I’m disappointed to say that I had to use it this morning, but thanks to the Dope for telling me about it.
I was staying at a place in Jackson. The prior evening I had supped well at the grill there but this morning I thought I would try their upscale restaurant. Big mistake. I ordered Eggs Benedict and tea, specifying English Breakfast tea or similar. The tea arrived with no milk. The eggs were a long time in coming and when they came had almost no sauce and one was over cooked. And there was no discernible lemon in the Hollandaise. It was too late to send it back - I was going to be leaving.
So I found the lowest value coin I had - 5c - and left that as a tip.
The grill I had the evening before was superb, as was the service, and fully merited the generous tip I gave there.
Giving an insult tip because of the food quality is absurd. Do you really think that’s going to send a message back to the kitchen that things were sub-par? How the fuck is the server supposed to know that?
Munch is right. Maybe the waitstaff does quality control on the kitchen’s output in Scotland, but not so much here. It’s nice that the Dope told you about the insult tip, but it’s too bad that we didn’t instruct you in its proper use.
When ordering a hot brewed beverage in the U.S., the default whitener/lightener is cream, half-and-half, or some form of non-dairy “creamer”, either in liquid or powder form. Milk can be had, but usually only on request.
Unless the restaurant staff have a system where they gather up all tips and divvy it amongst themselves, then this means that you are punishing a waiter/waitress for something that probably isn’t the server’s fault. And even if the restaurant DOES use that system, this means that everyone is collectively punished for the fault of one or two people in the kitchen.
The wait staff could have told me there would be a delay; they did not. The wait staff could have performed a basic QA on the meal: is there really enough sauce there? They did not. So their culpability is common.
I don’t think “insult” is the proper descriptor for the type of tip you left. The fact that you have not posted in the Pit prevents me from providing the correct terminology.
If you gave the server no indication that there was anything wrong, and gave the server no chance to have the kitchen correct the problems you perceived with your meal, then stiffing the server was a really shitty move.
I should add that if you’re going to stiff every waiter who brings a Benedict where there is “no discernible lemon in the Hollandaise,” you will quickly become a very unpopular diner.
Also, as someone who was raised on English-style tea, but who moved to the US as an adult, i quickly came to understand that you should always specify that you want milk with your tea. If you don’t, there’s a good chance it will not be provided automatically.
Nope - that is in no way when you would use the “insult tip”. Which, should be pointed out - you *just *read about on the internet. The wait staff may not have known there’d be a delay. Maybe a quick glance around the restaurant could have told you it was busy, and you’d have figured that out yourself.
There’s nothing in your initial post that gives me the slightest pause that you received adequate service. Not stellar - but certainly adequate. A fucking nickel is bullshit. Learn from this experience, add it to the 3 minutes of research you did previously on the subject, and don’t do it again.
When I was in Scotland, someone noticed my habit of blowing my nose on the shirts of passing wait staff. They told me I lacked the necessary social graces to eat out in their country. It was helpful advice, and I was grateful to them for the information.
Quartz, you were so wrong, I hope you learn the truth of that. As others have said, you punished the wait staff for poor food. If you think they could have told you about the delay, well, why didn’t YOU ask about it? You should have left an adequate tip, and asked the server for thae name and number of the manager, so you could later comment.
You were extremely rude is what you did. Sorry if we aren’t doing a pile on to support you, like you seem to have expected.
Just as a reality check, it is common to have to ask for milk with tea. I think it is very unusual not to have to ask for milk.
The wait could well be unreasonable. Same with the amount of sauce, seems like a subjective things, but asking for more sauce is a totally reasonable thing to do. An overcooked egg is unfortunate. Insufficiently lemony Hollandaise is a straight-up nitpick.
I’ve had tons of meals along the quality that you mention. I have tipped at least 15%, instead of 20%, on the basis of a long wait; but then simply not to back to a place that I don’t think serves good food.
The U.S. is a big place with many, many, many regional differences. Where I am, milk is most common, followed by half & half. And some nicer places include milk and lemon with their tea service, presumably to anticipate differing customer tastes.
I think I’m going to replace my go-to line to infer that someone is an insufferable snob from “Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon” to “Pardon, me, but I failed to find any discernible lemon in this Hollandaise.”
