Originally Posted by
nkedel
Speaking generally, I tip a little over 20% at inexpensive places (20% on the pretax, round up to the nearest 50c or a buck if the service was good), and use the "double the tax" rule at moderate-price ones, which comes to 16%-17.5% depending on which city I'm in around here. At expensive ones, it depends entirely on the service, but defaulting to actually calculating out 15% if the service was merely OK.
What's everyone's "minimum tip"? I generally won't tip less than $2ish (e.g. if the bill is something like $8.03, they'd get a $10 left for the bill and tip.) Not too many table-service places that cheap left, but where there are I don't feel right leaving less.
For buffet and counter-service places where you don't clear your own table but they don't take drink orders, I'll usually leave a buck (or a buck a person when there with my wife) for the guy who clears tables. Vegas/Reno buffets where they do drink orders at the table, I'll generally tip $5 for my wife and I if they're good about refills.
That is pretty much identical to my standard practice.
Although I can't recall the last time I went to a buffet, so I'm not sure what I typically do there.
There are a few country diners here in Lancaster County, PA where you can still have a filling meal and a Coke for $6. Leaving a buck or a buck twenty just seems cheap, so as you said, I usually leave a couple.
For take-out, I typically tip about 10% rounded up, as a former coworker who had previously been a hostess at a restaurant told me that the hostesses actually do have to put in quite a bit of work to get the to-go order prepped and ready in between their normal job.