Tip-Top
Being a food-lover, dining out is a very essential and indispensable part of my routine. I have tried out a variety of restaurants, different, in terms of factors like cuisines, ambience, pricing and customer satisfaction. Of them I have had some fantastic experiences and some forgettable ones too. But of all what I remember, most of them are related to the bit where the meal is over.
Given tips is a very debateable practice. I have on numerous occasions persisted with my dad on not giving tips, especially when the food is not up to the expectation or the service has been poor. He insists that atleast a 5% tip is a must give no matter what. His reasoning being that the if the food is not great, then the waiter is not the person to be blamed and if the service is not great, then consider it as an appreciation of the delectable food. He, nonetheless, fails to answer when neither criterion is met.
On one instance, my friend ended up giving the waiter a Rs.40 tip. The meal came to around Rs.300 so the radical show of generousity definitely got me thinking. Later on asking her, she told me that she did so because she found the waiter to be really cute!! I never thought about that aspect of fine dining till then.
Personally, I am a person who strongly believes in consumer satisfaction and in case, I don’t get what I pay for, the eatery can forget it shares of tips. I particularly loathe the idea of giving a tip for two reasons, when the food sucks, or when the waiter is in an unusual hurry! It’s my way of showing them that, “You didn’t get it right this time on!”
There are also other factors that may put me off, over-friendly staff being one of them. While at a lounge, I recollect the manager joining us on our table late at night, and giving us a lecture about the ill-effects of excessive Schezwan sauce and his tiffs with hot-shot customers and journalists. Uninvited and unwanted!
There are other instances, where in, the order is not taken until a million other options (obviously, of a greater price) are suggested and exhaustively discussed without your asking for it. It’s manageable and needed to a small extent but then some people just don’t know where to a draw a line.
To conclude, for me, the amount of the tip is not as big a question as, to tip or not to tip is!
Given tips is a very debateable practice. I have on numerous occasions persisted with my dad on not giving tips, especially when the food is not up to the expectation or the service has been poor. He insists that atleast a 5% tip is a must give no matter what. His reasoning being that the if the food is not great, then the waiter is not the person to be blamed and if the service is not great, then consider it as an appreciation of the delectable food. He, nonetheless, fails to answer when neither criterion is met.
On one instance, my friend ended up giving the waiter a Rs.40 tip. The meal came to around Rs.300 so the radical show of generousity definitely got me thinking. Later on asking her, she told me that she did so because she found the waiter to be really cute!! I never thought about that aspect of fine dining till then.
Personally, I am a person who strongly believes in consumer satisfaction and in case, I don’t get what I pay for, the eatery can forget it shares of tips. I particularly loathe the idea of giving a tip for two reasons, when the food sucks, or when the waiter is in an unusual hurry! It’s my way of showing them that, “You didn’t get it right this time on!”
There are also other factors that may put me off, over-friendly staff being one of them. While at a lounge, I recollect the manager joining us on our table late at night, and giving us a lecture about the ill-effects of excessive Schezwan sauce and his tiffs with hot-shot customers and journalists. Uninvited and unwanted!
There are other instances, where in, the order is not taken until a million other options (obviously, of a greater price) are suggested and exhaustively discussed without your asking for it. It’s manageable and needed to a small extent but then some people just don’t know where to a draw a line.
To conclude, for me, the amount of the tip is not as big a question as, to tip or not to tip is!
Comments
--pritesh