Reply With QuoteIn a restaurant, yes.Originally Posted by solwisesteve
Sometimes in a cafe. If I just ordered coffee and they got it wrong, definitely not!
M.
Yes
No
Just wondered how often people tip in restaurants or cafes. Is this common practice (in the UK I mean)?
Personally just about every time unless the service/food was very bad.
tbh I wonder if we tip too often. e.g. cafe yesterday late pm. I ask for a double espresso and get a single (this is not the first time at this establishment). We still left a tip.
Typically around 10%.
In a restaurant, yes.
Sometimes in a cafe. If I just ordered coffee and they got it wrong, definitely not!
M.
In a restaurant...
If the food and service are both bad, I leave a paltry tip. If one or other is bad, I leave a small tip.
If both are good enough I would leave a minimum 10%
If both are excellent I would gladly leave 15%-20%
In a cafe, more like 10% and round up to the nearest quid if the service was good
Yes, but I always ask if the waiting staff get the tips...I know of places where the owners keep it, which is poor. Tipping is important to make up the wages, I think.
Wow 20% that must be some REALLY excellent restaurant ;-)
On a similar note though.... when is a cafe a restaurant? Is it down to table service? I mean table service classifies it as a restaurant?
I always ask too, when Im paying by card ( nearly always ) I rarely leave a tip via card but use cash, more chance the server gets it, most times though the tips are pooled apparently.
Always tip in a restaurant, rarely a cafe.
Yes always but only if the service has been good, and always with cash so you know the person serving you gets it.
Rightly or wrongly, I distinguish between a meal (restaurant) and a coffee and scone (cafe). The former, I tip 10% to 15% unless the service is mediocre or less.
In the case of a cafe, it is difficult as most take payment at the counter up front and I would occasionally throw some loose change into a tips jar when it is one of my regular haunts. I never get the impression that there is an expectation of tips in a cafe.
Last edited by Nugget; 9th June 2016 at 09:20.
Always in a restaurant
Sometimes in a cafe
Wow, really?
I'm usually a generous tipper but if service is bad they have no chance. We had a waitress in a small restaurant recently sit on an empty table playing on her phone while not serving. It makes YOU feel like the rude one for disturbing her when asking for drinks, the bill etc. I got the impression she was a relative (daughter?) of the owner, and I did "give him my feedback" after the meal.
The place is brand new and only has about 30 tables, they should be pulling out all the stops to keep it at capacity really. The bill was £52 and a few pence, I paid cash and rounded it up to the nearest quid (I felt guilty afterwards) but if she'd been a little bit more professional I wouldn't have thought twice about leaving £60.
Zero tip if service is bad. Other than that totally dependent on quality of service.
I generally don't leave anything anywhere it's self-service such as a coffee shop. In cafe/restaurants with table service anything up to 10% of the bill depending on service, though I've occasionally given more if it's exceptional.
10% if its up to the mark. Cash never on card as the staff hardly ever get the tip.
20% if its brilliant overall.
0% if its bad. In fact I've walked out of a few particularly bad places after refusing to pay.
I've sent the food back though.
When service is on the bill I rarely tip more than 10% regardless.
If its really bad service I usually still pay it but will vote with my feet and not come back.
In a restaurant
Food or service bad = no tip
Then a sliding scale upwards, depending on how good it was.
Don't use cafes
I do but rarely 10% more like 5%, and only when the service is good.
So what do you guys do if the food is good but the service was poor and vice versa, because as mentioned above, the tips are usually pooled and they all get an equal share.
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10% at restaurants in the UK (doesn't always go well in the US)
If I've been served at my table then I leave a tip. As others have said I'll vary the tip depending on food quality and quality of service. If both or good then my tip will be about 10% of the bill unless services has been included (a few places still do this). Exceptionally I may increase the tip if my server(s) has worked hard to look after us or it's been a big group.
