Dining Out in Large Groups - Tips on How to Not Get Screwed When the Check Comes?

[ChicagoRon]

I haven't read all 5 pages... but here is the ONLY thing I have ever found to work.

First, if the bill is being split between more than 2 people, it's an even split period. If you aren't okay with that, then it's the last time we eat together.

Common decency dictates that if we are splitting evenly and someone orders something OUTRAGEOUS, he or she offers to up his or her share by an evenly divisible amount. for example, if we are in a group of 10 diners, and I order surf and turf for $60 but the avg. meal was closer to $40, I'll offer to pay an extra $20 and let everyone else pay $2 less. This also lets people see how little the differences in price impact them as individuals when it's a large group.

Usually, the food is relatively even. The other big obstacle to splitting evenly is alcohol. EVERY nice restaurant, even if they don't want to split up the check by individual, is willing to give one check for alcohol and another for food. Let the non-drinkers pay only on the food check.

Finally... if there is a combination of credit cards and cash, set it up so the tip is entirely in cash. it helps the server out with tax reporting.

 

[Cordwinder]

I never liked large dinner parties where everyone is called to pitch in.
As its already been mentioned here, someone doesn't pay his/her fair share and someone else ends up footing the difference.

My weekends used to be going out with 2 other male friends for dinner. We end up going to places were the food is ordered in large portions and shared among us. Two don't drink and I do but I don't like drinking myself so I abstain. I guess I'm lucky because 1 of the other friends I go out with is good with maths and always has small change but I feel like a miser calculating the total down to the penny. If one doesn't have the cash than he'll pay us the next time we go out.

It might be better if one to organize a large party, do it in a place where food is served by sizes and the bill to be split evenly. I would rather split a large pizza and a pitcher of beer with healthy serving of laughter than having a high class meal with a potential headache over splitting the bill at the end.

 

[Asch]

What really irritates me, and what actually happened to me twice this weekend is nothing is said about splitting at the beginning of the meal, and then the check comes and somebody is like "lets split it evenly?"

I'm all for splitting evenly if people got roughly the same thing but when the guy sitting across from me ordered an entree almost twice the price of mine and had about 6 beers to my 1 beer, I think its bs that we should split it evenly. I basically end up paying more than double what my meal should have cost.

+1000

By necessity of my crappy salary, I tend to be frugal at restaurants, rarely ordering drinks or appetizers for myself. It drives me nuts when I'm with a group (small or large) who insists on splitting the bill evenly: invariably, once the costs are socialized, everyone's expenditures rise eightfold, with endless bottles of wine marked up 300% and dainty desserts that cost more than my weekly groceries.

I suspect my feelings might be different if money were less of a concern for me, as seems to be the case for many other posters on this thread. (Obviously StyleForum skews toward the well-paid.)