When to stiff the waitress

We had dinner at a little Mexican food place once. I thought my wife was leaving the tip and she thought I was, so neither one of us did. I went by the next day and asked the owner (the waiter's dad, actually) to extend our apologies and left him a tip that was probably close to 50 percent of the tab. I felt really, really bad that we hadn't tipped him the night before, but I wanted to make it right.

 

That's all I'm saying, A_QB.

I don't do any of that shit either (well, I guess I've ordered the sauce on the side a couple times) and I can count on one hand the number of times I've stiffed a waitress. And I've talked to the manager almost every time. Not everybody is a shitty customer.

Eating out is like fucking and driving. Everybody thinks they're great at it and everybody else sucks.

 

I don't get the "sauce on the side" problem. Is that some sort of unreasonable request for servers? How hard could that be?

 

I don't think I'm a shitty customer. I know what I want, I expect it and when I don't get it, I get ticked.

 

dog --

It's kitchen patois for fussy customer. Of course sauce on the side isn't a problem.

It's the sauce on the side, extra side of this, sub asparagus for the medley, steamed not grilled, hold the onions, etc. They tend to drive waitresses and cooks crazy.

Here's one for you. Cooked at a bar in college. We were pretty well known for our chili. We did a homemade soup of the day every day, plus chili.

Waitress comes back to the kitchen.

"I've got a lady who wants chili with no onions."

Waitress was kind of new, so I told her we garnished the chili with cheddar and green onions, and that was what she probably meant. Told her to go and check.

She comes back into the kitchen near tears.

"She wants chili without any onions in it."

I tell her to tell the lady that she's sorry, but we don't have any chili without onions in it. Onions being a key ingredient in chili. Now, I could have come off the line, gone to the waitress station, and picked the visible onions out of one cup of chili. I've done worse things for fussy customers. But we were busy and, frankly, I cannot fathom how someone goes to a restaurant and orders a common dish WITHOUT one of the key ingredients. I also could have fucked with her chili, but that's neither here nor there.

That four top sat in the bar for at least three hours watching a football game, drinking booze and eating food. Their tab was well over $100, and they stiffed their waitress.

They will rot in hell. And I have thousands of stories like this. Seriously, work in the business for a while. People are animals.

 

when my wife and i go out, we're easy customers. standard tip is 20 percent, give or take depending on quality of service.

when the extended family gets together, it's hell on the server. we always tip extra.

that said, as someone who used to occasionally write for the food section and has interviewed restaurant owners and managers, i can't stress enough the importance of talking to a manager about why you're stiffing the server. it's passive aggressive to just leave no (or a nominal) tip. unless something happens that's patently obvious like she spills the spaghetti in your lap, she'll think you're a cheap bastard. even if the manager sounds like he doesn't give a shit, it's her job to monitor quality of service. it's your job to point out to the manager that the service was terrible so you're not leaving a tip.

 

WFW, leo.

 

I haven't read through the whole thread, but this one caught my attention. Never stiff a waitress because the cook messed up (i.e. food is burnt, undercooked, etc.). If it's cold, that's one thing ... that's the waitress' fault usually ... but otherwise, she has little control over how the food is prepared.

If you complain about the food and she doesn't take care of it to your satisfaction, maybe then you reflect that in the tip. But don't take out poor cooking from the slob in back who makes the same wage no matter how it's cooked on the person whose wage is based on performance.

And this comes from a former cook.

 

One nice place Mrs. Ace and I went if I got up to go to the bathroom and left the napkin in the chair, they would fold it neatly over the back of the chair by the time I was back to my seat.

 

Here's my thinking: If I ask if you can leave something off or put something on the side, I'm asking. If you can't, tell me and I'll order something else.

But let's keep in mind here that I'm PAYING for this stuff. I'm not at your house, eating free and demanding things.

 

Leaving something off a sandwich isn't a problem dog.

But don't people realize that things like soup are made ahead of time? They come with what they have in them.

The problem isn't leaving things off. Hell, that helps food cost.

It's people who are to dumb to be alive taking their stupidity out on a waitress making $2 an hour.

 

And then you tell the customers that she can pick out the onions.

It's like ordering spaghetti bolognese and asking the waitress to "hold the meat" in the sauce.

Uh, the meat is part of the sauce.

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