Originally Posted by
JBord
It's not about plopping a plate of pasta or a steak down in front of you. I'm pretty sure the restaurant industry could train monkeys to do that -- and they work for bananas. Tip based on the experience, not for simply receiving your food. And I'm still in the camp that adequate service receives 15%. Poor service receives less, and excellent service receives more. I'm sure a lot of people disagree with those numbers, and that's ok with me.
Right. While it's become almost second nature to some of us, those starting out with the fine dining experience (we all likely had gone through a similar learning curve), will likely need to rely on the waitstaff for some help. Absent of any prior experience, a first time experience, say, in a steak restaurant or fine French cuisine can be a pretty intimidating experience.
Not suggesting there's a norm here, but I've always defaulted to 20% (with $5 min) tip before tax, and likely 25% or a C-Note for restaurants I frequent often and with some regularity. What I take some umbrage with is in SF, where now they expect you to not only pay for the healthcare tax, but to tip 20% on top of tax, whatever fees and the cost of the wine. When I realized the minimum wage in this area is when I cut their tip down to 10% post tax, but remain tipping my standard 20% in other areas, unless they start with fees and/or raise the minimum wage.