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.

I never do. If you don't feel like anyone did anything that deserved a tip you shouldn't.

It is not the customers responsibility to ensure the operative is paid properly, it is a contractual arrangement between the employee and employer, therefore I would only tip in the very rare circumstances when exceptional service, going above and beyond normal, was provided.

Bringing the food to the table is only half the job. Therefore the servers get half the usual tip. 10 per cent. 0 if the order is fouled up which at these I-pad places seems to happen frequently.

One of the few valuable things a server brings to the equation is a knowledge of the menu: how the food is prepared, what goes with what, which allergens are in which dish etc. without that contribution there’s little point in them and they do nothing more than the McDonalds staff who bring the food to your table after you have ordered at the giant iPads. So, no tip.

The justifications people go through about not tipping is funny:rolleyes::D Your friend should just admit he is cheap and doesn't want to leave a tip.

Ok, I'll fall into the trap, why should the guy admit he's cheap? Why can't the owner/operator of the restaurant admit they're too cheap (and immoral) to pay their staff proper wages and needs to extract more money from the diner?

That's what I don't get... why not build the cost of wait-staff into the food like they should? Why mark it separately and then try to pin the guilt trip on the customers if they don't "leave enough" for the wait-staff. Tipping is really a North American (and more rampantly an American) thing. Now we're also starting to see service charges...and the people who don't read their receipts often tip on top of that.

Ugh!

What about all the time they spend helping you figure out how to use the iPad? Surely, that's worth something! :p

Coming from a culture where tipping is for going above and beyond the expected rather than routine... I'd treat an iPad restuarant here just the same as any other. Technically there is probably less opportunity for them to exceed expectations -v- if they'd taken the order themselves but that doesn't impact my decision.

If you want to consider wider than just the USA, you've also got to remember that in some places the service/tip goes straight to the owners and not the person that serves you (or the wider staff)

The few times I've been to an iPad place, I've always had a server come and take the actual order, bring plates and drinks, and check back a few times. The iPad thing was only for payment. Normally I see what the 'suggested' tip is (often 15-20%) and I adjust according to the service received. If it was of a reasonable standard, I'll leave the tip where it is. I've never had really poor service, but I've had exceptional service. So I bumped it up to 25%. And I was happy to pay it.

[Removed general discussion of tipping per moderator's note, above]

I doubt I'd go above or below 15% here, because there's very little opportunity to be provide very good or bad service.

I wouldn't tip anything $0

In my experiences, the iPad-type devices have a sliding scale for the tip, rather than allowing you to enter in your own tip. I prefer to enter my own tip, as the sliding scale is usually very sensitive.

Care to share why?

I don't tip as much at order-from-the-touch-screen eateries, maybe 10% tops. The staff are only food-runners and bus-persons. Think about it, that's less than half the care, effort, and service provided in traditional, full table service restaurants.

The mod said not to steer away from the topic, but my reasons are included in what the mod said shouldn't be discussed in this thread.

The justification that some people go through to justify tipping :D

Many food outlets enable online preordering and not standing in a queue, do you tip the person handing over the order. Isnt the point of all this to take the human factor out and increase margins so let the establishment pay a decent wage.

Tipping on iPad orders
 

I leave around 15-18%. The only thing thing the server doesn’t do is capture the initial order. Everything else is normal server duties. And I suspect they’re getting minimum wage. That’s probably why the default tip is 18% on the iPads I’ve used.

I do it simply to make someone's day and it's appropriate. Whoever referenced McDonalds servers who bring the food to your table...they are paid better than servers.

It's amazing how cheap some people are. Not frugal....CHEAP

I just don’t eat there
 

I hate these restaurants and refuse to give them any business.

I carry enough electronics. I don’t need another one in my face while I’m trying to eat.

You can’t pay cash in those restaurants.

I have special dietary needs and I doubt the glorified food runners have been trained on the menus.

My general thought is that in a full service restaurant, the bussers and others share in the tips. So I should leave something to cover the service I did get. If it's really impersonal (on the level of a busser just dropping off and clearing), a couple of $$ is fine. I'll often leave a dollar or two in a Smashburger or other "fastfood" restaurant that delivers to the table and clears after I order at counter. This is similar in my opinion. If a more personal level - someone checks on our satisfaction, explains menu, explains iPad, makes suggestions, a more normal level of tip is appropriate.

I would tip in an iPad place the same as I would in a buffet: Normally leave something but not the usual 15-20% in the USA. My standard would probably be 10% depending on whether there were drink refills etc. I wouldn't leave less than $1, but a $1 tip would seem like a lot for a nonalcoholic drink only.

I think it's only fair to split the tip between Tim Cook's iPad engineering staff and the restaurant waitstaff. Unless the iPad crashes or the server drops your food. Now if the server drops your food on the iPad, causing it to crash... that's a tough one since the iPad would ideally be engineered more robustly.

Of course, all this points to the future when the non-automated portion of restaurant service will be increasingly non-existent. What are the people who need to tip to feel better about earning much more than waiters while working less going to do then? Tip the robots?

I find the fact that tipping is expected very frustrating, and a problem with American culture and the way we compensate service workers (and don't get me started on sick leave and health insurance). But as someone who worked in those minimum wage jobs in the past and now is reasonably comfortable financially, I think giving 3 or 5 dollars to someone who is working very hard for not much money a good use of my funds. I don't if the service is terrible, but I spend more than that on stupid stuff every day. I try not to overthink it. If I'm wondering whether to tip, I tip, at least in the US.