re: What do you Tip Dine-in vs. take-out?

At my old server job we had a company that would order food for like 16 people every Wednesday for a standing meeting. They wanted each person’s name on their box and most of the orders had modifications.

The one employee designated to pick it up would come in and pay with 16 different credit cards/cash and wouldn’t leave a single dollar on all of the tabs.

That blows my mind. I never expected tips from regular takeout orders, but damn dude. A single dollar on each tab would have made a world of difference. Hell, $0.50 would.

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but if it's a slightly more substantial dinner that has been packed up for you, what's another $3 at least?

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It is such a little amount of effort. The Back of House staff are the ones who put it in containers. So you are paying $5 to have someone grab the food and place it in a bag. Silly.

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By this logic, bringing the food from the kitchen to your table ain’t so hard either.

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That's a bad comparison and illogical.

Dining in:

- Pace the order
- Make recommendations/explain specials
- Describe food
- Refill drinks
- Clear plates per course
- New silverware etc
- Bring out numerous courses
- Reset table
- Clean table
and more

Take out:

- Often hostess or bar takes the order.
- Order goes to kitchen, makes, they place in the containers
- Put it in a plastic bag
Done.

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All that extra math you did saved you $10, not even worth it. If the service was good the server deserves the extra money IMO.

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My post perhaps made it seem much more complicated than reality. I tip 20% give or take a few dollars depending on level of service. My point behind the wine post is that if I order a 150.00 bottle of wine, I don't feel the need to include a 30.00 tip in the total for that beverage service.

A traditional tip is 15-18% of food total, not including taxes or liquor costs.

Somehow over the years it has become customary to calculate the tip amount on the bill total. Point is, servers are making more money.

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Stay home and cook your food yourself

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The restaurant and its employees would vehemently disagree with this suggestion.

Dine In - Always 20% unless service is sub par. This has rarely ever happened.

Take Out - Depends on the restaurant. Chinese and Indian takeout where the person who took my order hands me the food at the counter...$0. But when I order from Eliza, a place I love and frequent, I tip my usual 20% on to-go orders to help them out.

20% dine-in, without question. I'll throw a few dollars for takeout because... I don't know? Seems like a nice thing to do? If I'm being stingy about a couple additional dollars, I have other financial concerns.

Dine-in: 20% typically rounded up to the nearest dollar
Take-out: 10% is probably about what i average, really depends on the meal/restaurant