Tip the cook?
 

BamaVol Jr #3 turns 18 today. He wants to be taken to a local Japanese restaurant - the kind where you sit around a grill and the cook puts on a show. I've been there before but someone else has always paid. So, I have no idea how to tip. Do I make one tip (~20% of the food/drink tab) and let the waitress & cook decide how to split it or do I tip them separately? I don't want the waitress keeping the whole thing for simply bringing drinks and clearing plates.

It's been a while since I've been to one of those, but I usually just put the tip together, although I factor in that the tip will be divided between two people, so I tip more than I normally would.

In NJ most of our Hibachi restaurants are BYOB. The server takes the order, opens the wine, brings the soup/salad and drops the check. I've started to tip both in cash, usually 20%. 5% to the waiter (really a busboy role) and 15% to the cook/ entertainer.

Tell BamaVol Jr #3 happy birthday. How was dinner?

Thanks. Dinner was delicious and more expensive than I had planned. BamaVol Jr #2 and girlfriend joined the 4 of us (Miss BamaVol & husband were invited to eat with BV Jr#3 and me) and hadn't eaten all day. He ate 24 pieces of sushi and she ordered and ate the grilled fillet and scallops. The rest of us were satisfied with the soup, salad, teriyaki chicken, fried rice, shrimp & vegetables and took home half our meal in to-go boxes. The cook was funny. He kept calling me "Big Daddy" and ended the show with a vulgar joke/trick involving a pea that I had to select by color. I won't spoil it for you.

I took my cues from other tables and left one tip to be split however between the cook and server. Also, the menu stated that parties over 8 would incur an 18% service charge.

I have never tipped a cook or anyone else in show business. I tip the waitperson and leave any tip splitting up to the restaurants established custom. I thought most of those knife-wielding places had closed up and gone Mexican or Thai.

MisterNice

They're still around, especially in places where they're still considered "exotic" or a "novelty".

I think that they're fun for medium-sized groups - but the food quality often seems to be worse than a comparatively priced "normal" restaurants.

I ate at a Hibachi restaurant in CLT the other day...4th time in my life...this time the cook was of hispanic decent. The others had always been of some asian decent.

I've always just tipped together. The server is less of a server than at other types of restaurants and the cook is really who runs the show, but some are better than others. It's fun watching the other parties.

I can throw a stick and probably hit 5 or 6 within 10 miles. They are a big step up from the Chinese Buffet places, and are well run family businesses. If Im out with my wife or just the kids, we typically avoid the hibachi side of the restaurant and sit at the sushi bars.

For a group teen birthday party, I think it is a great choice.

I get to one every couple of years or so, and have always just left a single lump sum tip. I'm sure they have a tip-sharing arrangement in place.

Chefs are generally in the 'backroom' doing a hot, demanding job. Sometimes it's good to show your appreciation (if you have enjoyed your food) by buying the chef a drink - they are a thirsty lot anyway. Just say to your server 'I really enjoyed.........., and I would like to offer the cook/Chef a drink':)

Unless it's an alcoholic drink, which I wouldn't recommend the chef enjoy while working, the chef can get his own glass of water or soft drink anytime he likes for free.

My late father was a chef - one of his fondest memories was when an entertainer (whose name escapes me right now) came in to his restaurant, famished after a performance. The entertainer so enjoyed the meal that he came back into the kitchen and gave my father a $50 bill, saying that it was the most perfectly-cooked steak he had ever eaten (in the 1960s, $50 was a considerable amount). :)

Can't say that I've ever done that for a steak, but when I go for sushi I always tip the sushi chef if I've received good work. Just last week at JFK T5, I was at Deep Blue and had some exquisite fish while waiting for my delayed B6 flight. The sushi chef was an older ascetic-looking gentleman, whose economy of action and professionalism were very impressive. (For example, he took great care with his knives, sharpening them on a whetstone between operations to where they must have been as sharp as scalpels.) I gave him the same tip as I did the server (18%) with heartfelt thanks.