Juliana L Holm wrote:
> > already paying more for the meal. If you are leaving a 15% tip on an > >
> expensive meal it is already a bigger tip than you would be paying in a less >
> expensive place.
>
> YMMV, of course. You may be paying a bigger tip, but you are usually getting more
> services.
More water? More cutlery? More glasses?
Generally, if you pay $6 for an appetizer, it involves the waitress taking your order
and returning with the dish, the same amount of service you would get if the dish was
priced at $12 or $20. You can get a drink for $3.95 in a cheap restaurant of $6.95 (or
more) in a good place, and it doesn't involve anymore service, just a trip back and
forth to the bar. Based on a flat 15% tip, the waitress is already making twice as
much in tips because the items cost twice as much.
> You also clipped the key part of my post.
>
That's because I responding specifically to you suggestion that one should leave a
higher percentage tip when in an expensive restaurant.
> Generally, a 15% tip will be accepted as at least a minimal tip anywhere in the US,
> particularly when provided by a foreign tourist.
>
> It is customary in some areas and in some restaurants to leave more. Generally these
> are high end places where the server spends particularly more time with you (and
> therefore has fewer customers) or in more expensive markets (like here in Washington
> DC).
They do? Who wants a waiter spending more time with them? ALl I want a waiter to do is
to take my order and bring my food, check on me once in a while to see if I need
anything else. I don't want them breathing over my shoulder. I am there with friends /
family / associates, not to hobnob with the wait staff.
> But 15% will be accepted pretty much everywhere, and 20% will be considere a good
> tip everywhere, so anywhere in that range is just fine.
Call me a cheap SOB, but if I am already paying 3-4 times as much for something because
it is a special restaurant, or if they are simply over priced, then the service had
better be bloody great just to get the 15% because I am already being gouged.
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