What you should you really tip at a restaurant?

Question

I just watched the featured video on tipping. I have also read many comments about tiping. Whether it be getting haircut, takeout,fast food, quiznos,starbucks. My main focus is on restaurants. if people are expected 25-35% for a tip they need to be providing excellent service. 15% is a good job in my eyes and if they think I am an @$$hole than they should put their foot in my shoes. I am not a rich person that can give them that much. I have been in places and not tipped at all. Why because the service was cr@py. I just came in for a simple capachino *sp. and it took over 30minutes and there was maybe 2 other parties in there. Never ask if everything was fine or if I needed anything else. fyi this was at a dennys. As for take out. The person answers the phone and takes your order. Less than 2 minutes. Besides your paying for the gas to get there and than they have a tip jar in front. Pizza delivery.

Answer 1

It def. depends on the service.  Usually i would go for 20% if service is good.  If the service is crappy, then they dont deserve a good tip!

Answer 2

Around here most people tip aout 3-5 dollars (5 for excellent service). We don't have any of those really fancy resturaunts or anything, but we know the waitresses depend on it, but there's no way I'm tipping 35% of my bill! Service is never that good! If everyone starts tipping waitresses and waiters 35% of meal bills, I'm changing careers!

Answer 3

15% tip of the total bill unless it is 15 people or more.

Answer 4

Real simply.  Above and beyond, really exceptional service - 20%.  Good -15%  Average - 10%.  Less than average - 0%.

Don't know who the morons are leaving a tip for lousy service, but I don't make enough to tip people for a crappy job.  Same with some outrageous tip.  If they don't like 10-15%, they can find another job, like mine, that tips nothing.

Answer 5

I have a few rules of thumb here. At a restaurant tip 10% for terrible service, 15% for ok service and 20-25% for excellent service. I have even been known to tip 50% when the service was exceptional. I know that waiters and waitresses only make about 2.13 an hour so they depend on their tips, however I will not tip 20% for terrible service.  

Now for pizza delivery, remember they do not get the service charge, that charge goes to the pizza place. I always tip 10% for delivery and if it was extremely fast and the guy is friendly I might leave a little more.

Subway, quiznos and other places like that I do not tip at all because those employees are paid minimum wage or higher and it is their job to make your sandwich.

Take out is a little different then what evertyone thinks. I have worked in this business before as a waitress and it is not just picking up the phone and taking an order. When doing a take out you have to take out atleast 5 minutes sometimes longer to help the person on the phone. So you put the order in the computer, check all the boxes to make sure there right, add all condiments, napkins and silverware, print out the check, get the drinks, run credit card and then close check. That takes alot of time away from the tables you have and that ultimately could make your tips lower from them. I ALWAYS tip when getting take out. Atleast 10% sometimes more if the person helped me alot.

Answer 6

You're making the whole thing more complicated than it needs to be. If she's a good waitress and I like her I tip a whole bunch; if she's merely a good waitress I tip her good and if she's a lousy waitress, she's still there doing the job so I just tip her reasonable.

Life would be a lot easier for you and better for the waitresses if you stayed home and cooked.

Answer 7

My rule of thumb is, 15 to 20% for average service, and above that for great service. If you don't have enough money to leave a tip then you have fast food or eat at home.

I waitressed for 5-6 years and alot of people do not realize that I had to pay a percentage of my tips in taxes, and sometimes the percent that was being taken out of my check was more than I had even made in tips. I always provided great service, sometimes you just get cheapskate people who have you running your butt off and then leave you a $2 tip on a $50 tab.

Sometimes people don't realize also, that not everything that goes wrong is the servers fault, sometimes the kitchen is being slow or you have other tables that are running you ragged and some people think you should have super powers or bow to their every whim.

Answer 8

15-20% depending on the quality of food and service

Answer 9

yeah, i would say it depends on the service,their attitude,and their patience.

Answer 10

just go for 5 bucks

Answer 11

I've done this for ten years...we expect 20%, I'm not being rude, but we do.  I've been a bartender, waitress, & manager, and 20% is expected, usually, although we don't want to actually 'ask' for it.  When we have gratuity added onto the bill @ the place I'm at now, we add 18%.  That's higher than I bet a lot would think on this list of answers.  AND most waitresses usually get a coupla extra dollars on top of that.  Maybe I just work with a better class of servers?  PS.  I'm in the Detroit area =)

Answer 12

Almost all get 10-15%, not including tax (never tip on the whole bill - you do not tip on tax).  If she was absolutely outstanding maybe it gets into the 20% range, and if she sucks, nothing.  I don't tip for bad service.

I also have a problem with the fact an IHOP waitress will bust her asss for a 4 dollar tip, and a nice Italian restaurant server might make 15 bucks on fair service.  So generally the higher the bill, the harder the server has to work to get a better tip.  Over $50 and the tip is almost never more than 10%.

Answer 13

15% is what i have on mly  fone tip calculator, i just give like 4-6 dollars depending on how the service really was