Yes, it is indeed Léon de Bruxelles -- we just call it Chez Léon in Paris. Sorry. Actually, the Chez Léon Moroccan restaurant and a Léon de Bruxelles are right next door to each other on Boulevard Beaumarchais.

Yes, despite the original Brussels restaurant being called Chez Léon, the other branches are called Léon de Bruxelles. I ate at the Brussels restaurant the other day and it was awful (and overpriced).

Anyway as regards paying separately, in my experience the answer is... it depends!!

When dining out with a group (in my circle anyway) people don't ask for separate bills, unless they need to claim their expenses back, or are self employed and can charge the meal to their business account or something.

On the other hand, there's certainly never been a problem in *paying* separately, even by credit card. But it's up to the group to work out who pays what.

asking for separate checks is totally ridiculous and tacky!!

Does that mean that you prefer to invite everybody at your table? It would be so tacky to ask them for money.

If you're friends and reasonable people, I can't imagine why you'd ask for 5 separate checks. In my opinion (and depending on the venue), that's borderline rude.

Presumably you're all adults with brains ... figure it out or, here's an idea!, just divide it 5 ways.

Borderline rude? Here is a good example of borderline rude :

"Presumably you're all adults with brains ... figure it out or, here's an idea!, just divide it 5 ways."



The original poster asking the question did not even say that the people with whom she is traveling are friends. She wanted to know if it is acceptable to ask for separate checks at restaurants in Paris. And the reply is that not only is it acceptable, it is also very common.

wow Gekko, talk about rude (your reply)!! Dividing a check evenly when people have different tastes and budgets is not a good idea imo. I don't like to pay for someone's extravagance, nor do I want someone else to pay for my carafe of wine if they do not drink.

Besides several helpful solutions have already been offered here... that it IS OK in many circumstances to ask for separate bills, or that people could carry cash and chip is exactly what they owe on the bill each meal.

Sheez.

Because the tax and tip are included, it is pretty easy to determine how much each person owes in a group. Just have each person in your group remember the price when they order. Hope you have trusting friends.

Five separate bills for 5 people?!?

I can't believe anyone is advocating such crass behavior!

As janiekins said, "totally ridiculous and tacky."

Five bills for 5 people? You <i>deserve</i> to get horrible service and little &quot;surprises&quot; in your food.

Sorry, it's true.

I would have to agree; asking for 5 checks for 5 diners belongs in the &quot;midly tacky&quot; category.

To me, and I realize I must be in the minority here, there is also something just a little bit tacky about everyone paying for just what he or she has ordered...I prefer to split the check so that each person pays the same fraction of the bill. One person actually pays the bill and the rest give the payer their fraction of the total cost....

Do people usually divide the bill according to what they ate, or just pay a fraction of the total?

Just curious.....thanks!

Well, in Paris, the waiter holds his little computer and asks &quot;what did you have?&quot; and you say &quot;I had a kir and the herring, followed by the duck filet and I had a cr&egrave;me br&ucirc;l&eacute;e for dessert.&quot; And he says &quot;17.80&quot; and you give him your credit card and he prints your bill. Then he goes to the next person. It doesn't bother the waiter at all, but I guess it bothers certain insecure customers. Often it means a bigger tip, because everybody wants to give something.

I should mention that usually somebody says &quot;put the bottle of wine on my bill.&quot;

Sure, in those instances in Paris when the waiter has the hand-held, separate bills are less likely to annoy ... but hand-helds are certainly not ubiquitous, and you won't encounter them at better restaurants.

And eks, to answer your question ... I dine out with friends at least 3 times per week here in Manhattan, and we <i>generally</i> just split the bill. Yes, sometimes you might overpay a bit, but comes around, goes around. Order the surf &amp; turf next time!

We do <i>not</i> always simply split the bill ... sometimes a friend doesn't have wine or just orders a salad, for example, and that person (or persons) pay less.

It ain't rocket science. Like I said, any adult with a brain should be able to figure it out.

