The answer to the original question is NO.

As about a hundred people have said.

The diners need to sort it out among themselves.

I have LOVED following this bicker. I can't call it a "thread", it is a "bicker".

<what is your experience?>

I'm not sure anyone can answer that question. It doesn't sound like anyone here has gone to Italy and tried to ask for 4 separate checks at every meal.

In many places, Melbourne being one of them, people use plastic to pay quite small amounts of money. Several dollars for a coffee, items like that. In Italy, this is much less common - cash is much more widely used.

This may be of assistance to the OP.

vincenzo.. as Michael said:
When traveling I don't get meals paid, unless it's a business-related activity (breakfast, lunch, dinner, orgy, whatever) which, by definition, must include others.
It does not matter if this happens during a business trip and I wine and dine 10 people at Tour d'Argent or if I invite one other non-company person to join me for lunch in an eatery next door to my workplace for sandwiches.
No other party on the check, no reimbursement.
Different countries, different tax laws.

They could settle up individually for each item as it is served.

<i><font color=#555555>"It doesn't sound like anyone here has gone to Italy and tried to ask for 4 separate checks at every meal."</font></i>

I've done it many times. If the restaurant is famous for serving internationals on business, the request is not unusual. Famous hotel restaurants are also accommodating.

If I'm working, I don't drink wine at lunch. Ever. There have been plenty of lunches when my table of four co-workers submitted four credit cards with four individual totals to be charged on each card. Yes, this is not something I might try at a family trattoria, especially if I don't speak the language. In the cases where it might cause confusion and inconvenience, one person will take the check and copy it for the others at the table who need a copy.

Dining with friends who count every penny is a separate issue. Wanting a separate check for that reason is silly, completely selfish, and unnecessary. I don't have friends like that, and nor do I want any.

<i>There are plenty of very good reasons why four (or more) people dining together might want or need separate checks. </i>

Separate checks, yes. But Tadich's Grill, and old establshment in the SF business district, specifies on its menu page that it will give only one check per table, which can be <b>evenly</b> divided into no more than four separate checks. I doubt that Tadich's Grill is hurting, and I suspect that it gets quite a bit of lunch business from the local business community.

Our company had a policy that the most senior member at the table had to pick up the tab because his/her expense statement would be checked by someone else. There were too instances of an underling paying and the boss at the same table approving it.

Cowboy: Yeah, I get it.
With US companies and US tax laws, meals while traveling (irrespective of what takes place at the meal) are considered a reimbursable and deductible expense. So if I'm traveling on business and dine with someone unrelated to business, it's reimbursable and deductible.

I realize you're saying that's not true for all countries, but the earlier point made is that if I need a separate check to account for my expenses, it doesn't matter what the policy is in **other** countries. I need a receipt to get reimbursed or to deduct the expense.

<i><font color=#555555>"But Tadich's Grill, and old establshment in the SF business district, specifies on its menu page that it will give only one check per table, which can be evenly divided into no more than four separate checks."</font></i>

If you pay by credit card, typically, the table will receive one itemized check of the items ordered for the table, and each credit card holder will receive their own credit card receipt (which requires a signature), with an even split of the bill total. This particular procedure only works if all four people agree to split the bill evenly. This is not helpful to those who don't eat or drink as much as others.

If the restaurant is computerized, a lot depends on the software program used on the financial side of the restaurant operation. Most tables are assigned a single number, no matter how many seats. The software may not allow a four-seat table to be split and calculated into four individual charges. For certain software programs, it may take more work for the waiter to override the system and accommodate customers who need individual receipts.

The only way to know whether a restaurant can handle your specific receipt needs, you need to ask. Not long ago, I went to a business lunch at Quadri in Piazza San Marco. I had to work that evening so I told my dining partner that I would not be able to drink alcohol. My dining companion was looking forward to tasting some of Quadri's terrific wines. His bill was 220€ more than mine.

I knew from experience that Raffaele would split our bill with two credit cards, charging us each with the amount that we owed. In fact, I think Raffaele presented two restaurant receipts, showing precisely what we had ordered as individuals. So, in this case, not only did we receive individually priced credit card receipts to sign, we also received individual itemizations of the food and beverages we ordered.

