Foo - Tipping Etiquette

I'm generally a good tipper (20% to 25%) on most occasions. However I won't tip when I eat at a buffet. What are some foo thoughts on this?

I always tip my rc helicopter salesman... :innocent:

I tip them over.

If I have to stand when ordering or receiving my food, no tip.

If I have to stand when ordering or receiving my food, no tip.

That's my thoughts too but they bring you your drink and have that look of "Look what I did for you, you better leave me a dollar". No thanks. If I have to get up to get my own food you're not getting nothin' out of me.

I generally give 15~20%

though some people I know will only tip 10%

buffet style is $1 tip

I kinda grew up w/ $1/person buffet tip but have expanded that to 10% since I've been bringing kids to the place. Although they are pretty well self-contained these days...

Just a minimal amount.

Why can't restaurants simply pay their employees a sufficient wage, like most other businesses do?

15 to 20 percent in a regular restaurant, occasionally more if service was exceptional. (extremely poor service could result in a ten cent tip)

Buffets are different -- $1 to $3.50 per head. Totally dependent on level of service. Poor service gets a dime (10 cents), just so they know that I didn't forget.

We eat at a certain buffet at least once a week, and the good waiters/waitresses try to grab us when we walk in. They are appreciated!

no need to tip in Japanese hotels and restaurants.

10-20%, more if exceptional, buffet gets a buck. Tipping waiters is how we do it in this country, every child knows it. If you don't like it, or simply have no class, move to a country that does it differently.

I'm generally a good tipper (20% to 25%) on most occasions. However I won't tip when I eat at a buffet. What are some foo thoughts on this?
You people make my employees happy (pizza delivery drivers) :thumb:

Anyway, I'm a poor college student, I try to push out 15%, most then what most people get from college students.

I get extra tips for running food out to a customer's car when I notice they drive up and they've ordered from us earlier, or if we perform a little extra service bumping an order up for someone that came in early (something that corporate would have a cow over). Then again I work behind the counter and don't expect much.

Wasn't this covered in Reservoir Dogs?

Just a minimal amount.

Why can't restaurants simply pay their employees a sufficient wage, like most other businesses do?

you would like their prices even less.

I tip with an RC helicopter at the buffett.

Wasn't this covered in Reservoir Dogs?

They were sitting, I would have tipped 20%.

you would like their prices even less.
Actually depends on the place, managing a corporate owned pizza store has opened my eyes (mainly because I get to see every number in and out of that place).

Most of the money gets sucked up by corporate wasting it either in overpaid corporate heads or thousands blown on advertising that does very little that could be better put to use in our hands as management.

To personally own one of these stores and not deal with corporate overhead and using their wage method, I'd be making a killing, instead our store was like $1,200 in the hole 4 months ago (they break down corporate overhead to each store as a cost).

You people make my employees happy (pizza delivery drivers) :thumb:

I lived off of tips when I drove pizzas. The paycheck -- 40 hrs/wk plus some overtime -- went right back into the car (thank God I lived with Mom & Dad) -- gas, in$$$urance, etc. Tips were how I paid for everything else.

Pizza drivers always get a tip. If I'm at a party and they order pizza, I go to the door to make sure we tip the driver well. Even if it's late, they get a tip -- there are so many things that happen between placing the order and its arrival, yet hardly anything can truly be blamed on the driver.

Every other place, I tip. I'll go with a percentage (20% is stupid easy to calculate). If the restaurant is expensive, though, I tend to effectively cut down on the percentage. I don't think that so-so service for a $150 bill deserves a bigger tip than good service on a $30 bill. Yet, sometimes when I've only gotten a drink, I'll tip two or three bucks, basically the equivalent of 50% or more -- I figure that it was about as much effort to bring me a drink as it would've been to bring me a drink and a plate of wings.

The gray area for me is when the staff stays behind the counter, like at Starbucks or someplace like that. There is no tipping at McDonald's, for instance, and the kids at Starbucks basically do the same kind of work, with no busing tables or running around handling a half-dozen group orders. I see that tip jar on the countertop by the cash register and wonder, "Now what are they doing that the workers at McD's aren't also doing?"

Actually depends on the place, managing a corporate owned pizza store has opened my eyes (mainly because I get to see every number in and out of that place).

Most of the money gets sucked up by corporate wasting it either in overpaid corporate heads or thousands blown on advertising that does very little that could be better put to use in our hands as management.

To personally own one of these stores and not deal with corporate overhead and using their wage method, I'd be making a killing, instead our store was like $1,200 in the hole 4 months ago (they break down corporate overhead to each store as a cost).

hmmm, I was thinking ordinary restaurants. I usually will give a pizza driver a couple bucks.
This topic invariably opens pandora's box.

