Tipping at "iPad" restaurants
 

Last time I went through EWR a colleague and I ate at one of those new restaurants where you order food and drink off an iPad at the table so now the waiter/waitress is reduced to simply bringing stuff from the kitchen or bar. My colleague put $0 in the tip payment when he checked out (also automated on the iPad) and when I asked him why he said that he hadn't been "served" so he wasn't going to tip. He waitered at university and said he earned his tips for the human part of his job and not just for carrying stuff to the table. I feel like he kind of has a point but I still wouldn't leave a zero tip. Maybe 10% or something. Thoughts?

Would you tip in a sushi bar where the dishes come around the tables on a mechanized conveyer belt ?

It's almost at that level in these ipad places so I don't tip either.

I'm pretty sure servers took orders for drinks at the conveyor belt sushi place I went to near me so tipping is still appropriate there. Other places may be different, however.

I figure the people working in those restaurants are probably not paid minimum wage so I just tip my usual 15-20%. I bake the 20% tip into my expected cost of dining out. Besides, for an entree and drink a 20% tip is what, $5? I don't begrudge the kitchen and waitstaff $5.

I think the waiter/waitress is also "reduced" to making sure your order is correct, returning the food and making things right if there's an error with the order, hopefully bringing a smile to your table, and so on. Ok, maybe no "and so ons." I'd expect to leave no less than 10% for minimum, but some, polite service. There's also most of the country where these folks are on sub-minimum wage. I know. "Not my problem." But I do have at least half a heart. Just the hassle of taking a service job at an airport - parking way off site, security, lots of customers "not at their best..."

I would give a standard 15-20% tip, assuming the server does a normal job outside of not taking orders.

If you're saying the server literally drops off plates without even making eye contact or saying "you're welcome" in response to my "thank you," then I would certainly tip $0.

I would still tip my standard amount unless there was a significant service issue.

A server at an "iPad" restaurant should still check back with you, whereas at a fast food place, they retrieve your food from the "hot' area and pass it across a counter. They don't check back with you.

You don't order from the table at either, though, so it's no surprise you wouldn't tip there (or if you do, it'd be while you were ordering and not at the end of the meal).

I don't mean to sound snarky, but isn't that what usually happens? It's not like most servers have a masters degree in waiting tables.

I would just tip Siri or Alexa and call it a day.

Only way I wouldn't tip is if there was a breakdown in the service and nobody was serving my HANGRY self

I don’t tip at drive thrus, Chick-fil-a (where they usually bring the food to your table), or a Panera type place that they’re just dropping food off at the table. If they take my order at the table, bring and refill drinks, as well as check up on you, then that’s a tippable service.

I feel like there was an XFiles on this topic recently. In the end, they tipped and survived.