<p>Mistakenly only tipped 42 bucks on a 280 dollar dinner bill tonight…should i go back and give an additional 10 bucks ? Dinner was 210 with an additional 60 bucks for a bittle of wine…i feel a little bad about this, though we only dine here every month or so…i negelected to add in a tip for the wine…what would you do?</p>
<p>Did the $280 include taxes? If so, subtract the taxes and then recompute.</p>
<p>Yeah, I would go back and I would just throw some money into a holiday card rather than explaining my error, and just wish the waiter who worked today a happy holiday! Just tell him/her thanks for the wonderful service and help in making the holidays so special inside the card.</p>
<p>Bc, yes if i take out taxes,i shorted by 10 dollars…should have been 52 instead of 42 whichi left…that said, they were jammed tonight so there was not one waiter…one took our order,another took drink order, another took desert order,someone else opened the wine, and we would up pouring our own wine, as they were so busy</p>
<p>You actually left a 15% tip. If you feel the service was good, regardless of how many wait staff were involved, I would somehow make up the difference. If you feel the service was only fair, I wouldn’t do anything except maybe return to that restaurant on another occasion and ask for the same waiter.</p>
<p>Is a 15% tip so terrible we have to atone for it?</p>
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Depends on where you live. In my state waiters and others who are expected to be tipped don’t have to be paid minimum wage. DD earned $2.15 per hour waiting tables. Saturday night at the Mexican restaurant with tables ordering lots of drinks, she came out ahead of minimum wage, slow lunch shifts, not so much.</p>
<p>Skyhook, to me 15% means merely adequate. When someone takes good care of me, 20% is my standard, and I’ve been known tip 25% once or twice when the service was really special.</p>
<p>Whats the norm re not tipping on the alcohol portion of a bill since it significantly increases bill without perhaps requiring the same degree of service as the food?</p>
<p>In the restaurant where my son works, he has to give a percentage of the tip equivalent to the alcohol to the bartender regardless of what the customer left him.</p>
<p>qdogpa: if you eat there regularly, and you normally tip 20% or more, the waiter may be wondering what he did wrong this time. Since you do eat there regularly, I’d go in and explain that the wine was a little overwhelming and you lost your ability to do math.</p>
<p>Our normal waiter didn’t have our table,place was extremely busy, so there was not one person involved with our table…as a matter of fact, the 1 st bottle of wine i chose, a waiter came back said they had no more of it…He left and the owners wife realized he didn’tcome back to get my next choice, so she came and took the order…not sure how i am going to handle this just yet…</p>
<p>If we had just one waiter, it would be an easy fix,but having 5 differnet staff taking orders and serving us ,not including owners wife makes it more difficult…maybe next time i tip closer to 25%</p>
<p>My son waits tables. He would be THRILLED if you went back and added to your tip because of his good service. It’s the holidays…go for it.</p>
<p>*Whats the norm re not tipping on the alcohol portion of a bill since it significantly increases bill without perhaps requiring the same degree of service as the food? *</p>
<p>I don’t think that matters…otherwise we could say the same about when we order lobster rather than chicken…it takes just as much effort to serve a cheap dish as a pricey one.</p>
<p>At many restaurants, the tips are pooled and divided up…largely BECAUSE multiple servers and others provide your services. </p>
<p>I still say…if you would have normally left a larger tip, go and give them a nice holiday gift by adding to the tip you left. Actually at this time of the year, I typically tip HIGHER than usual. These folks are working in the evenings during a holiday season so <em>I</em> can enjoy myself.</p>
<p>qdogpa - I’d recommend mixing that $60 wine with some vermouth - about a 2.5 : 1 ratio would do it. ;)</p>
<p>IMO, that would be a huge waste of both $60 ($15) wine and vermouth. ;)</p>
<p>A quick scan of the Internet (WSJ, NYTimes, Wine Spectator etc.) on tipping on the alcohol portion shows: same % as you will tip on the food portion. We always do.</p>
<p>Discussions about tipping always seem to be polarizing. On the one hand, there are stories of exploitation of servers by abusive restaurants or stingy customers. On the other hand, there are obvious accounts that reek of the misplaced entitlement that afflicts our consumption society. </p>
<p>If there is one concept that we should import from Europe is the obligation for the restaurants to address the compensation of waiters and staff with transparence. Waiters should not rely on the somewhat “forced” extra generosity of patrons through guilt. It should be up to the reastaurants to cover a decent wage at all levels, and do sell jobs on the basis of lucrative tips. </p>
<p>To make the long story shorter, all meals should come with a clearly spelled out added taxes AND gratuities in the same way it is done for larger parties. A fixed fee for service should be at a level that makes the minimum reasonable. For instance an added 15 percent seems reasonable. Patrons who believe that a better than average service deserves an added tip could easily show their generosity. </p>
<p>Fwiw, I have friends who wait tables and some of their claims are totally ridiculous. According to some, a 12 dollars tab for a burger and a soda should be met with a twenty dollar bill. But that is only half as ridiculous as the tipping jars that pop about everywhere.</p>
<p>And, as a final fwiw, I am always amused to see the same people who expect large tips to change their tunes entirely when traveling abroad and shorting the local staff that REALLY works for minimal wages.</p>
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<p>I totally agree. BUT until it changes, please tip your waitstaff well if you had good service.</p>
<p>In addition to a tip, if my food-server was very capable, very pleasant or very-new-and-trying-hard, I ask to speak with a manager as I leave to I give a verbal compliment. If I can, I mention the server by name; if not, I give a physical description until the manager nods recognition.</p>