She ate food that was paid for. So what if she didn’t pay for it? Her son likely didn’t pay for his food either. They got more money out of her without the plate charge than if she had eaten nothing.
On the other hand, this wasn’t a buffet, was it? That’s the only time I’ve heard of a “plate charge” being charged. It makes sense then. If a specific meal was purchased, then it’s unreasonable.
If a restaurant is adding the tip to the bill I’d guess it’s because:
a) customers aren’t tipping, and the owner wants to protect his staff or,
b) the restaurant owner reads the Dope and has decided to try out this “I don’t believe in tipping so include it in the price” idea.
As to the plate charge, it’s kind of like a corkage fee. That is, you bring your own bottle of wine but someone has to show you a good time, open the bottle for you, bring you glasses, etc. C’mon, why not just pack yourself a picnic basket and eat it at your favorite restaurant? I’m sure restaurants would love that.
I’ve had people do that, and they always turn out to be swindlers who will also order food, eat half then complain they don’t like it and won’t pay, then they’ll go to the register and pay for something with a $5 bill and then swear they paid with a $20. Shit like that.
Well, if the plate charge is like a corkage fee, then why shouldn’t you bring your own food to eat off that plate?
I guess because it’s a business, and not your mom’s house.
So why do the let people pay corkage? Make up your mind, whether they’re selling things, or selling services, or emulating spurious comparisons to private houses.
If I ever pay someone to allow me to drink my own wine, it had better be served to me by a knockout waitress who drools it into my mouth.
If you go back again and the service is equally good, the 15% “auto-tip” shouldn’t be a factor; you may want to add more on top of it.
I don’t see the point of boycotting a place that has great food and service just because of a silly rule like that; if the service is bad, complain to the manager and refuse to pay the tip. You’d probably complain to the manager anyway about bad service, right? Whether or not there was an automatic tip on the line?
I vote for just ignoring the silly rule and enjoying the food and service. From what I understand, automatic gratuities are not even enforceable by law; you are not legally required to pay them. I understand completely why they are added to larger groups of people–and I’ve been both the waitress and the patron–but for a party of 5 or less it’s kinda insulting.
As for a plate charge…I’ve worked in the industry for over a decade and I’ve never heard of anything like that. I guess I could kinda rationalize it if a large party took up several tables, and proceeded to “split” all their entrees, or half the people just didn’t order anything…in a busy restaurant that’s a huge waste of real estate.
But that isn’t what happened to you, so I’m at a loss as to why anybody would offend their patrons that way. However, you said they no longer have a plate charge, so the point is moot.
I think you should eat and enjoy!
Actually, why not all of them? As I mentioned before, comedy clubs often have a two-drink minimum rule. There’s nothing objectively unreasonable about a rule that says that if you have three people and you’re only buying two items then we will charge $5 for the third person for sharing.
Plate charges annoy me, but I can agree with Harriet’s point. If the plate charge is clearly stated on the menu and each person receives their own plate, silverware, etc, then I can live with it, though it would make me less likely to return. My husband and I often split dishes because of the crazy-huge portions at restaurants. The alternative is not that we order two entrees; it’s that we each get an appetizer instead of an entree.
Plate charges are about the extra work/resources needed. Plates, silverware, napkins, salt, glasses of water… Someone still has to wash the dishes, fill the ice bins for the water, clean up the table, stock the bathroom, etc.
Maybe you didn’t use those services, but lots of people who share dishes do. It’s kind of like a fixed price on a buffet. Some customers take more, some take less. The restaurant has to set their prices to cover their costs.
I think it’s a good idea for a place like a diner that is as popular, busy, and upscale as you claim. It’s a great way for management to keep the riff-raff out and mantain standards for its wait staff. Also, a lot of people think that because they are in a diner that suddenly the 15% tipping rule doesn’t apply and will leave a pittance.
