How much do you tip? - Page 6

i am retired and not able to eat at a white tablecloth restaurant.
but it irks me no end when a young waitress picks up the check folder
and asks "do you need change" its the young ones that do it usually.
also is the bartender that assumes that the change belongs to him/her.

When I'm working, I'll usually make it a point to give change back whenever possible, as I also get annoyed when servers ask me that question. However, it's one of those things where being able to read minds would help quite a bit, as some customers will actually get mildly offended by having change brought back, as if the act were a statement that the tip was not enough. There's also the practical reason of not wanting to spend the time making change or leave money out on the table or bartop where it could be snapped up by some unscrupulous busboy/other server/customer if it is known in advance that the extra cash is intended as a tip anyway. Usually a server can make a good guess of what to expect based on the amount of cash given (e.g. someone paying for a $10 tab with a $20 bill is going to want change, whereas someone paying for a $10 with a $10 bill and 2 $1's almost certainly won't). Aside from that, I find that the best thing to do as a customer is to preemptively ask for change or tell the server to keep the change, and as a server, the best thing to do is say something neutral like "I'll be right back with your change" and create the opening for the customer to insist you keep the change if that's the intent.

One other amusing thing I learned from other bartenders is that walking off with the change can often be used as a trick to call out non tippers in a non-confrontational manner. For example, say a guy has come up twice earlier in the night and each time ordered a $4 drink, paid with a $5, and took the change without tipping. So the next time the guy comes up and does the same thing, the bartender would just quietly keep the change. That way the non tipper is either forced to swallow his pride and quietly accept having left a tip as is socially expected or has to make a spectacle by confronting the bartender and demanding his change (an amount of money small enough to be innocently mistaken as a standard tip), thus outing himself as an ass who will go out of his way to avoid tipping to both the bartenders and the surrounding customers and pretty much ensuring that he won't be getting any more drinks at the bar for the rest of the night. Not that it's something I would do, but I find the idea amusing and always enjoy watching when I notice bartenders doing it.

I consider 15% to be the absolute minimum acceptable tip for decent service, provided the server wasn't bad.

I generally tip 30ish percent.......a $15 usually gets $4-5, and a $7 meal will get around $3. I got into the habit of tipping well after I worked in a restaurant; seeing people make a living off of the tip changes your perspective. That being said, sometimes I have to "pick up the slack" from some of my friends that simply do not know how to tip. (i.e. - order a $6 burger, a daquiri or beer, stay at the table of this popular restaurant for 3 hours, and tip a dollar....)

I aim at 15%, for pretty good service I'll go to 20%, maybe higher. every now and again I'll tip significantly higher for something exceptional. a couple of times a year I'll do 10 percent for pretty poor service and every few years I'll leave a lousy tip. but I would never leave a 200 tip for opening a bottle of wine, just isn't going to happen. I often leave 100 tips, or 200 tips on large meals, but if I was going to order a 1000 bottle of wine, I wouldn't tip 20% on it.

I didn't used to tip for take away, then my wife worked as a barista for a few months, and now I do.

I also don't like tipping bartenders too much, frankly - 15% on 5 wiskies in a steak house I would leave just over 10 percent - $45 paid with a 50. for gods sake, the guy just poured out 3 drinks, and if my fucking table were ready on time I wouldn't even be drinking them.

What is the standard tip for a bartendr for a drink in the US? I mean a simppe neat pour or beer. Tippinng on more complex cocktails should be higher i understand, but evertytime i vist there i am told differnt things; some people tell me 10% others tell em if your drink costs 4 usd leave a 5 dollar bill, which would be 25%.

For a single drink I'll usually tip a buck (if we're talking a $2.50 beer, maybe I'll tip the 50 cents change on each beer and toss in another buck at the end if I have several). If I drank something really expensive, which I rarely do in bars, I might tip a bit more.

Bar tipping has a lot of ins/outs/what-have-yous. If you drink there a lot, it pays to over-tip. If not, I agree with Lawyerdad.

I too agree with lawyerdad, on the bar tipping.

As far as restaurants go, I'm usually right at 20%. Its hard to go lower or higher than that.

I will say there are always exceptions to 20%-- if they have an attitude I will not tip more than 10%

Tax in Houston is 8.25%. I will usually tip double the tax amout if service was good, triple if it was excellent. Makes the calculation easy.

Regards.

A buck a drink is a very good rule of thumb. Lawyerdad hit the nail on the head, though, about bar tipping. Different strategies for different situation.

So it would be a dollar per drink not depnding on the price assuming it was a beer or a neat pour?

I tip 20% if the service is good to excellent
11-15% for poor to fair service
10% for lack to no service
0% if they are rude or otherwise distasteful.

I usually try to tip as well as I can.

I usually try to keep the fact that waiters work for tips, and are only paid 2 something an hour.

Some people don't tip the carhops at sonic, but you really should. They are like any other waiter/waitress usually only making a little over 2 bucks an hour.

I tip 20%