Ah, that’s okay. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “sweet salvation”.
Seriously though, Makeedees marketed a whole boatload full of better imaginary characters.
My standard tip is 20 percent, unless the service was terrible. Then it degrades. I rarely give more than 20, but have been known to if I thought that they did an outstanding job.
Generally 20-25%, although if I’m a regular it goes up to 30%+.
Theres only been one time that I left no tip - trust me - the waitress deserved nothing. In fact, she should have paid us for having ruined our evening - ie raceist comments made within hearing range of my pale white self, and my non-pale, non-white SO regarding our poor future children. She’s entitled to her opinion, but I’m sure not going to pay her for sharing it with me. Yes, the manager was complained to.
I have three sons that at one time or another have been waiters (two are now in resturant management). A year or so ago, they were talking and mentioned this stereotype. I had never heard it before. Shortly after that I was having a late breakfast and the only other customers were a female and 2 male blacks. They were enjoying themselves and all at once the woman yelled out “Remember when we used to steal tips?”, followed by a round of laughter. That still does not mean it is anything more than a stereotype, maybe just a coincidence. 
I usually leave money on the table. Sometimes, if I’m using my debit card, I’ll put it on there.
No, I’m usually fairly generous with tips, because I don’t eat anywhere expensive. I feel that when I’m paying 10-15 dollars for dinner, a 3-5 dollar tip is appropriate. Even better, for the people at the Waffle House that I’m a regular at, it’s usually more like 3 dollars for 6 dollars worth of food.
I had exactly the opposite experience–I waited on a huge party from the Ringling Brothers circus one night when they were in town; it was mostly roadie-types. They drank the place dry and left a huge tip.
I usually tip 18-20%, more (potentially way more) for good service, down to 10-15% for less than good. I will stiff them if it’s really bad, but I never leave nothing at all; then he might assume I just forgot (which happens a lot). I’ll leave a dollar or even a quarter instead.
Our moving instructions clearly said that the movers accepted tips, which I thought was a little crass; it’s hard not to tip them when they say that. I ended up not tipping them after all, though, when they turned out to be horrible.
I tip at least 15% in a diner/restaurant/cafe, unless the service is absolutely horrendous.
At the bar, I’ll tip 100% and tip on each drink (but then I don’t drink alcohol, so my drinks are rarely more than $1-2 apiece). supervenusfreak tips irregularly at the bar (he’ll tip after the fifth (sixth/tenth) drink or tip only when we leave) and for some reason it always make me uncomfortable, like the bartender will think we’re stiffing him.
I won’t tip more than $1 at a buffet, though. The servers don’t do anything but bring you drinks…why should I tip them as much as I’d tip a full-service waitress.
20%+ for good service
15-20% for average service
10-15% for slightly below average service
0% if service is poor enough to require a talk with the manager–and the one time our party got up and started walking out of the restaurant after slightly more than an hour of waiting (after all food had been consumed) for someone to bring the bill. The server caught us at the door with the bill.
I generally tip 20% for reasonable and adequate service. More for really excellent service. But then, I waitressed in a former life. A wait person has to really, REALLY mess up to get a lousy tip from me.
Also, I never tip zero, unless for some bizarre reason I forget (yes, it’s happened on a rare occasion), I tip a really small amount plus two cents, and if it’s beyond bad, just the 2 cents, from a supposedly old custom (could be a UL), where this means “you’re not worth 2 cents”.
That way they don’t think you forgot, they KNOW you messed up.
Depends on the buffet.
My friends and i occasionally go to a fixed price buffet brunch at a local Indian restaurant on Sundays. The buffet is very reasonably priced, and you can go back as many times as you want.
The waiters are extremely attentive about refilling the water glasses, bringing any other drinks, clearing away dirty plates (if you want seconds, they encourage you to take a clean plate from the buffet), and generally making sure everything is running smoothly. They also keep the buffet table itself neat and tidy, and ensure everything is refilled as necessary.
These waiters work as hard, in my opinion, as some waiters in a full-service setting. With a reasonably-priced meal, and such attentive service, we usually leave somewhere from 15-18%.
I do think of them as tips. Well, also a gift. But a business gift, and one that is definitely related to service.
I start with a base assumption of 20% and go from there. If the waitstaff are reasonably attentive, given the overall work load, then it’s 20%–or above, depending on deftness.
