OrangeDragon wrote:

Joker Poker wrote:We've met, so it certainly wasn't aimed at you or anyone else on the board for that matter. Mind boggling amount of food though.

I've seen some of the English Sunday Roasts around town that would make me beg to differ, lol.

Yes, there are some great English Roasts around I agree. However, you were originally talking about breakfast and the roasts are lunch or dinner jobs, so in my mind there is quite a difference as I think most people would be in the 3 meals a day category. If I ate a roast it would be my main meal for the day and would most likely be the only red meat I'd consumed that week. I'm thinking that a lot of the super porkers would be doing lunch and dinner after that breakfast.

Joon, you funny!

I'd rather have a big hearty breakfast, a smallish lunch (or none), and a good dinner. As for super porkers, you know England is starting to fill the gap between them and the US on obesity right?

Joon wrote:I also think tips are a voluntary, informal additional payment for service. So I think it's strange that some businesses in the West add a line for tips on their bills, as if it was a transaction requirement.

You mean the automatically added percent? Generally this is only done for large parties, and it's because large parties are more likely to get the math wrong when splitting a check 8 ways on what should be tipped.

If you mean the printed line for the option... it's for the option. It's actually a credit card thing, so that there's documented evidence of the amount that should be billed to the card and the amount the employee should take from the till for themselves. If you tip cash you're not expected to write it in there.

^ what's the inference, OD, that the waiter is then paid their tip in cash from the till? I can imagine how often this would happen.

OrangeDragon wrote:

Joon wrote:I also think tips are a voluntary, informal additional payment for service. So I think it's strange that some businesses in the West add a line for tips on their bills, as if it was a transaction requirement.

You mean the automatically added percent? Generally this is only done for large parties, and it's because large parties are more likely to get the math wrong when splitting a check 8 ways on what should be tipped.

If you mean the printed line for the option... it's for the option. It's actually a credit card thing, so that there's documented evidence of the amount that should be billed to the card and the amount the employee should take from the till for themselves. If you tip cash you're not expected to write it in there.

Thanks for the clarification, OD. I was indeed referring to that printed line.
I'm super wary of credit cards. In almost all my life, I only paid in cash or cheque and use a debit/credit card only for online purchases.

OrangeDragon wrote:I'd rather have a big hearty breakfast, a smallish lunch (or none), and a good dinner. As for super porkers, you know England is starting to fill the gap between them and the US on obesity right?

Yeah, I'm with you on that one. Regarding England, I've no idea these days, I lived there for 3 1/4 years back in the 90s but have completely lost touch now. My impressions of the diet there at the time was pretty poor.

StroppyChops wrote:^ what's the inference, OD, that the waiter is then paid their tip in cash from the till? I can imagine how often this would happen.

happens every time, or else the drawer doesn't balance. remember, computers run everything now. each employee is assigned a drawer, and at the end of the night it has to balance with the receipts. it's up to the employee to take their tips out of if at the end of the night themselves, so there's no way they'd get shorted.

in the US i almost never pay at restaurants in cash.

Cultural brainwashing is alive and well! I don't get this " exceptional service" excuse. What is exceptional about a bartender serving up a drink or a card dealer dealing the cards? Tipping has actually led to bad service to no service. I hear that if you tip the wrong amount for a drink in Vegas ( $2 a drink in the round), you get ignored for the rest of the night. Winners of poker tournaments get extorted for part of their winnings to tip just about half the casino staff. We are talking thousands of dollars, demanded immediately. It's outrageous. A friend told me that there's a line of taxis waiting outside the casino, buy you have to tip a guy to raise his arm to summon one over. We have a name for that in Europe. Scam. And as has been said here, American service staff don't like Europeans because of their different culture. So I guess you better sit and wait until the locals are served, before they serve the " outsiders"!

UKJ wrote:Cultural brainwashing is alive and well! I don't get this " exceptional service" excuse. What is exceptional about a bartender serving up a drink or a card dealer dealing the cards? Tipping has actually led to bad service to no service. I hear that if you tip the wrong amount for a drink in Vegas ( $2 a drink in the round), you get ignored for the rest of the night. Winners of poker tournaments get extorted for part of their winnings to tip just about half the casino staff. We are talking thousands of dollars, demanded immediately. It's outrageous. A friend told me that there's a line of taxis waiting outside the casino, buy you have to tip a guy to raise his arm to summon one over. We have a name for that in Europe. Scam. And as has been said here, American service staff don't like Europeans because of their different culture. So I guess you better sit and wait until the locals are served, before they serve the " outsiders"!

You've been getting fed a whole world of bullshit. And American service staff are biased against europeans because many of the ones who visit America tend to be rude or obnoxious, and then leave no tip no matter how the server busted their ass for them.

What's exceptional about a server serving up drinks is when they manage to keep a bar full of people happy by serving them quickly and with pretty great reflex to who has been waiting the longest. Beyond that, a bartender who remembers what i'm having in a loud and busy bar so i don't have to try and yell will always get a big tip for doing so. A dealer dealing cards isn't a tip thing... you "can" on a winning hand, as a sign of good luck, but it's in way obligatory. I've NEVER heard or seen someone tipping $2 a drink, even in vegas, as the standard... that's absurd. Generally bar tips are $1 a cocktail, .50 a beer. Like I said, some situations are exceptional and make for a larger one. Meanwhile, that beer costs $2.50... how much is one where you're from?

Another reason to tip high in a busy bar... if you order something extremely complicated. Like a round of b52 shots or something. They're super busy and taking the time to make those for you is really slowing down their service to the other customers, a tip thanking them for not just putting you off while they handled the faster drinks is always a good idea... or they will. You want them to frustrate the other 100 people trying to get a drink so you can have your shot, thank them for it, with cash that it probably cost them in everyone elses tips.

Oh, and your friend can raise their own hand to hail a cab just fine... no valet needed.

OrangeDragon wrote: And American service staff are biased against europeans because many of the ones who visit America tend to be rude or obnoxious, and then leave no tip no matter how the server busted their ass for them.

one. Meanwhile, that beer costs $2.50... how much is one where you're from?

I think it's ignorant to call many European visitors rude or obnoxious.
And Europeans differ so widely from the French to Irish to Norwegians, that it sounds completely unlikely.
I had to point that out separately as it was so out of order imho. If you want to see obnoxious, watch " Vegas Police " on TV and see how badly they treat tourists.

Beer. Yes you can get cheap beer at those prices.