Tips on Steering Clear of Bad Steak House

Letter to Ephesians: My favorite obnoxious “tip” request on a restaurant’s bill was “20-30-50 or 100%.” WSJ recently asked us to take its quiz after it found “Americans Are Tipping Less” & asked “Are You?” Heck, you can be 100% certain I would never go back to that obnoxious eatery.

Surely, restaurants are under extreme cost pressures. But if they can’t make enough money with good food &  service to pay its wait staff a living wage, they shouldn’t be in business – and won’t be getting my hard earned money. Well, that’s my two cents (no pun intended) but the WSJ readership didn’t hold back in telling the paper they are “rejecting [such] digital prompts.” Others are going back to the old fashion way of using cash for tipping, while many say they are eating more at home and less at price-gouging diners.

One comment that also caught my eye was the other 1960s practice of simply not needing any tipping prompt and simply adding a 10-20% tip to the bill based on common sense, i.e., how well the servers served. They can’t, of course, help it if the food prepared by the chef stunk, so the only recourse in that case is to go to a restaurant that doesn’t stink up the joint. Many are also undoubtedly doing more internet research offering ratings – although those ratings can be skewered in a number of ways. Better is word of mouth feedback. My golf group, e.g., does a great job of comparing all the above issues between the first and eighteen holes. Haven’t been steered wrong to the right steak house yet.

Davd Soul