I leave 10-25 %, depending on service and food. Service and food really have to be terrible for me to leave only 10 %. If I leave the restaurant thinking I've enjoyed a rewarding experience, the waitress will get 25 %.

Goody for you.

Because in most restaurants the cooks usually prepare the foos and not the waitstaff, I usually tip based on service alone. If the food is terrible, I'll talk to the manager or just not eat there again, but I won't take it out on the server by leaving a small tip. Average service gets an average tip (15%).

My "tip" to the server is usually "find a new line of work!" Or the #3 horse in the 5th race.

I'm sorry, but I'm not able to fully support the currect move to get us up to 18-20 percent. Restaurants are posting these helpful little guidelines and suggestions for their patrons to see. But there's never any reason. And all I see is the same old lackluster service. What is the reason for going higher, and if we do, should it be sans tax? Ciao

What about hotel maids?
Does anyone know if they should be tipped?
If so, how much?

Wondering: That is an entirely different thread - look at #43 (currently).

Since good service is becoming a thing of the past, I tip based on a whole other criteria:

A fat and ugly waitress gets 10%
A fat waitress gets 12%
A cute waitress gets 15%
A cute and friendly waitress gets 20%

If the waitress is fat and ugly, but friendly, I add 10% + 20% and tip 15%.

If she's cute and friendly, but fat, I add 20% plus 12% and tip 16%.

Works every time.

Hey "Waitress", I think 'wondering' was just exercising a wee bit of sarcastic humor.

I'm curious. How many exclude the cost of wine when calculating the tip?

To "The Tip Wizard" - I can't believe you had the balls to post that. What a pig. When I waitressed, we were paid $2.01 an hour. Current waitstaff, please advise as to the current hourly rate, but I'll bet it's not much more. To base a tip on the appearance of the server has got to be the lowest of the low. Do them all a favor and stay home.

As far as being suited for the job of waiting table, you've got to at least try to be pleasant and efficient. Otherwise, you'd better find another career because you won't make any money. If the food is lousy at the restaurant where you work and it affects your tips, find another restaurant to work at. If all servers did that there wouldn't be anyone to work at the lousy restaurants and maybe they'd be forced to improve their food quality. TIP YOUR SERVER!!

Hey, Tip Wizard - I'm STILL laughing. Thanks for the tip.
Hey, Jim - duh. It's Monday, OK? As soon as I posted my response, I got it. Oh, well, off to the restaurant with my cute mask on.

Is it true that waitresses, waiters and cooks will spit into food sent back, say, a steak is undercooked, if they think the customer is being unreasonable? Or, if the meal must be trashed and thus cooked from fresh, the cook or waiter or waitress will spit into it? A couple of years ago, cooks and waitresses on The Howard Stern Show admitted this very thing.

Hey, OO, it's so easy just to do 15% of the total, tax included. So, that probably works out to 16-17% of net, and I think that's usually enough. If the service is terrific, and I do mean terrific, we usually go 25% of total. Or 15% on the charge slip and another 10% in cash. BTW, I USED to have a friend who always volunteered to handle the cash when a group of 8-10 of us dined together. He would pass the bill around and tell us to also throw in the tip. He'd then add up the cash and throw in enough of his own to give us the total plus 5%. Sometimes if we had a good tipper or two, he might not even have to pony up anything. It was years before we caught him doing this. Ciao

What is outraged so outraged??? You don't think I tip out of charity, do you? It's not my fault you only make $2.01 an hour! Seems like that low salary should inspire you to go that extra mile to make sure the service is friendly and efficient. But since few waitresses go that extra mile, tipping based on looks alone is much more efficient. It's survival of the fittest. What would you people out there rather have as your waitress: a really cute and friendly (but inept) waitress or an extremely efficient Quasimoto?

Hey, Tip Wizard, perhaps restaurants ought to charge the ugly customers more ... I mean, the waitresses have to look at someone like you, so why not ease their burden a bit. And some more on top of that for a person with your attitude. Seems like a fair turn-around to me. Just call it battle pay. Ciao

Hey, L! You sure are some tipper! That Outback Steak Restaurant must have some crappy service, huh?

Hubby and I almost always tip 20% of the total bill (including tax and the wine, but we don't usually spend more than $40 on a bottle anyway)...or figure some round number between 15 and 20%. And always in CASH - waitstaff really appreciate this, and you can be sure the green stuff gets right where it supposed to go. I've heard stories of unscrupulous owners who pocket most of the credit card tips.

Of course, real cheapie places, at least 20-25% (why give $2.13? just round up and give three bucks - the waitperson will notice and your piggybank won't).

And no, Rafer, nobody I know spits on customer's food. And I'm in the biz. Once we had a customer accuse us of spitting into her fried shrimp. The customer was very sincere (a nurse who was "sure it was body fluids"). Yuk! I was furious - ready to fire somebody! Well, guess what - we have a videotape system, and when we rewound, discovered not only had nobody spit on her food, but the prep person just happened to thoroughly wash his hands before using a clean utensil to place her shrimp-to-go in a takeout box. This so mystified me, I tried an experiment. I placed six fried shrimp in the little to-go box and waited a couple hours. When I opened the box there was a little puddle of goo in the bottom - the mystery was solved - it was peanut oil... so, Rafer, don't believe everything you hear. Please!

L, you're missing the point. A waitress goes into that line of work of her own volition. Ugly clientele may or may not go with the territory. But we, the clientele, are forking out our money for a service and are asked to "donate" a certain percentage at the end of the meal for that service. If more people didn't cough up their tip money so easily the overall level of service would get better. But because the tip has become automatic a waitress has no incentive to do anything more than the most basic job.

Hey, Tip Wizard!

To answer your question, I'd rather have an efficient quasimoto than an inept cutie pie. I wouldn't stiff the inept cutie pie as long as she/he tried - I'd tip 15%. But the efficient quasimoto would get 20% or more, depending on quality of service. 15% - 20% has been standard for many years. Your compassion for others, however, is stunning! They must love serving you!

Joan, I agree with you about leaving the tip in cash in a lot of places. We often tip in cash when in certain restaurants. It's true that there's a certain type of restaurateur who's in it for the killing, and the hell with everyone else, including and especially his staff. I feel sorry for people who work in places like that.