Words of wisdom on tipping ...

[Robin Garr]

"I Don't Tip"

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I'm not really sure how to respond to that! I certainly agree with that sentiment but even in the worst case I don't believe that not leaving a tip is appropriate. Even the worst server deserves to make a living doing their job and many times they get blamed for things that are beyond their control.

I'm not really sure how to respond to that! I certainly agree with that sentiment but even in the worst case I don't believe that not leaving a tip is appropriate. Even the worst server deserves to make a living doing their job and many times they get blamed for things that are beyond their control.

As someone who works in the industry, has a family and knows what it costs to support them, I start at 20% and go down based on service. It never goes below 10% though because like you said, they have to make a living. And being in the kitchen I'm used to taking the blame for whatever goes wrong. I'm okay with that. I don't have to see those people and if it helps the server recover the tip, more power to them. What I can't stand is when a server gets a bad tip on a table and claim nothing went wrong when I saw at least 10 different things you messed up. It never enters into their understanding that maybe they just suck at waiting tables (these are also the same people who complain they can't make any money) and should find another line of work.

I start at 20% and go down based on service. It never goes below 10% though because like you said, they have to make a living. .

When I do go down from 20%, it's due to service issues (not kitchen) and I always call over the manager and explain what happened and why I'm lowering the tip.

I start at 20% and go down based on service. It never goes below 10% though because like you said, they have to make a living. .

When I do go down from 20%, it's due to service issues (not kitchen) and I always call over the manager and explain what happened and why I'm lowering the tip.

Andrew, I'm not sure how your quote got mixed up on this post but the part about starting at 20% and going down based on service was said by alejandro, not me. My philosophy is similar however I use 20% as the baseline and go up or down from there.