week and on the weekends, so I generally tip well (20% +) cause I know how much waiting tables sucks.

If the service is bad, I ask to talk to a manager, but I usually still tip. As long as both the server and manager are aware if the problem and aren’t complete asses, I tip.

@Jane_Anne_Deaux: If I recall correctly, Mlt_Zack is in Canada. The wage issue might be different there and tipping norms might be different there. I don’t know. I do know that I tip differently in places where servers get normal pay.

Example of when I did not tip:
The office had gone out to lunch at Olive Garden. I ordered the unlimited salad. One of my co-workers did not. He wanted to try a pepperoncini because he had never had one. I let him. The waitress saw him and came over and told him that if he was going to eat from the unlimited salad he’d have to be charged for it.

I told the waitress that she had embarassed me and my friend in front of the whole office. To please add a charge for an extra salad to my bill and that it would be coming out of her tip. She did, and it did.

Wait, there’s limited salad at Olive Garden? I had no idea.

Also: appropriate. I have issues with buffets and unlimited things. On the one hand, no you shouldn’t give food from whatever to someone who didn’t order it. On the other as long as it is a normal bite that you might have given from your own dish, were you limited in your eating (such as one pepperoncini) they should let it slide. You share food normally, why should this be any different? I can understand wanting to stop abuse, but that’s not abuse.

@Grisson—Although I still tip, even when I have a problem with the service I receive, I don’t blame those who don’t, as long as they have an appropriate reason, which you obviously did in that case.

As for the unlimited food thing, I know some restaurants have very strict policies when it comes to unlimited food, but she should have approached your coworker in a more private manner. I was under the impression that salad at Olive Garden was unlimited, and since he ordered an entree, he should not have been penalized. But that’s just MHO.

Isn’t the whole sharing your food with the other people at the table the whole theme of Olive Garden??? If I’m not mistaken, the restaurant encourages this in their commercials, and never have I seen one of the waitresses on the commercials charge someone for taking a bite off of another’s plate… interesting. I think the manager at OG would have liked to hear about what this waitress was doing.

Example – We’ll switch

I couldn’t find the exact one I was thinking of – where the whole family rotates the plates clockwise…

@Jane_Ann_Deaux I rarely get a 40 dollar meal my myself. So, if I’m with someone else, I tip 2 and the other person tips 2, that’s 10 %. then the excess change from the round up would make it 11 or so.

@Mtl_zack: Are you in Canada as EmpressPixie said? In the States, 10% is considered a very poor tip now because waiters/waitresses are usually paid about $2.25/hr (at least in my State), less than 1/2 minimum wage… therefore they depend highly on tips. If you are in Canada, I could understand the 10% because waiters/waitresses are paid minimum wage.

@dlm812: Oh man, I’d completely forgotten about that 3rd Rock episode. Thank you.

I’m off to watch it now. :D

@dlm812 Yes I am in Canada, Quebec specifically. Minimum wage just got raised in 2008 to $9.00 I think. In Quebec, I’m not s sure about waiters/waitresses, but unions are very strong in general.

I think that certainly explains a lot why many people have posted that your tipping process is unappropriate. You successfully riled a few of us over hear in the States ;)

@asmonet: Yeah… that is probably one of my favorite episodes from that show. Glad someone else enjoys it too!

I like the one when he gets a computer and says “Silly me! It’s Japanese!” and proceeds to yell gibberish at a mouse.

High five. :D

How did I miss this question when it was new? I have to throw my two cents in!

I always tip 20%-25% but I generally eat in diners so the atmosphere is a little different than say an olive garden. At the diners I go to, they all know me and my mother so they are extra friendly and often charge us less for our meals. I have learned from my mother that waiting tables, while not rocket science, is extremely difficult and the waiters and waitresses have to put up with a lot of bad behavior from customers. I’ve eaten out with people who have not complained about the service or anything until the very end when it is too late to fix it. instead, they choose to punish the wait person by giving him/her a lower tip. These same people also expect stellar service and whatever service they get is never good enough. I mean, if the waiter takes our orders promptly, checks on us a few times during the meal, more if he sees our drinks are low or there are empty plates, is friendly and brings us the check as soon as we ask, these people would say, “He didn’t do anything he wasn’t supposed to. He gets a 10% tip.”

Of course, in these situations, I try to be vocal and give a bigger tip, but this can come back to bite me in the ass. The first time I went to Hooter’s is an excellent example of this…