I lived off of tips when I drove pizzas. The paycheck -- 40 hrs/wk plus some overtime -- went right back into the car (thank God I lived with Mom & Dad) -- gas, in$$$urance, etc. Tips were how I paid for everything else.

Pizza drivers always get a tip. If I'm at a party and they order pizza, I go to the door to make sure we tip the driver well. Even if it's late, they get a tip -- there are so many things that happen between placing the order and its arrival, yet hardly anything can truly be blamed on the driver.

Every other place, I tip. I'll go with a percentage (20% is stupid easy to calculate). If the restaurant is expensive, though, I tend to effectively cut down on the percentage. I don't think that so-so service for a $150 bill deserves a bigger tip than good service on a $30 bill. Yet, sometimes when I've only gotten a drink, I'll tip two or three bucks, basically the equivalent of 50% or more -- I figure that it was about as much effort to bring me a drink as it would've been to bring me a drink and a plate of wings.

The gray area for me is when the staff stays behind the counter, like at Starbucks or someplace like that. There is no tipping at McDonald's, for instance, and the kids at Starbucks basically do the same kind of work, with no busing tables or running around handling a half-dozen group orders. I see that tip jar on the countertop by the cash register and wonder, "Now what are they doing that the workers at McD's aren't also doing?"


My bartenders, especially if I'm a regular somewhere, get 40% to 50% in tips. You can actually get a return on this.

0 dollars for buffets. It takes no mindfulness at all to remove plates from tables.

My bartenders, especially if I'm a regular somewhere, get 40% to 50% in tips. You can actually get a return on this.

I got the biggest return when I went with my ex and her friends. They had befriended a particular bartender somehow. We'd drink who-knows-what for a few hours and he'd only charge us around $5/person. :thumb:

(20% is stupid easy to calculate)

All I can say is...you'd be surprised.

Everything in our store is 20% off...and that's a stumper for the majority of folks. They ask me what the new price is, as if I'm a human calculator. Sure, I can do the math in my head, but why should I? I know...next time someone asks, I'll add the 20% and see if they catch on. Heh. :D

All I can say is...you'd be surprised.

Not really. I mean, there's stupider than stupid, too. :lol:

I tip with an RC helicopter at the buffett.

oh SNAP!!!:eek:

10%, unless the service was really good. In those cases, I tip 15%.

hmmm, I was thinking ordinary restaurants. I usually will give a pizza driver a couple bucks.
This topic invariably opens pandora's box.

Dude, seriously? A couple bucks? Don't be a prick and pay the people what they deserve.

Being a pizza driver for tips is an exercise in futility, too many people just won't lay down the nice tip. I remember delivering to some weekly meeting years ago, and they were always picky as hell about when they had to have it by and so on, and never tipped. So it was never on time lol, all the drivers avoided that run.

Restaurants - 20%ish. I avoid buffets, because the lack of service and the scary looking sneeze shield. :eek:

Now what's with these coffee shop potheads, who think they deserve a tip for handing you a cup of coffee? I frequent one that hands you an empty cup that you have to fill yourself, and has a tip bowl.

No tipping here. A friend of mine was once chased down by a confused waitress who found money he had "left behind" on the table.

Being a pizza driver for tips is an exercise in futility, too many people just won't lay down the nice tip. I remember delivering to some weekly meeting years ago, and they were always picky as hell about when they had to have it by and so on, and never tipped. So it was never on time lol, all the drivers avoided that run.

There were a few groups that never tipped -- doctors, a few businesses, really rich people, and really really poor people. I can understand the poor people who had to dig for change in the couch just to afford the one pizza that was going to last them most of the week. I can kinda understand the Autozone manager who paid me exact change from the safe -- he surely thought of it as a business expense and wanted the money to match what the receipt said (although he could've given a couple bucks out of pocket, right?). But the rich people, the ones who keep a kimono on display under plexiglas in the foyer and have a brand new harp in a shipping crate... :mad:


Restaurants - 20%ish. I avoid buffets, because the lack of service and the scary looking sneeze shield. :eek:

My dad once came back from the salad bar saying, "Well, the sneeze guard works!" Be thankful that they're there. :lol:


Now what's with these coffee shop potheads, who think they deserve a tip for handing you a cup of coffee? I frequent one that hands you an empty cup that you have to fill yourself, and has a tip bowl.

Now that's a new low in lack of service.

No tipping here. A friend of mine was once chased down by a confused waitress who found money he had "left behind" on the table.

So the signs that I see all the time here that say "Tipping is not a city in China" are true afterall. Who knew?

I tend to overtip.