IME some of the worst service offenders are pseudo-tony restaurants where hype way outruns quality. Introductions (“I’m Brad and I’ll be your server tonight”) are often a bad sign. It’s such a phony the-maitre-d’-knows-me facade. Knowing the server by his/her name isn’t necessary, and it surely doesn’t compensate for inefficiency. Yeah, sometimes servers are required to go through that spiel. No points off immediately, but faux-classy personalization doesn’t trump indifferent service. I don’t buy ‘nice’ joint=automatic big tip. Scripted chat and nice uniforms aren’t important. Prompt, deft, unobtrusive mindfulness is.
Anyone over-tipped at a place to make up for stingey friends? At the local Denny’s I used to go to, I’d tip about 20%, to make up for the fact that I was coming in so late (I usually tip around 15%, because im a starving college student.) It was usually the same guy who would wait on me too, but I didnt go that often so I dont think he remembered me.
I went one night with 8 people, and not only did they leave a mess, they also ordered too much food and all my money went to cover their deficit and so the tip was miniscule. (Three people went with six bucks on them. Total. They were the ones who ordered the most, ironically, and left the biggest mess.) My end of the bargain skyrocketed from $5 to almost $15. We were forced to leave a pile of change (less than two bucks) on the table as a tip. When I was back a few days later I left the rest of the tip, and a note apologizing for the mess of a few days prior. He probably didnt know what I was talking about, but it made me feel better. I live in a job where I work for tips, and so I am always conscious about how much I tip.
Tipping really bothers me. It’s not something I’ve ever done and hasn’t been practised widely in Australia, although that appears to be changing.
I don’t dine at restaurants and I can’t think of anywhere else I’d tip but I do like to buy myself lunch once a week at a small, friendly coffee shop near where I live. I began leaving a small tip (more just a matter of rounding up than an actual percentage) because the service was good, the staff friendly and, unlike the atrocious food court, no one gives customers the evil eye, trying to hurry them out the door.
As I said, it’s a small coffee shop where choices are made from a menu and the food is brought to the table but payment is made at a register on the way out. This presented no great problems in the tipping department because there were always a number of tiny jars with the names of the waitpersons (???) on them. Easy to put the tip in the appropriate jar. Now, however, they’ve gone to a larger, all purpose jar into which tips are placed and, I assume, divided up among the staff at the end of the shift.
I’m not sure I like the new system. Although I would seldom get the same waitress two weeks in a row, I’d definitely prefer that my tip (small though it may be) go to the person who actually waited on me.
Chalk up another 20%-most-times, high-as-50%, 15% for something Spartan, 10% for seeing someone at ordering and checkout. Getting lower takes active rudeness; I know I don’t know everything going on; there are a lot of circumstances beyond a server’s control, and I try to be forgiving.
I’m not sure where that developed, though. I have this very persistent voice in my head that tells me that it’s just a matter of face, of showing that you’ve been brought up right, but my parents tip around 10% (+5% if you look student-ish, +5% for really attentive service). They didn’t set my standards at all. I’m told by some server friends that there’s a low-tipping stereotype revolving around Asians in general and Chinese in particular, so they may not be particularly abnormal. Maybe it’s an act of rebellion. :eyeroll:
You’re not alone, Tamryne. Most my housemates forget that the prices on the menu don’t include tax (and one guy forgets that his drink and dessert cost money too), so the total tip invariably winds down near 5-10%. They don’t care, either, so I wind up covering the difference (often really only a couple bucks over five guys, but it’s gone as high as $10 or $20 before), because I feel like I’ll be shamed if I don’t.
I wonder (minor hijack): if you’re growing a dinner group (generally a very open thing, at least with us) and a historically poor tipper wants to come along, how rude is it to say “No, please don’t,” when you’re sick of covering for him?
If you left me a 50% tip, I’d think you were trying to hit on me.
Which is fine 
Tips should be calculated on the before tax price.
You don’t mean Kumari on lower Charles? You’d love the place. Many vegetarian dishes on the buffet.
I like to know my waiter/waitress’ name. It helps when we leave if we talk to the manager, either for terrific or horrific service.
At one memorable meal with a large group of people, we (Dave and I) ended up paying $40 for our $20 bill, because people just would not pony up and were circumspect about it. We don’t dine with that group any longer, without separate checks.
No, actually i was talking about The Ambassador up here in Charles Village. But i have been to Kumari, and i do indeed love it.
I generally tip somewhere between 15 and 20%, depending on what works out to a convenient amount of money. (eg, if the bill is $9.50, 15% is about $1.43, and I’d probably just leave $1.50 tip.) I’ll go higher if the service was good, but if the service was poor my tip will be somewhere in the 10-15% range. This most often happens at the bar, if I feel that the bartender has been ignoring me.