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Is it perceived as poor manners to ask for separate checks at restaurants in the US... To ask the staff to break it down by what each person had to eat and drink and then separate credit card charges ?

No.

Quite often the server will ask if separate checks are required. I've never had one look even slightly annoyed by it.

In my experience a few servers have refused to do it but most have no problem giving separate checks. Just be sure to ask before you start placing your orders.

Ask up front if it's a problem, in most cases I bet they tell you no it's not and let you do it.

If you ask after the meal I would expect they may not be thrilled to do it for you.

cordelli is absolutely right. when i used to wait on tables years ago in college, separate checks were part of job. it's much easier to handle if you let the server know ahead of time.

If you don't ask up front, it's OK at the finish to plunk down two or three credit cards and ask the server to charge them all equally.

I, long ago, reached a simple answer to this seemingly constant conumdrum, the wait person who refuses to provide separate checks....

1. Separate checks. We tip.

2. No separate checks. No tip.

Marvelous motivator!

No, it is not poor manners to ask; not every restaurant will do it (some fine-dining won't, and some smaller places) but most will, and those that can't/won't will be used to saying no.

As cordelli said, if you're going to ask, make sure to let the server know before ordering.

Several places I've been which didn't do it wouldn't do it as a matter of house policy, not the individual waiter's. In general, that got them written off the list of places we went for work lunches, but I'd be very hesitant to suggest not tipping unless I knew other waiters in the place would (in which case, I'd take a refusal to split a check as a reason to ask the manager/host for a new server or a new table.)

If you are in, for example, a college town, 99% of people ask for separate checks. So much so that some servers will just go ahead and separate them without even asking. Back in the real world, though, its polite to at least give a heads up when placing your order. Generally speaking, every restaurant should have the capability of splitting checks. I've heard servers say the computer won't let them do it after the order was entered in. This isn't true. Ask for a manager. Now I suppose it may be the restaurant's policy to not split checks, in which case, you can proceed however you want. I've seen plenty of people outright refuse to pay the "18% gratuity on parties of 6 or more" because they didn't agree with the "policy"..

It's good practice to check the menu for fine print regarding the restaurant's policy on separate checks, shared plates, take-out orders, large parties, what credit cards are accepted, etc.

Between consulting the printed policy on the menu and notifying the server at the time of ordering, you should not have any problems.

Being young, I find that about 90% of the time when my friends and I go out to eat, the server will split our check without us even asking. If you want it split, as long as you ask right at the start, I would imagine it's really no big deal. Just be sure you all still tip accordingly!

A few years ago, the Sr. Manager on our project came into town and invited the team out to dinner (about 35 people). He asked for separate checks prior to anyone else arriving. It was quite embarrassing when the waiter came around to each of us at the end of the meal.

My point being, it's okay to ask for a group up to about 8 or 10. More than that, I would consider just keeping a copy of the check and divvying it up later.

It depends on what you define as a restaurant. Should you be talking about a Chili's, then they will do it no problem. In fact, if you're talking about any place where you go out and eat with people and end up wanting to split the check, it's likely low end enough for it to matter.

In a real dining room, it is considered poor manners largely because the staff are much more task saturated and require more time with each table. Having wait staff tied up for 5-10 minutes creating 7-8 bills and running through the same number of cards or making change really impacts the service.

There's an easier way that people with social skills split the bill. Say two couples are out for dinner. It's more common in a nice place to have either one pickup the bill or one spouse from each couple throw down a card and split it. On the aggregate it balances out. Not many people are that cheap that when they're out with friends, they count every penny.

Dining rooms work much better when staff aren't tied up playing cashier.

Really? You've personally inspected every computer system that every single restaurant uses across the country? Provide some proof or you should qualify or retract that statement.

Above about 8 or 10, it's unwieldy no matter what you do, unless someone is hosting.

There are only a few big vendors of these types of systems, and yes, they all allow you to split retroactively. It’s a quite simple drag-and-drop operation with a modern system.

Could a restaurant have used some obscure vendor? Sure, but most are on a Micros system.

When I lived in the South, I found that most servers would ask "together or separate checks?" When I moved up North, I've found that 99% presume it's just one check. Even when in college in the Boston area, I don't remember a single occasion where the server automatically split the check for us without us having to ask. Granted, when I have explicitly asked either before or after the meal to split the bill, 99% of the time, there isn't a problem at all.

Isn't that exactly what I said in #6 above? :confused:

Indeed - or at whatever amount you'd like them split ("put $30 on his and the rest on mine")

That's not separate checks, though - if you ask the server to figure out the split for you at the end, they may or may not be able to.

do you think the people in the south are cheaper than in the north? What do you think the reason is?

Do you have any experience or data suggesting otherwise? This isn't meant to be a dissertation here. I have a fair amount of knowledge in the industry so I generally know what I'm talking about.

Most restaurants use only a handful of POS systems. Any of which are capable of splitting checks, and much more. Servers can split by who ordered what, or just evenly split the total by 2/3/4+ people. They can also combine checks if one person offers to pick up a tab. If a restaurant does use an older, more obscure system that does not provide this functionality, the original check can just be voided, and the server can re-enter the orders onto separate checks.

However, splitting a check between 8..10..15 people is time consuming. It is even more time consuming to then collect 15 credit cards, swipe each card, organize all of the receipts and deliver them to the respective guest. Still not done, the server collects all 15 signed copies (hoping they didn't forget to sign, or didn't take the signed copy with them, which often happens), and has to go back to the computer to enter each of the tips. More receipts, more work for the server, who hasn't been able to refill drinks or deliver food to their other tables and now those guests are unhappy and probably will leave a smaller tip.

Suffice it to say, when a server says the computer wont do it, this is why.



If a restaurant's client base is a lot of business lunches, birthdays, families, couples etc. I'd assume less split checks. If there are mainly younger, single customers or students then split checks are the norm. I wouldn't assume any correlation between North/South and "cheapness" without first taking into considering many other factors.

I'm fully aware that there are a few big vendors. Nothing I said was that there weren't just a few vendors. That there are a few big vendors doesn't mean that people should be walking into a restaurant saying that, "Oh I read on flyertalk that every restaurant in the universe can split checks in their system"

So is it not true or are you saying that it is true? You're contradicting yourself here. Should the first statement you made, that you personally are sure that each and every restaurant in a country of ~300 million people can do this, when why would you need to make that state of about if a restaurant uses an older system.

Please, either provide some evidence that you personally are sure that 100% of all food establishments can do this or man up and retract what you said. You 'generally' know what you're talking about and have a 'fair' amount of industry knowledge, but you are somehow omniscient when it comes to point of sale systems in every food establishment in the country.

Done.

cblaisd
Dining Buzz moderator