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How much do you tip?

Joel_Cairo

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the only place I don't tip over %20 is Portland Oregon. There servers make minumum plus tips. ******* oligarchs those guys.
 

WSW

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Originally Posted by ChicagoRon
OK....so let's complicate things a little. How do you tip on the alcohol portion of a fine dining bill?

20% is a good approximation for decent wine, beer, or cocktails, but I'll be damned if I'd ever tip $400 for opening a $2000 bottle of wine. Some waiters will say that you shouldn't order it if you can't afford the tip, but I think it has less to do with cost than with what's appropriate for services rendered.


I agree $400 does seem excessive for this situation, and since I've never ordered anything above $200, I too am interested in other opinions.
 

MrDaniels

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Your friend nees to know that waiters are taxed based upon the amount of their sales. Not only that, but in most restaurants the waiters have to share their tips with support staff and that is also based upon their sales.

I don't want to make any grand proclamations on your friend, but based on this and this alone he sounds like an ass. Not only cheap, but then arguing with the rest of the group that wanted to leave 20%? I would be so ashamed to be the only one at the table arguing to leave a shabby tip.
 

Brian278

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Originally Posted by WSW
I agree $400 does seem excessive for this situation, and since I've never ordered anything above $200, I too am interested in other opinions.
If you do order the $2000 bottle, be prepared to tip at least 15% (assuming the overall service is satisfactory) on that. The argument that they didn't do anymore for it than a $50 bottle doesn't apply here, because that's not how the social custom of tipping works. If you order 2 waters that are refilled 4 times each, 2 $6 appetizers, 2 $16 entrees that comes with a salad, and two $7 deserts, you don't tip more than if you ordered 2 $30 entrees and two $20 single malts, do you? I think not. Then you don't get to cheap out on tipping with the expensive bottle of wine. Plus, if you're throwing around $2000 on a single bottle of wine, I'm guessing the $300 to $400 on a tip isn't going to kill you.
 

MrDaniels

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Originally Posted by Brian278
If you do order the $2000 bottle, be prepared to tip at least 15% (assuming the overall service is satisfactory) on that. The argument that they didn't do anymore for it than a $50 bottle doesn't apply here, because that's not how the social custom of tipping works. If you order 2 waters that are refilled 4 times each, 2 $6 appetizers, 2 $16 entrees that comes with a salad, and two $7 deserts, do you tip more than if you ordered 2 $30 entrees and two $20 single malts, do you? I think not. Then you don't get to cheap out on tipping with the expensive bottle of wine. Plus, if you're throwing around $2000 on a single bottle of wine, I'm guessing the $300 to $400 on a tip isn't going to kill you.

Excellantly put. Also at that price you most likely will be dealing with a wine steward, who YES you are going to need to tip!
 

DNW

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I normally tip 20% on the pre-taxed amount. I've seen some creative restaurant bills with the tip amounts already calculated on the bottom on an after-tax basis. If service is good, then 25% or more. Most of my best tips are on smaller bills, i.e. $10 total on a $6-7 bill. I have a pet peeve with rounding up my total bill.
 

aybojs

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Originally Posted by DarkNWorn
I normally tip 20% on the pre-taxed amount. I've seen some creative restaurant bills with the tip amounts already calculated on the bottom on an after-tax basis.
Although I can't dispute that the accepted standard is either 15/20% of pre-tax totals, I've found that nearly every restaurant/bar I've worked in or learned the sales accounting practices of calculates support staff tipout and/or sets the guidelines for claiming waiter tips based on post-tax sales. I now tip based on the post-tax total of the check because of that bit of knowledge, and while I reiterate that I'm aware the social convention says to focus on pre-tax sales, it absolutely isn't the case that a restaurant is trying to be shady or milk more money out of you if it suggests to tip on a post-tax basis; the numbers there are just consistent with the way the rest of the restaurant's calculations work.
 

jml90

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Well tonight we went to Ground Round my bill came to $13.23 I left a $5 tip. I think that is more than reasonable. What say you?
 

Huntsman

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I've tipped 0% for inappropriateness. 10% for really poor service. Last Thursday was 25.6% on a $214.00 bill, and Saturday was 31.6% on a 190.00 and 120% on a ten dollar bill.

~ Huntsman
 

DNW

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Originally Posted by aybojs
Although I can't dispute that the accepted standard is either 15/20% of pre-tax totals, I've found that nearly every restaurant/bar I've worked in or learned the sales accounting practices of calculates support staff tipout and/or sets the guidelines for claiming waiter tips based on post-tax sales. I now tip based on the post-tax total of the check because of that bit of knowledge, and while I reiterate that I'm aware the social convention says to focus on pre-tax sales, it absolutely isn't the case that a restaurant is trying to be shady or milk more money out of you if it suggests to tip on a post-tax basis; the numbers there are just consistent with the way the rest of the restaurant's calculations work.

Do you know why restaurants do this?

Personally, I cannot find any justifications for tipping on the tax.
 

Brian278

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Originally Posted by DarkNWorn
Do you know why restaurants do this?

Personally, I cannot find any justifications for tipping on the tax.


The same reason you would tip 20% on the pre-tax amount: it's an arbitrary number arrived at by social convention. You could just think of it as 22%, or whatever the added number would be for tipping with the tax.

These are all arbitrary norms by which we've all (mostly) agreed to operate by anyway, as and such applying logic such as the tax not actually being part of what your ordered seems silly to me.
 

MrDaniels

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Originally Posted by jml90
Well tonight we went to Ground Round my bill came to $13.23 I left a $5 tip. I think that is more than reasonable. What say you?

I generally overtip for good service when the restaurant is inexpensive...it's nice to be able to just add a buck and turn a 20% tip into a 30% tip, and I figure I am evening out the night for the server who waited on some cheap-ass who left them a quarter.
 

jml90

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Originally Posted by MrDaniels
I generally overtip for good service when the restaurant is inexpensive...it's nice to be able to just add a buck and turn a 20% tip into a 30% tip, and I figure I am evening out the night for the server who waited on some cheap-ass who left them a quarter.

Yeah that'd probably be my friend. For the earlier posters she was hot too.
 

lawyerdad

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Originally Posted by jml90
Well tonight we went to Ground Round my bill came to $13.23 I left a $5 tip. I think that is more than reasonable. What say you?

Yes.
 

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