As diners, what is everyone's take on splitting checks? Do you insist restaurants be able to split checks no matter what (unless they disclaim they don't before taking your order)? Do you think there is a reasonable limit restaurants should split checks (like 5 per table)?

Myself personally, I prefer to pay the bill as one check, then reconcile with diner at another time, main (although silly, I know) reason being that I don't want to be sitting at my table for another 15 minutes as the server makes the adjustments to the bill.

Everyone else's thoughts? I will share more once off my mobile.

I firmly believe there are two understandings that need to take place

1) You and the other diners need to agree in advance, before you get to the restaurant, how the check will be handled

and

2) You and the restaurant need to agree in advance, before you get to the restaurant, how the checks will be handled.

Some are fine with splitting checks, some are not. But there is no waiting for adjustments and the rest if the waiter knows up front to prepare separate checks, and the restaurant is OK with it.

You must let the server know IN ADVANCE, AS YOU PLACE THE ORDER, that you expect a separate check. At that time, the server can say yay or nay, and you can leave for a different restaurant if separate checks are not allowed.

An alternate if there is no other restaurant in the park or village is to break up into individual "parties." My friend and I will take a table for two, another couple friends will take a table for two, and so on...then, they have to provide a separate check for each table anyway. But you might still get 'tude, so if at all possible, if they don't want to split checks, I grab some fixings from the store and make a picnic or barbecue...anything, really, to avoid the awkwardness of forced check sharing with people who eat and drink more than I do.


Everybody settling up later doesn't work because people will not settle up fairly later once the food and wine is gone. The honest friends always end up paying more than their fair share, and the chiselers "win."

However, if you don't inform the server, UPFRONT, as you place the order, that your check is separate, then of course you are going to get the long passive aggressive wait of 30 minutes or more after dinner. You caused a problem for the server, and now he's going to cause a problem for you. Especially in countries where service is included anyway...

Personally I like to have split checks, especially for business lunch/dinners. It makes it easier because I always paid with a credit card. Also when claiming expenses my boss prefers to have a clean check

In YUL you'll be surprised to see that waiters do not have a problem doing that. In fact they always ask if you want to have separate bills. It works flawlessly even for large parties. Unfortunately I know that in other places this is rather the exception than the norm. In Europe the assumption is one check by default. You might have a hard time trying to get a split check. Same in some Latin American countries.

I usually offer to pay for the whole check with a miles earning card, then strongly insist to be payed back in cash to pay my bill off.

We travel in a team of four, all paying separately. It's the job of the first person to order their drink to ask for individual checks. 95% of the time the server says no problem. 4% of the time they say they can figure out separate payments from one check at the end. The remaining 1% say no separate checks and we all grumble about who gets to put this on their mileage earning card and collect from the rest.

Or the other old trick of the chiseler getting lobster when everyone else is having sandwiches....

And wanting to split the check evenly.

I think there is a big difference between splitting a check evenly vs having each person pay their own way. I/we often just split a check in half and ask the server to put half on each of two credit cards. I have never indicated this in advance and never been turned down. I think that is very different from the case where each person pays their own amount - and in that case I do think it is essential to advise the restaurant/server in advance.

Restaurants who handle a lot of business clientele, or large groups seem to have the best systems for doing this.

Our office has done a few outings to Red Robin and not only do they automatically ask if we want separate checks, if there is a "guest of honor" they will take their check and evenly split it amongst the rest of the group.

difference if personal or business.

Business: split if amongst equals, otherwise highest ranking associate pays

Personal: usually don't care as with most of my friends, it all equals out, yes there are some chislers but funny how we don't go out to dine with them anymore or do much of anything with them as they've shown what kind of people they are.

I always let them know at the start if one check or each their own. The places I eat never had a problem.

Most of the time I'm splitting, it's for social meals (e.g. large groups of friends and their families) rather than work ones (we all work for the same company, so whoever wants the miles most pays, and that's usually me ) So we usually do a rough calculation, put multiple cards on the table, and tell the waiter to put x amount on this card, y on this one, etc (it's paid by chip&pin at the table anyway).

Only once did a restaurant grumble about it, but we politely made it clear that this was the only way they were going to get their money.

This is our method and we've never had issues.

if a table wanted a check split 5 ways, or 7 ways, and asked at the end of the meal, and each planned to use an individual credit card, as waiter, i'd toss the whole bill on the table, and say make certain it came to $XX.XX. and don't forget the 15% tip. i did not last long as a waiter, by the way.

If a place like Red Robin can figure out how to split checks, then I expect a restaurant where I spend significantly more to be able to do the same. And if it's a large party that is split as a last minute surprise to the waiter/waitress, then I make sure to demonstrate my appreciation on the tip line. However, the drama normally comes from the table, not the waiter.