Here's another one for you:

Do you tip at catered events like weddings? It is traditional for musicians to tip the servers when we get dinner. A 10-piece band can easily put up twenty or thirty bucks for whoever is lucky enough to serve our table. I have never seen a guest tip at a wedding though. Being a catering-hall waiter must suck.

I work at a lot of weddings.

Here's another one for you:

Do you tip at catered events like weddings?

Ah, interesting..

If it's a cash bar, I'll usually find a way to put something in the tip glass. Otherwise, no, I don't tip, and I'm not sure if I've seen anyone else tip. Technically speaking, it's not my money that's paying for dinner -- I'm just a guest. It's like when I'm out with family and my dad insists on getting the check, only on a much larger scale.

If I were running the event and had hired the caterers, it would probably be a lot different.

For the band, I'll at least let them take home the extra cases of beer. ;) That's what would make me happy if I played a wedding, after all.

I usually try to tip very generously, unless the service was just awful. I always pay with cash, so if my meal was, say, $12, I'll give them $17 or so and tell them to keep the change. Sometimes I'll go to Cracker Barrel with my parents, and I always offer to leave the tip because they think %5 is adequate. But really, I don't even eat at restaurants very often at all; maybe 4 or 5 times a year.

But I do have food delivered fairly often, and I will give those guys a really good tip because they are helping me be car free. :p Also, I know how much it sucks to drive in this town, and chances are they got flipped off or honked at just for turning into our apartments. So IMO a big tip is in order in this case. Besides, they're almost always very nice.

I tend to overtip.

Here's another one for you:

Do you tip at catered events like weddings? It is traditional for musicians to tip the servers when we get dinner. A 10-piece band can easily put up twenty or thirty bucks for whoever is lucky enough to serve our table. I have never seen a guest tip at a wedding though. Being a catering-hall waiter must suck.

I work at a lot of weddings.

In this case, I believe it is the responsibility of the person throwing the party (paying for it) to provide the tip.

When my kids got married, I specified that no tip jars were to be anywhere in sight, nor accepted. The bartenders got 20% of the bar bill, and the wait staff got 20% of the food bill.

The all seemed very pleased and appreciative......

0 dollars for buffets. It takes no mindfulness at all to remove plates from tables.

Sadly, it does. I've had a buffet waitress pull the partially filled plate from underneath my fork, as I was lifting the fork to my mouth. I literally grabbed it from her hand, and said, "Hey, I still want that."

She replied, "Oh, I can get you another. What do you want?"

I said, "I want that," and I pulled it from her hand as she tugged back. :notamused:

She didn't get much of a tip. ...I have this problem with wait staff in full service restaurants as well. If they steal my food, I will short them. Service at the end is just as important as service at the beginning.

i tpi very generously at the restairant I frequent often (rock bottm, la jolla). it's more than made up for in comp'd beers. besides, I love hanging out with osme of thoes gorgeous igrls when they'r edon ewith work!

last month, when i was back in NYC, i was sitting at the counter at veselka. for awhile nobody was taking my order. when someone finally asked what i wanted, it turned out to be the day manager.

once i was done with my soup, i sat there waiting to be presented a check. nope. when i asked the waiter, who was working the counter for a check, he asked me what i had.

needless to say, he did not get 15%. if i was generous, i probably tipped him the dutch way - round off the bill.

I kinda grew up w/ $1/person buffet tip but have expanded that to 10% since I've been bringing kids to the place. Although they are pretty well self-contained these days...


It occurred to me last night at the Chinese Buffet that $1/person > 10% actually.

The gray area for me is when the staff stays behind the counter, like at Starbucks or someplace like that. There is no tipping at McDonald's, for instance, and the kids at Starbucks basically do the same kind of work, with no busing tables or running around handling a half-dozen group orders. I see that tip jar on the countertop by the cash register and wonder, "Now what are they doing that the workers at McD's aren't also doing?"

That's kind of my conundrum too. In the old days, there was a qualitative difference in the coffee made by a good barista. You needed a bit of skill to operate those machines to produce a delicious cup of espresso. Nowadays, with the automated machines, even the milk heating and foaming are almost completely done without any requirement for user skill. That relegates the barista to essentially a Mickey D associate - low-skill, behind-the-counter server and cashier. What are we tipping for then?

About the only coffee place I tip nowadays is the meeting place for my Sunday rides. The guys there know me and are willing to put aside my usual order (that is very popular and tends to sell out early) so that I can get it after my ride.

For great restaurants with great service, 15% or more + rounded-off bill. For good restaurants, with good service, 10% with rounded off bill. For good restaurants, bad service, just rounded-off bill. If the place is REALLY bad, no tip at all. Let them think I'm a cheap *******--I'm not going back there anyway. *blows raspberry*

For buffet, I just leave a dollar and some change on the table for those who take the plates away. It does take a lot of effort to go back and forth to collect all the plates. But if they take away any food I'm still eating, no tip.

