Originally Posted by
accrue450
As the others have said, you should have tipped at 20% even though it was an expensive dinner. I can see the wine argument, yes, but leaving $50 tip for a $500+ dinner was really, really stingy and inappropriate. I'm surprised frankly that the other couple or your SO did not comment on this.
I do disagree that this is "really really stingy". 15% is still an acceptable tip amount in the US, according to American people I dine with on both the East and West coasts - the 18 and 20% thing seems to be creeping in, but is by no means universal. 15% was considered a good tip a decade ago, so I am not sure why the 'creep' - the arguements about costs of living is a load of codswallop, as menu prices rising would mean % tips also increase.
The poster left around 11.5% tip (given that the 480 presumably includes 8% tax, which many agree you don't tip on), or in other words, 3.5% less than what many would consider acceptable / reasonable. As we now know that a portion of the dinner was 2 bottles of wine, I am not sure it is as far off as 'really really stingy' suggests.