If I'm in a coffee bar where I have to queue to get served then generally I don't tip.
only tip when service charge not added... and 10%-15% usually
be it cafe or restaurant (served only, self-service tip jars may get some loose change or what have you if I'm in a good mood)
It helps if you have worked waiting tables in the past or not, they do make up your wages and force you to be nice and polite to everyone which is what they are expecting anyway
Last edited by Xantiagib; 9th June 2016 at 13:15.
Never if service charge is added to bill. Always otherwise.
Tips are not expected here and will sometimes offend if offered. But I usually tip around 10%, even in the bar.
I tip the barber 100% everytime, and I have my hair cut every fortnight. Sounds extreme but it's difficult to get a decent haircut here unless you go high end, and then there is still no guarantee.
+1 a classic :-)
+ 1 for the barber. My Turkish barber charges me £11 and I always leave £20 (cheap I know!)
I've never left a tip in a cafe.
In a restaurant I always leave a tip, amount dependant on who I'm with. Would say between 10 to 20%.
Last night I was out with few friends, £500 bill paid on a card and £100 cash as a tip. Food was okish but the service excellent. In my opinion the tip is for the service only, if the food is no good they just won't get my business in the future.
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If the service and product warrant it I will tip. 8f not I vote with my wallet, don't tip and seldom return.
If the food and service are at worse "good" then I tip 10-15% cash never on the card.
I was once refused a second pint at the bar in LAX departure gate because I didn't tip the barman 10%. (It was $10 for a pint of cold American pi## as it was !)
What he didn't know was that I was there to use up the remainder of my cash and would have bunged him whatever was left when my flight was called.
His loss. I bought a bottle of single malt with it instead, and had free drinks on the flight back to Heathrow.
In a bar, I usually tell the bar man to get himself one on the 1st round, then maybe every 3rd round.
Makes getting served much easier as the night goes on.
I tip 0, 10 or 20 for poor, good and absolutely incredible respectively. I tip at bars if ordering cocktails but not for a bottle of beer. If in the same pub all night I would tip once.
Why does it depend on who you're with?!
I do not like tipping and say this from the perspective that cafe/restaurant etc owners should be paying staff a decent living wage and not be reliant upon customers propping up wages of their staff. Am I being tight or the business owners?*
Having said this, if paying in cash I normally round up but if paying by credit card, then no.
(I am being tight but I guess it all adds up for the purchase of the next watch).
😀
I'll give a tip but less than I would have done normally. 5% max. If service was included I would not give anything further.
They can police their own staff in terms of who is good and bad. That differentiation is irrelevant to my overall dining experience anyway.
Because if we are sharing the bill I might be comfortable with 20%, someone else 5%, some 0, etc. I go out with friends, colleagues, customers, family.
Obviously if I'm paying I'll give them what I want...
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Brings up a good point.
I always tip in countries where it's an accepted custom. In such places employees often have little or no basic wage. It's simply churlish to refuse to tip in such circumstances just because you personally don't agree with it. My only caveat is that they have to actually provide a service and I still insist that the level of tip matches the level of service rather than blindly giving 10%, 15% or whatever,
Ah that makes sense! I thought it might be more along the lines of "0% on my own, 25% when on a date"
I've been with my wife for 11 years... Dates where I need to impress are a thing of the past...Ah that makes sense! I thought it might be more along the lines of "0% on my own, 25% when on a date"
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Interesting one. Have to admit that my tipping lacks consistancy. It's broadly governed by the level of service, but is also influenced by what cash I happen to have on me and the rounding up of the bill. I'm in two minds about the American system. On the one hand the level of expectation is alien to me, but on the other, you do get a lot better service. The UK feels like neither one thing nor the other, with nobody really sure when and how much to tip, and waiting staff not generally motivated to better performance by the expectation.
In the first hand of Poker I played in Vegas many years ago I won a good chunk of cash and neglected to tip the dealer.
At the time it was not acceptable to tip in casinos over here, so I never gave it a second thought. Half a dozen hands later when another big pot was awarded and the winner chucked a $5 chip at the dealer I realised my cock-up, and while I tipped the odd dollar through the rest of the afternoon I never won another big pot so didn't get the opportunity to rectify my mistake. The next day the table was declared "full" (there were 6 players on a 10 seat table). They do hold a grudge...