People who are offended by an automatic gratuity (the riff raff) won’t come back, freeing up the valuable seating space for tipping customers who don’t have a problem with gratuities. I mean, if you don’t have a problem with tipping then 15% would be the minimum you would leave anyways… a good tipper would leave more anyways.
Right, but the logical extension of “waiters must be tipped or they won’t give good service” is then to pay cashiers, receptionists, etc., under the minimum wage as well and make 'em work for tips.
You say that in a belligerent tone (yup, apparently I can channel voices through the internet, who knew?) as if people expect to be tipped on top of that charge. In my experience, they don’t.
When I become Overlord (overlady?) we will all do things the Singapore way and not tip anyone, although it isn’t an issue I get particularly incensed about one way or the other.
Well, it’s true that the 15% should be called a “service charge,” but as I’m sure you recall from other threads on this subject, it’s The Usual Thing Elsewhere. I’ll never understand why am I, the customer, supposed to pay a waiter directly when nobody expects me to pay a mechanic, a nurse or the postman. Mind you, in Spain “service” and sales tax are added directly to the listed price, none of that “lessee, if the menu says $20 and the sales tax is 10% that makes it $22, plus tip comes up to…”
Wrong. Tipping should not be automatic; either on the restaurant’s part or the diner’s. It should be based on service.
As far as the plate charge, I don’t have a problem with that. You still have to be waited on and cleaned up after. If the entree is too much food, that’s why they invented doggie bags.
For those of you defending the plate charge, it’s absolutely the diner’s right to add one if they choose. Look at the result though: I haven’t been back in 4 years because of it, 2 of which I lived less than a mile away from the diner. We eat out about once a week, if I had chosen the Broadway diner as one of these places to eat out just 1/4 of the time, that would have been 24 more visits in the 2 years I lived close by. Averaging, say, $45/visit, means that their niggardly $5 plate charge for all of the extra work that my wife caused (sarcasm) cost them over $1000 in future custom. That’s a great business decision there, yessiree Bob.
What kind of abuse are you talking about? You even had noticed in advance that a 15% service charge/tip would be included. I assume nobody held you at gunpoint forcing you to eat there? And if you’re complaining on behalf of the waiter, nobody prevented you from tipping more if you wanted to, I suppose? As for it being an incentive for waiters to offer poor service, how long will it take for the manager to fire the waiter if customers complain/ don’t come back because the service is lousy? And apparently, you were satisfied with the service, so it seems to actually work.
And of course, basically the whole planet except Americans expect the restaurant, not the customer, to pay the waiter, and nobody feels abused.
As for the plate charge, I can’t manage to feel incensed about it, either. It seems to me it’s a courtesy on the part of the restaurant to let a non-paying “customer” sit at the table. However, in this case, I think you should have been told in advance rather than being “ambushed” with a $5 charge at the end of the meal.
Apparently the restaurant managed to stay open for several years despite this policy and despite you not eating there anymore. So it seems the owner is quite competent to make business decisions. Maybe he feels he’s making more money by discouraging people who want to sit in the restaurant without ordering anything to come back.
Unless the entree is something that won’t be good the next day (reheated fried food is not so tasty, IME) or you’re traveling and don’t have access to a refrigerator/microwave. Ordinarily, I have no problem with doggie bags, but they’re not always feasible. I agree that it’s well within the restaurant’s right to do a plate charge, as long as it’s stated up front. But there are tons of great restaurants in my town that don’t do plate charges, and by and large, I choose to patronize them instead.
Before I moved down to NC I was visiting a friend who lived here on a regular basis. When I did, we stayed at a hotel (her place is out in the country, and not convenient for anything) and ate at various restaurants. There were times when the portions were more than we could finish, and we both felt bad about all the food we were wasting. Doggie bags were out of the question, since the food wouldn’t last until she could get it home. We never thought of trying to split an entree but if we had, paying a $5 “plate charge” would have been cheaper than the cost of a second meal, and certainly less wasteful.
Well, for that or dog shit. An ambiguity with comic potential, if you’re given to that sort of thing.