Tipping in restaurants

[miasmum]

I have already asked this on Facebook, but it really interests me, peoples way of thinking. I can say more on here to explain.

My dear friend Sarah and I go out once a month for a meal. She is lovely, but so so traditional. She is a 10% tipper, pretty much regardless, I'm not. So every bill we have the discussion, which does drive me potty.

Last night we only had a real cheapy £33.00 so I was happy to leave £3. Even though I used my Blue light card to get a 10% discount, which we then gave back

But I was saying to her that recently we went to a nice village pub with my sister and brother-i-l and the bill was £147, so I said would you leave £14.00, she said no I'd leave £14.70 she really is that pedantic about it. But as I explained that was more than my main course. Why am I leaving enough money to cover another meal? I would rather go to town and buy some homeless people coffee and sandwiches.

I get that in the past waiting staff were young and probably given a few bob to wait tables, but thats not the case anymore, most of the waiting people in the places I go to are more mature ladies probably happy to get away from the kids and earn some money. Compared to the youngsters working in care homes, doing the most difficult job ever, for a real pittance and not allowed to accept gifts monetary or otherwise, they are doing ok.

Once the minimum wage goes up to £9.50 per hour, (hurrah for the care staff) I will refuse to leave a tip at all. That is only £1.50 per hour less than me, and no one tips me. If I do my job wrong it could be catastrophic, but I am happy with my wage I'm not after more but I am not after giving it away to people earning not much less.

Sorry this is long, but my friend makes me feel mean, when she says I'll pay it all you dont need to, and I am not mean, it just doesn't seem fair and I am all about fairness.

Your thoughts please?

[victor]

I quite agree,we have a friend and the amount of time he spends trying to work out the exact amount we should tip..

But he is worse than your friend.

He faffs about because he is trying to work out who spent how much and who had what to drink ,so how much each should contribute for the tip.

Drives everybody nuts

[Workingman]

Tipping is a minefield and I do not have a fixed rule.

It could be a percentage, especially when there is no hidden "service charge", and if the person has gone a bit above and beyond. In a pub it might be "and one for yourself" on the first round in order to get noticed on further rounds. It could be 'rounding up' for say a bill of £46.80 and £50 is handed over with "keep the change". And if there is a group and the total bill is paid on one card we will often dig in our pockets for loose change and leave that on the plate.

What I cannot be doing with is working tips out the the nth, same as Vic said.

[cruiser2]

Don't go out for meals very often now. Last tim was in September with Grand-daughter. She paid so I do not know if she tipped.

When I was working and we had a meal, usually dinner at the hotel, we would leave a tip.

On cruises, if you have a drink at one of the bars, 12% is automatically added to your account. You can opt out of having gratuities
for the cabin steward and waiting staff added to your account. We have done this for several years when we were cruising.

Tipping, usualy a minimum of 10% is the norm in USA.
I never got tipped when I was working. Had a few free lunches.

[meriad]

I definitely don't work out tips to the n'th degree either. And needs to be said, that it's usually Nadine and I that are out for the meal and either we split 50/50 or one of us pays this time and the other next time. And most places we go to the tip is added to the bill. And I'll admit that my maths is bad enough that when the tip isn't added I often 'only' add 10% because that's an easy number to work out and then depending on what that works out to round it up to the nearest full pound, so if a bill is 92, the tip is 9.20 I'll round it up to 10

What I find interesting these days is that quite a few of the pub / gastropub type places you now have to order via an app. Something they introduced during Covid times and seem to be keeping up - saves on staffing I suppose. And when you order via the app you pay there and then and it doesn't give the chance to leave a tip. So if we have some cash on us we may leave a couple of quid on the table but more often than not we don't have cash on us so no tip left. But I wonder if the staff that do work there are paid more than they would have pre that ordering system to make up for the loss of tips?

[JanB]

We normally leave a euro or two, depending on the meal and service.

Most of the restaurants we go to are family owned, so they all share any tips.

One thing we don't do is tip in any bar/cafe we go to, which seems to be the norm in the Algarve. We never tipped there either.

[Workingman]

Ria, I like the way we do it in Brum.

We all know roughly how much is on our own tab so we round up to the nearest £5 or £10 and throw in the cash. Whoever is using their card to pay scoops up the cash and pays the total bill. If it comes to something like £145 and we have collected, say, £160 then £15 is left under a plate.

Collectively it's not a bad sum for the waiter, but individually it is only a couple or three or four quid for us.

[Osc]

Yes, we would tip, usually around 10%. Since the pandemic, we find ourselves more inclined to tip well because so many low paid workers lost such a lot throughout the last 18 months. However, we absolutely will not tip for bad food or poor service.

[cromwell]

Like you Osc I don't tip automatically. If the service or the food is bad I won't leave a tip.
I try and leave around 10% but I don't work it out to the nth degree.
One thing I am conscious of is that with more and more people using plastic to pay, that must mean the waiting on staff must be getting fewer tips in cash. So given that the food and service is OK, I will always leave one.

This thread does remind me of one individual; we all went out from work for a meal, threw in our cash at the end of the night and then wondered why we hadn't got enough to cover the bill? Because one individual hadn't paid - he'd been hoping our tips would cover the cost of his meal. Unbelievable!

[Kaz]

I/we tip 10% but not to the actual pennies.

Ria, like you I do wonder how it works now on the app ordering