Asking for 5 separate checks is not really reasonable for the wait staff. If you're paying cash - simply figure it our yourselves and put it in. If credit card (and a waiter would have to be mad to deal with 5 credit cards for 1 dinner) one person pays and the others reimburse.

However, IMHO unless one of you is a complete glutton and another eats nothing but a bowl of soup - simply split it 5 ways and forget the minor details and concentrate on enjoying Paris. (By the way - if you have a glutton and a bowl of soup eater you're going to have bigger problems thatn the check - like where to eat, when to eat, how much time to spend at dinner - enjoying a nice meal or slurping and running).

We had an occasion several years ago when about 20 of us got together for dinner in a restaurant in northern Spain during a fiesta. One member of our group, a journalist with a major publication, on expenses, protested when the "host", as it where, a friend from London told everyone what their share of the bill would be. An even split. The journalist protested that he had only ordered a salad, wine and a little brandy. The response came back that he knew the rules and could have ordered anything on the menu he wanted. It was an excellent dinner for most of us, and a lesson to the rest. No separate checks when you’re out with a group of friends. Everyone shares, evenly. No time for discussions over who ordered what.

Allivian-it just depends on what type of restaurant you go to. For example, you all might want to go to Chez Leon-an excellent Belgian mussels and frites chain restaurant (very popular with Parisians-particularly the one on the Blvd. St. Germain/Mabillon metro stop). The waiter comes around with his little computer hand-held cash register, tallies each of your bills, credit card or cash, and you're done. Those restaurants that use those hand-helds, (and they are increasingly common, partic. in Paris) there won't be a problem. Also there are those cafes/brasseries where the waiter comes, tallies each of your meals separately, and then you pay him individually-but usually this is done with cash-the cash and credit card usage is more difficult at these places, and they might not do it 5 different ways. So again, it just depends where you decide to dine-many restaurants/brasseries have no problem with paying separately, others do.

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Asking for separate checks is definently an american thing.
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sorry, this is not true.

how do you explain countries like germany where the server will typically go around to each diner in a group and tell them what they owe based on what was ordered...all handled separately. this is the default behaviour. it is often assumed that it will work this way unless the group indicates that they will make a single payment. paying separate bills is not only acceptable, it is the norm in these countries!

I think in most countries of the world, the servers can tell when they are dealing with unrelated adults rather than families. In France, most waiters ask such a group if they want separate checks even before they start taking orders.

It is NOT appropriate in ANY restaurant in Europe OR anywhere else, tacky comes to mind, do your own math!

Please, don't talk about Europe. Here in Spain is not polite to the waiters asking for separate checks. Maybe you can ask, and they can do it as a favour to you...but it's not the usual thing.

Here in Ireland it's no big deal in most restaurants, and is certainly the norm at lunchtime with work colleagues. You wouldn't really ask for separate checks, you would just go up to the cash register and each pay individually. It's pretty normal. Some waiters might act as if they'd prefer you'd just hand over the cash in one lump sum, but those are generally the same waiters who seem to think that you are doing them a massive disservice by stepping foot into their establishments.

It's no biggie here.

If I'm ever in a group and notice that someone has ordered substantially less than anyone else, I usually suggest that they pay separately and we just divide up the rest of the bill between the rest of us. I think it's the height of bad manners to make someone else pay for food and drink that I've ordered. I think it's fine if you're all on a trip together and have plenty of money and order about the same, but if one person is in a different situation, why not take that into account?

I don't think it would be a massive problem, although I'm sure the restaurant would obviously prefer one bill.

Just make it clear right at the start that you want seperate bills.

This is a real bug bear of mine I hate all that squabling that happens when its bill division time.

Recently on a trip to Prague about 10 of us just put 500cK (£12) in the kitty and payed all the bills from that we had all we could eat and drink and there was change for the next day.