It doesn't surprise me when a fabulous restaurant offers this level of service, even in Italy, but you can never assume that all of them do. You need to ask.

<i><font color=#555555>"it doesn't matter what the policy is in **other** countries. I need a receipt to get reimbursed or to deduct the expense."</font></i>

That is exactly correct. If a restaurant wishes to attract the thousands of Americans who conduct business in a foreign country, they learn about their customer's receipt needs.

why are we talking about Tadichs in SFO or about expensive business lunches....this is about women traveling on vacation and just wanting to pay their share of a check. I think this has been answered comletely...it is not usual in most restaurants that we as tourists go and probably best to figure it out on their own. Who cares if "Raffaele" presented 100 separate checkes for NYC.???

<i>why are we talking about Tadichs in SFO or about expensive business lunches.</i>

Because the discussion generalized into what one can expect ta restaurant to do to keep customers happy--look at the quote I included.

I assume that the only thing you can expect from an Italian restaurant is that they handle the transactions according to Italian and EU law.
The rest is up to the restaurant whether they wish to accomodate the exotic fiscal requirements regardless whether the customer is from the US, Germany or Tuvalu.
For many restaurants, business with US business customers might not be their top priority, not even necessarily the high-end class of restaurants. For some it is. Who knows.
In general, too much of an attitude of entitlement is not a good travel companion. Especially not if you plan to dine with Italian business partners. If you get too fussy about what the restaurants there don't do but what you want them to do you may lose your bella figura...

Have you heard the one about the catfish that ate the schoolbus?

Cow: >>In general, too much of an attitude of entitlement is not a good travel companion. <<
Nor is a successful restaurant.

>> The rest is up to the restaurant whether they wish to accomodate the exotic fiscal requirements regardless whether the customer is from the US, Germany or Tuvalu.<<
We totally agree, and that's what I said at the beginning of this thread. If I need a separate check, and you deem it too much trouble, I have the option of saying goodbye and patronizing someone who can accommodate my needs. I'm not criticizing the restaurants; they're free to do as they wish. So am I.

<i><font color=#555555>"exotic fiscal requirements"</font></i>

That's a long stretch into fantasy land. What reasonable person would call any proof-of-purchase an "exotic fiscal requirement?" Silly.

<i><font color=#555555>"Who cares…"</font></i>

Who cares about people who clutter the bandwidth with useless noise, complaining about the discussion.

<i><font color=#555555>"an attitude of entitlement is not a good travel companion"</font></i>

That's probably what I would tell the OP's sister and her 3 travel companions. However, good luck telling a selfish woman who counts pennies to change her ways.

It does seem fair to me that if a restaurant will offer receipt accommodations to business customers, every other customer should have access to that service as well. I'm not a fan of lazy, especially lazy in the service business arena.

<i><font color=#555555>"I have the option of saying goodbye and patronizing someone who can accommodate my needs."</font></i>

Amazing how many people have little clue. In the service business, it's the customer who has all the power, because without their purchase, you have no business. It's really quite simple.

<i>n the service business, it's the customer who has all the power, because without their purchase, you have no business. It's really quite simple.</i>

Not really. There is a social element that attenuates the raw economic power. Evening meals at The French Laundry require jackets, which on a hot night are immediately taken off and draped over the back of the chair. Upscale restaurants would probably deny someone in shorts and sandals (I can think of one person who somehow managed his way around this). Walk into Tadich's Grill and ask for separate checks, and you can walk right out. Similarly, there may be social understandings on how one operates in various European venues that are not quite as simple as "the customer has all the power."

I told my sister about most these answers and she fell asleep.

<i><font color=#555555>there may be social understandings on how one operates in various European venues that are not quite as simple as "the customer has all the power.""</font></i>

Except my point is: the customer has all the power when deciding where to spend his or her money.

<i><font color=#555555>"I told my sister about most these answers and she fell asleep."</font></i>

Not terribly grateful, or just tired? I thought the original question was a sleeper and, frankly, I questioned its sincerity. I responded anyway. Oh well, my bad. Some days are slower in the winter.