How much do you tip at restaurants?

[Thundercrack85]

Figure since we have a plethora of food-related questions, I would ask this.

Personally, I tip 15% for adequate service (i.e. everything is brought in a timely fashion, there's a refill, the check isn't wrong).

20% for good service, and a little more if it's really excellent.

I have noticed a lot of people tend to tip rather poorly, or not at all so I am kind of curious.

 

[The Question]

I always try to tip at least twenty percent. Sometimes more, if I can spare it. I also never tip less for bad service. These people have to live off of this money, that's more important than anything.

 

[Aria]

Traditionally the tip should be about 10% of the bill's value, although in the US I've even seen 20%. So I guess that 3 to 5 $ would have been enough for tip.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

I always try to tip at least twenty percent. Sometimes more, if I can spare it. I also never tip less for bad service. These people have to live off of this money, that's more important than anything.

Yeah I never tip less for bad service either. Sometimes you get someone who's new or it's busy as hell and they're doing the best they can. The only time I would probably tip for less is if they waiter/waitress is rude to me.

 

[knowsbleed]

Tipping in the US, I've always done around 20% unless they are rude. I don't tip less for slower service on busy nights. In fact, I occasionally tip more if it's especially busy because I know the server is probably having a hell of a night and it's not always the server's fault if the food is a little slow.

Outside of the US, I go by the country's standard tipping etiquette. If I'm in a country where tipping is not the norm, I'm usually in a tourist area where they are used to Americans who tip, so I tip... just not as high as I do in the US.

 

[Spider-Fan83]

how about this, if you are paying in cash do you...

tell them to keep the change?
or
wait for the change, then leave an even amount for the tip?

even though just giving them the change probably often works in their favor, I always feel weird about leaving change as part of the tip. I always like to leave even dollar amounts

which means I usually around it to the nearest dollar amount, so, the % is never exact, but, it's never lower then 15

 

[Galactus123]

Not at all. It is not common thing to do where I live. The people who work in restaurants do not even expect it.

 

[The Question]

Yeah I never tip less for bad service either. Sometimes you get someone who's new or it's busy as hell and they're doing the best they can. The only time I would probably tip for less is if they waiter/waitress is rude to me.

Even then, "rude" is highly subjective and oftentimes unintentional. I would only tip less if the waiter was behaving in an aggressively mean spirited manner to myself and other patrons of the restaurant.

how about this, if you are paying in cash do you...

tell them to keep the change?
or
wait for the change, then leave an even amount for the tip?

even though just giving them the change probably often works in their favor, I always feel weird about leaving change as part of the tip. I always like to leave even dollar amounts

which means I usually around it to the nearest dollar amount, so, the % is never exact, but, it's never lower then 15

I only wait for the change to come back if I'm eating with a group and we're all paying on the same check, because it makes figuring out who owes who what a lot easier. If I'm by myself or if I'm paying for everyone's meal, I just drop whatever amount of money I have that's at least 20% over what I owe and then leave.

 

[Erzengel]

I usually tip 15% to 20% depending on the service. I've received bad service but not to the point where the waitress/waiter is insulting to me or to anyone in my party. But taking too long to greet you and just get a drink order, being a no show after the food has arrived and waiting too long for a check, the minimum I give is 10%.

 

[Flint Marko]

I've been a waiter and really sympathize with them more times than not. Usually they are doing all they can juggling dozens of different things, so if the service is poor I'll still tip about 20%.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

I always tip 20% as a rule. Unless it's under $10 then I usually tip a couple bucks more.

 

[knowsbleed]

I usually tip 15% to 20% depending on the service. I've received bad service but not to the point where the waitress/waiter is insulting to me or to anyone in my party. But taking too long to greet you and just get a drink order, being a no show after the food has arrived and waiting too long for a check, the minimum I give is 10%.

The poorest service I've ever received was at a Margaritaville in Jamaica. There was 2 other couples on the 2nd floor and 3 servers. Our server took about 30 minutes to show up to get our drink orders, took another 20 minutes after she brought our drinks to come back to get our food order, told us to hurry up with the food order and got angry with us when we went to the bar to refill our drinks because she never came by to ask us if we wanted refills.

I was livid by that point so I told her how rude she was and that we were leaving, we never even received our food after waiting for more than an hour. She rolled her eyes, told us that WE were the rude ones and had security escort us out.

I didn't tip her.

 

[Poetic Chaos]

I just double the sales tax to make it easy on my math, so 16% here. I will tip less for bad/slow service. I just tipped 8% a few nights ago.

