When you go out to eat what is your tipping policy?

if a restaurant adds gratuity it is to protect the servers from making nothing. if you have a problem with the service and feel it doesn't deserve that much speak w/management. as far as how i tip, everyone gets 18% unless the service was bad than i go off of if it is extremely busy and i feel the server tried but wasn't able to give good service, if so 15% if they didn't try 10%. i have only not left a tip once, there was no one else in the restaurant i watched the server flirt w/the bartender for 30 mins and when my food came out it was freezing, by the time i got my drink the ice was melted. my kids will be taught to tip well and i will encourage them to work in the restaurant business and the retail business, i think everyone should have to do so for at least 1 yr of their life.

15-20% if good service. More if GREAT. Whatever I feel like if the server was rude or completely uninterested on waiting on our table.

We tip about 20% for great service. We never tip less than about $6. Example we went to Applebees and the bill was only about $17. Twenty percent would have been 3.40. That seemed pretty crappy. So, my minimum in a case like that is $6. Unless the server was horrible. Then I would have left $3.01.

For crappy service, I always make sure it ends in .01. I hope they get it.

I have told my kids to tip and to remind their friends to tip. a lot of kids pretend to forget. My daughters generally leave their tip partially under their own plate or glass so the server knows its' from them.

I tip based on service, If the service is good I will usually tip between 10 & 15%, if the service is bad, depending how bad it is I will leave anything from a couple of bucks to no tip at all. If a restaurant adds the tip to the bill I make them take it off. We went to Dave & Buster's last year for my husband's birthday, the service and the food were horrible and our waitress completely ignored us, they added a 20% tip to the bill and I refused to pay it, the only tip she got from me was how to do her job better.

If we go somewhere and the service is horrible then I refuse to tip at all. I usually tip $20.00 if the service was acceptable. I've been out a few times (we don't eat out but maybe 2 times a year) and the service been outstanding and we tipped $30.00. We don't always have the money to tip so much but when we decide to treat ourselves and the service was excellent then we tip more.

Almost always 20%. I worked food service for many years. It is a thankless crap ass job. If they do a great job I'll give 25%. If I'm sitting with a girl friend only drinking coffee and they keep us topped off I'll leave them a tip of double our bill. I can't leave a tip of 20% on a 95 cent cup of joe! LOL

I generally tip around 20%. I have maybe only left a very minimal tip (couple of cents) once or twice (and I'm almost 48) because of lousy attitudes or service. I honestly try to gauge if the bad service is the server's fault or if he/she has no control over what was served and how. I work for a restaurant and therefore know that servers only get $3-something per hour as their wages. They DEPEND upon the tips to bring them up to at least minimum wage. Especially if it's a small self-owned place as opposed to a high-profile chain restaurant. If they don't have many customers, they don't get many tips to begin with. And if the customers tip lousy, they almost pay more for the gas to get them to the job than it's worth. The local news did a story on tipping the other day and stated that you are basically robbing the servers if you do not tip at least 15-20%. Either eat cheaper, or stay home if you can't afford te tip.

OP here and im a server full time. i was just curious how honest people would be. ive been doing my job for over 5 years. i know what im doing and im good at it. however maybe it is the area i work or something else but me and most of the servers iwork with are stggling to make 15% everynight. this past week especially has been awful. i worked saturday and friday dring dinner and didnt break 100 for the weekend. it was a bit of a frustration question. we've been trying to convince our managers to add the tip to the bill for large parties. we have a lot of kids who come in in large parties (10+). theyll have bill come to $100 and leave $2 total. i just want to say thanks to those who maintain the 15-20% general rule. id never ask anyone to tip bad service but i would like those who cant afford to tip on that day to go somewhere else or get take out from their restarant of choice.

Good question!! I tip based on service. I usually don't dine at super fancy places so if the service is good and the wait staff is nice and did their job, I will leave $5 or $6. If they are NOT, they only get $2. I will admit ONE time I didn't leave a tip. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe when it first opened in Detroit and the waitress was TERRIBLE. She was rude, didn't check on us and when I flagged her down to order another beer, I sat and watched our beers sit at the end of the bar for TEN minutes!! I ended up going to the bar myself to get our drinks. She didn't get a dime! One time when I was a kid (probably 11 or 12) we would go to Pizza Hut by our school on half days. One time, I didn't have enough for a tip so I wrote the waitress a little note saying how wonderful she was and how sorry I was that I didn't have the money to leave her a tip :-)