Restaurant Aggravation

We went to lunch today because we had a coupon for buy one get one free at Logan's Roadhouse, which is a steak house.  They have really good food and the boys really enjoy the peanuts and the fact that you get to throw your peanut shells on the floor, in fact they encourage you to throw your peanut shells on the floor.  If you don't and pile them up on the table, when you leave, the guy who cleans off the table will throw the peanut shells on the floor - so since you can't throw things on the floor just about anywhere else, might as well do it at Logan's!

Anyhow, we've severely cut down the number of times we eat out.  I mean we used to eat out A LOT...several times a week.  Now, it's more like two to four times a month so it's truly a treat.  And in the name of saving money I try to have a coupon when we do eat out.  The coupons are usually just save $3 or $5 on the total bill, not buy one get one free meals, so this was a good deal.  Had we not gotten dessert we would have walked out under $25 for all four of us to eat, with tip!  If I could talk dh into getting water when we dine out instead of the insanely expensive coke or iced tea we would have walked out for under $20! That's pretty good considering my meal was $14 (talipia) and Jerry had steak.  Even with dessert it was under $32, still not bad.

But this post is about my aggravation...but first my question...how is it that restaurants can get away with paying the wait staff under minimum wage and then expect their patrons to pay at gratuity to make up the difference?  First of all that is not the definition of gratuity.  Gratuity is something extra, it is to show your appreciation for a job well done not to make up for crappy pay that the restaurant gets away with paying them.

The restaurant  charges the patrons an excessive amount for the food, I mean come on, $14 for talipia?  I can buy talipia at the store for $9 and have enough for at least 4 meals for me AND dh.  The drinks are up to about $2.50 for coke or iced tea...it takes what?  3 cents to make that.  And now they want me to make up for the grossly underpaid wait-staff?  Come on.  That's wrong.  In my opinion, restaurants should have to abide by the minimum wage laws and gratuities should be just that, a gratuity...IF I am impressed with the service I can leave a tip in an amount I feel is deserved.  I should not feel guilty because my waiter worked hard and I know he only makes $2 an hour so if I only leave a $2 tip on a $20 tab he only made $4 on my table IF he didn't have to share the tip from my table...then what if his service wasn't stellar?  I certainly don't leave a great tip if the service isn't stellar, if my drink isn't filled in a timely manner I leave less, if my order isn't correct or the wait-staff is rude I leave less.  Of course the opposite is certainly true, if I have outstanding service I've been known to leave a $5 tip on a $10 bill.  I've even been known to find another member of the wait-staff who took better care of us then our server and hand them a tip while leaving our server a small tip on the tab.  I also clean my own table, obviously I don't clear off the plates but I make sure there is as little to do as possible - wipe the table off and stack all the plates and when my kids were small I'd leave a bigger tip if the floor was messy even though I would pick up what I could reach.

I'm also of the opinion that the wait-staff knew their pay rate before they took the job, it's not like it's a secret.    If you're really good at your job you'll get the good tips but I cannot get over how many really bad servers we've gotten in the past couple of years (which also coincides with when the prices have skyrocketed).  I mean, we get a seat and after 10 minutes finally get our drinks and order our food and then 30 minutes later might get our food from someone other then our server and will ask for something that we originally asked for when we ordered like a side of ranch or mustard...10 or 15 minutes later our server might show up and ask how our meal is and we'll have to remind them we're waiting for the side of ranch or mustard and oh yeah, our drinks have been empty for the last 15 minutes (empty drinks sends me over the edge, ask anyone I've dined with)....this scenario is very, very common and not deserving, in my opinion of even a 5% tip, heck, it's deserving of a discount on the price of my order if I could track down a manager to complain to...oh and by the way...this kind of thing doesn't happen at a busy time, it's usually at a down time, maybe 2-4pm....I've noticed we get better service at busier times.  When I eat out my head is generally on a swivel, it's habit, I keep track of where my server is, I know how many tables they have, if they have a large party, how they are treating their other tables etc...I do give leeway if they are taking care of a large party or have a lot of other tables, I'm not heartless or not understanding.  If I see my server go out for a smoke break and my drink is empty...OMG, you better not be expecting a tip.

I've read plenty of articles on manners and financial responsibly and they all say if you cannot afford to leave at least a 15-20% tip you cannot afford to eat out, I don't agree.  I'm already paying for a meal that is grossly overpriced, just because the restaurant isn't passing that profit onto the wait-staff and I feel a 5-10% tip is sufficient doesn't mean I cannot afford to eat out.  In my personal opinion, with the fast rising cost of meals in restaurants and declining service standards 5-10% is generous in most instances and I don't feel bad leaving that.  The restaurant should feel bad for not paying their wait-staff sufficiently and should consider that's probably the reason they cannot find quality staff and it's probably also the reason they have such a high turn over.