If we're talking about bars I always buy the barman/barmaid one in smaller pubs, but rarely in chain pubs or franchises like Wetherspoons - no idea who gets the money.
In my old local (now bulldozed for flats) the barmaid used to take 20p when offered a drink. They hired a very friendly Polish lad for busy Friday nights and the first time he was on my mate said "get yourself a drink" then wondered why he had no change out of a £20 note - Chap had bought himself a double blue-bols and lemonade at about £8!.
Always cash to the server.
You don't know where it goes if you pay on a card.
Always expected in US, usually leave cash on the table.
Cheers,
Neil.
Depends entirely on the food and the service although never if the service charge has been added already.Poor food but a helpful and cheerful server will still result in a tip.Good food and poor service will be much less likely to result in a tip. Probably around 10-15% on average.
I always tip if service is good. Never tip if service is crap
Can anybody confirm tipping practice in US, it always baffles me.
I was in a bar in NYC years ago and myself, friends and locals were all sat around a small bar. The bar tender didn't even have to get up out of his seat to grab a beer from the cooler but yet I'm sure everybody was tipping him $1 for each drink (or round, I can't remember). I just thought it was crazy
To the OP, if you received something you didn't order, why would you tip? I would ask for what I actually ordered then tip accordingly.
The barman trick is good and works most of the time.
I took my niece and nephew to burger and lobster at the weekend. Bill comes and I ask the chap if he gets the tip. He proudly says yes he does. Great I thought. So I double confirmed, you get the tip, yes? Or does the owner use my tip to pay you. He replies that in fact he gets paid minimum wage and the tip tops this up. What a liberty in a place like B+L which can easily pay staff sensible money. I still paid the service but really must stop paying service by card and pay it solely in cash or not at all
I pay 10% if I'm happy with the food and service.
Try New York. It's pretty much expected that you pay 20% no matter what.
I had a mare in a restaurant last week. Bill came to £105 and I paid by card. Machine came and the waitress gave it me with Gratuity on the screen. I typed £115 thinking it was the total of the transaction. It was only when I did it again in a separate place the missus corrected me and pointed out I had left a £115 tip! What a gormless knob I am.
Ha - you best go back mate. They will have the best table ready for you and a fine scotch and cigar for afters :)
I always used to, but not since the national minimum wage was introduced, unless the service is spectacularly good. Why should I? I don't tip shop assistants, car park attendants or any of the other low paid workers I come across on a daily basis.
In the U.S. I do as waiters are exempt from minimum wage because they get tips.
Last edited by Cynar; 9th June 2016 at 18:59.
Not very often,and if service charge is added I never pay it ,had many a barny in that place called London ,Ho and got locked in a Chinese in Manchester
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Exactly the same here - I always check. Quite often tips put on cards don't end up going to the staff, so I give cash instead.
In my view, management keeping tips is fraud. But it is surprisingly common.
Last edited by TheFlyingBanana; 10th June 2016 at 09:23.
So clever my foot fell off.
At B+L they should definately be able to afford more than minimum wage. Very pricey (especially for a burger) and overrated IMO. I usually leave about 10% if food an service is good. Has to be pretty bad for me to leave nothing. What really annoys me is the "optional" 12.5% service charge added at loads of places, especially in London now-what was wrong with 10%? They also get very annoyed if you ask them to remove this "optional" charge as well when the food is bad or want to leave service in cash.
Yes, unless service was poor.
Andy
Wanted - Damasko DC57
Typically leave around 10% if table service and service is ok.
However, I don't really understand why we tip a percentage of her bill when the waiter / waitress is working just as hard whether it is a cheap restaurant or an expensive one. Just because someone is 'lucky' enough to work in a top end restaurant, not sure why they should receive a hugely inflated tip compared to a cheaper restaurant.
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