 

[nogolf33]

I usually tip 15% to 20% depending on the service. I've received bad service but not to the point where the waitress/waiter is insulting to me or to anyone in my party. But taking too long to greet you and just get a drink order, being a no show after the food has arrived and waiting too long for a check, the minimum I give is 10%.

Pretty much the same for me. I think it is generous for mid-cost restaurants (where I live) where the bill is $60-100. I wonder if that applies to inexpensive places? There is a place in town where lunch is 15 bucks for my wife and I and I usually tip 3 dollars. If I am alone, I will tip 2. You get about the same service as a dinner meal/more expensive restaurant.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

In France service is included in the bill but customers usualy give a tip, 1 to 5 Euros if the service is very good. When we go to fancy restaurant which are rated in the Michelin guide you dont tip ( we are talking on 100 + Euro menus here ).
When I am oustide France it depends on my mood. Never been in the States but I know the drill there.

 

[Shlee]

I almost never tip under 15% (which, where I live, is double the sales tax). Generally I tip somewhere between 15-20%, occasionally more if I can afford it. I try to give an amount that will raise me to an even dollar amount, so if it's a little more or a little less than 15% that's kinda where I sit.

If the service is really good, I leave a 20% tip. I don't always tip on the tax (so I look at the subtotal and tip on that, rather than the total that includes tax). I never tip under 10% since that's about how much the government will take out of their wages.

If I give cash, it just depends on how much it costs me vs. how much cash I have. If I am charged $11 and some change for a meal, and I only have a $20 bill, they are not getting $9 worth of tip, sorry. :P I will wait for change and pay the tip with that. But if it's like $15 or so and I only have a $20 bill, I won't ask for the change.

Am I weird? >.>

 

[Erzengel]

In France service is included in the bill but customers usualy give a tip, 1 to 5 Euros if the service is very good. When we go to fancy restaurant which are rated in the Michelin guide you dont tip ( we are talking on 100 + Euro menus here ).
When I am oustide France it depends on my mood. Never been in the States but I know the drill there.

How many tires is considered good 3 or 4?

 

[Howlett]

If you can't afford to tip at least 10%-15%, you can't afford to go out to eat.

I always tip 20% even if the service is bad. Wait staff gets paid like $2 an hour without tips and sometimes people have a bad/off night.

So unless the waiter spits on you or punches someone in your group you should still tip at least 10-15%.

 

[Onslaught03]

I usually tip at a rate of 15%. Personally, even though I regularly provide the tip, I believe that the cultural etiquette surrounding tipping (here in the US, at least) is contrived and absurd. Corporations, restaurant owners, and businesses refuse to pay their servers reasonable wages, and they end up guilting the public into subsidizing the portion of the wage that they won't provide. Then, on top of all this, we have politicians who are interested in forcing waiters/waitresses to pay heavy taxes on their tips, and I've heard that Starbucks was (until a recent court ruling) allowing shift supervisors to take a cut from the tip jars of baristas (even though shift supervisors have a slightly higher hourly wage and act in a managerial role).

 

[Travesty]

20+ if I go to a sitdown restaurant.

10-15 for togo

10-15 for delivery. But normally I stick to 10% for delivery, as they already charge you extra just for the delivery.

 

[Slushy]

Always $15 unless the service is horrible then I stiff them and rightfully so.

If you can't afford to tip at least 10%-15%, you can't afford to go out to eat.

That's why celebs like Tiger Woods and LeBron James are pieces of sh**! Make millions of dollars, refuse to tip not even 10% of their fine dining bill. LeSean McCoy can go fu** himself too!

 

[Shlee]

10-15 for togo

10-15 for delivery. But normally I stick to 10% for delivery, as they already charge you extra just for the delivery.

Yeah, that's about right for those too.

I also have a good friend who is a pizza delivery driver, and I ask him about how much I should tip the guy, and whether I should tip on the whole total or subtotal. His response was "it just depends on how far he has to drive." When I told him he lived right up the street from me, he was like "$2". My $3.80 on that order was apparently pretty sweet. :P

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

How many tires is considered good 3 or 4?

One star at the guide is already good, more than one star starts to be realy realy expensive, out of reach for the common folks like me and yes it is the same Michelin

 

[Thundercrack85]

Not at all. It is not common thing to do where I live. The people who work in restaurants do not even expect it.

Yeah but in Finland you don't pay your waiters 2 dollars an hour like they do in many American states.

It's a crappy practice that needs to end.

 

[Immortalfire]

I'm not smart enough to figure percentages. I just wing it, according to how good the service was.