I don't think it's a matter of &quot;tacky&quot; to do such things, it may just be annoying if there are a lot of people. I'm always surprised at how math-challenged people are that they can't add a few numbers in the head in a couple seconds. Whenever I go out with friends, we do usually pay for what we ordered ourselves. Why wouldn't you, I don't even understand why people don't do that and just &quot;split&quot; the bill. I suspect it's because they aren't very good with math, as there is no real reason someone should pay for something other than they ordered. It only takes a few seconds to look at a bill and add a few numbers in your head (ie, 14 for main dish, 4 for drinks, that makes 18, and I'll add a bit for tax and tip). We do generally just split the bill if everyone had almost the same thing in costs, which happens sometimes with only a couple people. Maybe I have more reasonable friends, but the people I go out with are not cheap (eg, they don't &quot;forget&quot; to add a bit for tax and tip) and can do simple math quickly. Usually people have enough cash to put into the pot based on what they ordered, after glancing at the total bill, but sometimes one person has to pay by credit card and the other(s) give their cash to them.

People have such weird ideas about people paying for themselves, like you have to get out a calculator and figure it to the penny or something. People don't do that. Well, if they do, I don't know them, and in that case, I think you'd need a separate bill if it were for business expenses or something. I also don't usually eat in really expensive restaurants, so maybe that's part of the difference -- I tend to eat with friends in places that may be a total of US$15-25 a person. I frequently dine with some vegetarians, and I am not, so often their meals cost a few dollars less than mine for the main course, as meat or seafood often is more expensive. So why would I expect them to always split the check. I also want to order whatever I want without concern to the price, whereas other people are more on a budget.

This isn't just me, it's all the friends I know, and family, and I've never really associated with people who wanted to just split bills equally, so that seems weird to me.

Being mostly Wall Street finance people, I can assure you that my friends &amp; colleagues are capable of doing the math, we just choose not to (unless it's obvious someone should pay more, or less, than others).

For example, 5 people at Mary's Fish Camp last night ... we all had apps &amp; entrees, drank 2 bottles of wine, a couple of people also had beers. Our bill was $350 without tip. Each person paid $85. Did a couple of people pay a bit too much (like me)? Yes. But it'll all work out, and it was fast &amp; easy and we were on our way.

A Wall Street finance person might have more tolerance for an extra $50 more here and there, compared to the average person.

&lt;Do people usually divide the bill according to what they ate, or just pay a fraction of the total?&gt;

Depends on who I am with. If it's a dear friend who I do things with and share money with often, maybe split it. My rich friends, simply pick up the tab for all of us. If it's a bunch of co-workers who had wildly different priced items, then I prefer to actually pay what I owe.

Gekko- You're basing your (smug) assumptions and replies on your own experience in NYC and Wall Street financial types. For all we know this could be a group of retired school teachers, who have never been to Europe, who aren't particularly fond of each other, and are on limited budgets... who knows?

I agree with you about not asking for 5 checks, that's why I think each person carrying cash, figuring roughly what they owe, and putting it on the table is the easiest and best solution.

Suze, but people generally forget to add tax etc, so when one unlucky person counts that pile of contributed cash, it's inevtiably short ... and what about the tip?

But whatever .. the OP asked a question and got a lot of answers ... if people want to be rude and/or petty, so be it ....

If the waiter appears reluctant to provide 5 separate bills, I suggest you rotate who pays the FULL bill, keep the receipts and then tot up who owes what to whom after the meal, at your leisure.

Its one thing to shout out 5 separate bills to a waiter at the end of the meal in your own language, but quite another in a foreign language. I'd certainly avoid it.

Thanks for the responses. I must say I did not have the experience in Paris of the waiter asking everyone what they ate...I guess the practice varies depending on the restaurant.

Somehow I feel like cringing when the check comes and someone at the table starts figuring down to the penny...&quot;....let's see, I had the chicken breast for $14.50 and the endive salad for $5.00, so I owe $19.50 and you had the shoulder of lamb for $21.00 with no appetizer.....And you had two glasses of wine but I had espresso....&quot; Actually THAT would be simple....but the situation is usually a bit more complex.....well, thanks for your responses...