Not sure how much you would have to pay in France though..lol

Good luck

Muck

You know, I find this to be both an interesting and informative thread. There are clearly those Americans on this board, and some Europeans as well, that speak in terms of absolutes -that it's "tacky" to ask for separate checks, that it "is not done" in Europe-and in my 30 years of experience in this self-same Europe, I have to say that such blanket negations are simply not true-I have been paying separately when I have been with friends in Europe for as long as I have spent time there, and in as many European countries as I have spent time in.

But it may be a question of semantics-to "ask for separate CHECKS" is different than telling the server individually what you had and having that server with his multi-change purse (and who doesn't know THAT from Germany?-that has been the standard method of payment in German restaurants since as long as I can remember).

But not just Germany, the hand-held individual computers are increasingly in use across Europe-and you DO see these in London, Brussels, Paris and even in Rome, at certain busy lunch-time establishments. In Italy, I have paid separately always at any manner of restaurant I have gone to with friends in cities and small towns-it's just that they figure out what it is that we have had at the table, and we pay that way. There are of course, those servers who don't want to be bothered, but that generally is a personality-driven issue, rather than official restaurant policy.

Allivian-I do think it is a good idea just to tell the server up front that you will each be paying individually, but Parisian servers are pretty laid-back and very used to individual payment at restaurants-remember this is not some little village restaurant out in the country-this is a premier international capital-you will have NO problem here with paying separately.

"all handled separately. this is the default behaviour"

Maybe in Germany walkinaround, but certainly not throughout Europe.

If I went out with friends who made the waiter add up all separate meals, and then make separate credit card payments for all, I would not go out with them again. Doesn't matter if the waiter has a handheld computer. It's just not done.
Either you work it out by yourselves, and settle the bill cash. Or one person pays, the others pay him back later. We nearly always split the bill evenly. And if one or two people want to settle their portion of the bill by credit card, that is usually fine, but not all different bills for different people at the same table.

Tulips-yes, It IS done. At Chez Leon, as a matter of fact-I went out with two friends just this past September, two of us paid in cash, and I paid with a credit card, and the server came around with his little hand-held computer and DID NOT BLINK AN EYELASH about it. This was in Paris.

I took my mother to Chez Léon today -- but some Fodorites probably don't think that such a simple restaurant chain is worthy of their attention. Interestingly enough, it was the very first restaurant in Paris to use the hand held computers -- they are the pioneers of the whole system in France.

That's because nearly all the customers in Chez Leon are French-I never hear English in there, and I think the one at Mabillon is the best one in Paris, much better than the one in Brussels off the Grand Place.

Someone in our group has usually mastered basic math in high school so we let them do the division and pay what we are told.

GoTravel, when in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago let me tell you that all you Fodorite's would have been soooo distressed at my two friends (Fodorites also) and I at the end of the Friday evenings dinner. We had all been up since before 5:00am and had been on the go the entire day. We had a lovely dinner and when the check arrived (and we did only have one bottle of lovely Italian wine) I think it took us 15 minutes to add the tip and divide the total by three, lol. We were brain dead. We needed a little second grader to figure out what we each owed, lol. Well it gave us a good giggle anyway.

Please elaborate more on Chez Léon. I'm a bit puzzled by a Google search. Some mentions seem to refer to a restaurant with French food, and some to one with North African.

Maybe it's Leon de Bruxelles?

Last September, we met up with two other couples twice for dinner. Previously, we had never considered requesting seperate checks. But, one couple (the wife) was horrid! (Wife forgot about the water she ordered in lieu of wine, added incorrectly, etc.)

In both restaurants, AFTER the bill was presented, we had no problem paying seperately, even with credit cards.

Just ask for seperate checks when you order. If this is not possible, at least in Paris tax and gratuity are included in the prices, so it's not all that difficult to figure out who owes what.

Lately, we pay with cash (our bank does not have a fee for ATM withdrawals). We do have a credit card without any "currency conversion fee/surcharge", but many places it takes a lot longer to pay and leave if you pay by credit card versus cash.

PS I would NOT recommend asking for separate checks at places that are very, very busy during your visit, or at cafes if each of you is ordering only one or two items.