Tipping "who to"

[DaveL]

Dave, do they not take the food allergy seriously? I thought restaurants were very good at this stuff now due to fear of litigation.

Her food allergy is to something call Annatto which is a food colouring made from the seeds of the Annatto tree. If you eat a cheese that is yellow/red then it has almost certainly had Annatto added to it. It can also be found in many vanilla ice creams to make them look more creamy.

We have had a number of chefs come to our table and state ' you're fine here we do have that product in our kitchen'. I then point out to them the items on the menu which do have it in and they go away and check properly.

Conversely we have had chefs come to the table with the complete list of ingredients for a meal and others who have altered a dish so that it was possible for her to have it.

Disney and Universal both Parks and Hotels are always excellent, Downtown Disney and CityWalk are almost as good as are large percentage of individual restaurants.

If you have one of the big well know allergies then everyone is on the ball it's the strange ones that can catch them out.

Dave

[MTP]

Every day's a school day, thanks Dave.

[florida4sun]

25% is excessive for any service but that is your choice:

15% for good service
10% for ok service
20% for great service
for poor service leave $1 and write service on it and they will understand.
Leave nothing and they dont know if was the service or you were a tightwad

As Roger says a good server can make serious money and a strong career out of the job. Another thing which I have witnessed twice is people doing a runner, always when a restraunt is really busy. The server covers the loss, it is their table and they should look after. Once served by an old dear in ihop. She was distraught as it was her second that day. She was lovely and got a tip big enough to cover the loss (ok affordable in ihop, would though twice in main stream restraunt).
Tipping is catching in here in england but staff are not paid the same way, tips are bonus and not a neccesity. In the usa tips are the difference between going home with money or not.

Either 10% or 20% depending on the server and what they have actually done.

When you're a large party and when a lot of them are kids, it's a tough one as you are spending a lot of money on the meal ($300 in Raglans Irish Pub) so to leave an additional 25% on top is hard! Should they really expect me to leave an additional $75???

[DaveL]

25% is excessive for any service but that is your choice:

I totally agree and would not normally go this high.

However when a chef makes a special sauce, alters a meal or cooks a special meal and deliveries it to the table himself we increase the tip. I know it does not all go to the chef. As well as thanking them I hope the message that we appreciated the effort gets back for the next guest who needs this service.

We are also in the Orlando area a lot so often go to many of our favorite restaurants where we see the same servers. Most of the time it's just the two of us so the difference between a normal tip and a good tip is an extra $5 which I feel is worth it.

Dave

[Katys Grandad]

The thing about tipping that make no sense to me is the fact that it is calculated on a percentage basis and doesn't reflect the amount of work and attention involved. I don't think there's any more skill or ability required in a waiter delivering lobster to a table than egg and chips. The whole system actually penalises the big spender in an expensive place which seems the wrong way around.

Why should I tip the waiter $15-20 on a $100 bottle of wine when there's no more work to opening and pouring a $20 bottle? That said, I actually do!

[caroline]

The thing about tipping that make no sense to me is the fact that it is calculated on a percentage basis and doesn't reflect the amount of work and attention involved. I don't think there's any more skill or ability required in a waiter delivering lobster to a table than egg and chips. The whole system actually penalises the big spender in an expensive place which seems the wrong way around.

Why should I tip the waiter $15-20 on a $100 bottle of wine when there's no more work to opening and pouring a $20 bottle? That said, I actually do!

I'm totally with you on the wine!

In a similar vein, you sit at the bar and order 2 cocktails - the bill comes to say $20 - fair bit of 'bar tending' to make the cocktails or you order a $100 bottle of wine - pops cork and pours 2 glasses... what would you tip in each situation?

[gpullan]

I agree that it should go on how much work they do rather than the bill. Obviously that's not possible but agree in principle.

We have the issue sometimes that we are usually a party of 8+ people so 18% is automatically added to the bill. This is ok in some instances but when 5 of the 8 are kids then i would rather decide on the tip myself. A difficult one to stomach is the character breakfasts. We were at party of 10 last year and the bill was from memory around $240 and we didn't have a server as it was all help yourself buffet, so over $40 went to who?

[drino]

Be careful with this,we just got back and i cant remember it being this bad!
5 of us evening meal or any meals come to think of it,they automatically put 12-18% on your bill,good service or not.

[roger]

Be careful with this,we just got back and i cant remember it being this bad!
5 of us evening meal or any meals come to think of it,they automatically put 12-18% on your bill,good service or not.

Something doesn't sound right there. We live here, and the 6 of us eat out around twice a week every week, and I can't think of a single occasion when a tip has been automatically added. When we go out with friends, and there are 8 of us then the tip usually is added automatically (and very rarely with 7 of us it is added).

[florida4sun]

I have had this happen with 4 of us, rare but it happens. I was miffed and asked for it to be removed, as I will decide what the tip is. Cannot remember where we were but a shopping center rings a bell. With any tip added to a bill, they will remove it if you ask or have good reason to remove/reduce it (something us brits are not good at).

Something doesn't sound right there. We live here, and the 6 of us eat out around twice a week every week, and I can't think of a single occasion when a tip has been automatically added. When we go out with friends, and there are 8 of us then the tip usually is added automatically (and very rarely with 7 of us it is added).