For occasions, if there's a tip jar, I will leave some coins; if not, I assume the host/ess will take care of the tips. Which they should.

Chain fast food/beverage? NO tip. I won't tip baristas at independent shops either, unless they are REALLY nice and make a REALLY good beverage.

Dude, seriously? A couple bucks? Don't be a prick and pay the people what they deserve.

One of our drivers used to have a very sound theory, he was actually a really smart guy. He said that when people waded the money in a certain way (usually like a 3-4 fold roll that turns out to be a rectangle about a half an inch across) it's always two bucks, he was right too. :lol:


Being a pizza driver for tips is an exercise in futility, too many people just won't lay down the nice tip. I remember delivering to some weekly meeting years ago, and they were always picky as hell about when they had to have it by and so on, and never tipped. So it was never on time lol, all the drivers avoided that run.

Restaurants - 20%ish. I avoid buffets, because the lack of service and the scary looking sneeze shield. :eek:

Now what's with these coffee shop potheads, who think they deserve a tip for handing you a cup of coffee? I frequent one that hands you an empty cup that you have to fill yourself, and has a tip bowl.
There is one no tipper I will never forget, during the fires in 2007 in Southern California, raining ash, we're one of the few pizza places able to stay open, and there was only one person who didn't tip me....

It was a decent neighborhood too.

Usually at a buffet the server visits my table more than at a regular restaurant, I tip the regular amount 15%. Regular restaurant average-good service 15-20%, outstanding service 20-25%. One thing drives me crazy about dining out with my closest friends, they like to tip 20-25% for average service.

I tip whatever is most convenient for me - either 15% or by rounding up to an even number that approximates 15%.

With that said, I wish we could just do away with the practice of tipping. If the wage that the waiter needs to make on my $10 burger is $1.50, they should just price the burger at $11.50 and not make me do math in my head at the end of the meal.

With that said, I wish we could just do away with the practice of tipping. If the wage that the waiter needs to make on my $10 burger is $1.50, they should just price the burger at $11.50 and not make me do math in my head at the end of the meal.

I don't know about doing away with it. As shown in this discussion, it's still an extra that's earned by good service. No tips can mean lackadaisical service.

And the math really isn't that hard, IMO. 10%, move the decimal; cut that in half for the extra 5%. Round the original total to a dollar amount to keep your math simple -- who cares what 15% of $0.13 is?

Additionally, elsewhere, tips aren't so huge. Like botto said about the Dutch, rounding to the next whole number is fine. In Germany, if it was a €13.50 bill and you wanted to tip well, you'd say to the waiter, "Fifteen," and he'd understand to pocket the extra cash. There, €1.50 is a pretty generous tip.

Having worked in this industry in my younger years, I am typically pretty generous. At a regular restaurant, 20% minimum. At a buffet, $1-$2 per person minimum. If my children are especially messy or I make special requests, that amount goes up. Sometimes I even tip the regular 20%.

ETA: Oh, and having nearly killed a pizza delivery guy in college on our outside "stairs of death", I am very generous to anyone who delivers to my house. Can you say guilt?

The problem with tipping at buffets is that at least with normal restaurants the host or hostess needs to be mindful of everyone's orders and table seating, menu, and so forth. Buffets have nothing to memorize -- you can daydream all work period and get by fine.

In the US, I generally tip a little bit, 10% or so. Back in the Netherlands, people used to tip until the Euro, then prices skyrocketed overnight and we all stopped tipping.

Besides, I do a job too, with a quality aspect to it, I don't get tips either. If your boss doesn't pay you enough, take that to your boss, don't expect me to make up the difference. But alas, when in Rome....

In the US, I generally tip a little bit, 10% or so.

you're a cheap bastard.


Back in the Netherlands,

you're a cheap bastard who also happens to be a living cliché.


people used to tip until the Euro, then prices skyrocketed overnight

correct.


and we all stopped tipping.

Besides, I do a job too, with a quality aspect to it, I don't get tips either. If your boss doesn't pay you enough, take that to your boss, don't expect me to make up the difference. But alas, when in Rome....

incorrect.

Having worked in this industry in my younger years,...

I wonder how much working "on the other side of the counter" affects what someone will tip. I've figured that the people who never tip also never carried food for money (hence my earlier note of rich people rarely, if ever, tipping for their pizza delivery).

But, if I were to put that question in a poll, I don't think I'd get an honest response. Nobody wants to come out and say that they're a sheltered, spoon-fed, cheap ******* who's never had to try washing grease out of a uniform. :lol: