As this thread has evolved (devolved?) into a "tipping" thread, my comments follow:

For good service, 20%

For excellent service: 25%

For outstanding service: >25% and yes, once in a while I do this.

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And did I ever 'stiff' a waitress? Yep, once. Seafood resturant up north. Watress took our order and vanished. A short time later, she drops off our food and vanishes again...as she left I asked for napkins and tableware. She kept on going to the kitchen and was not seen again. So, I go to the serving area and get our own stuff.

Then comes a screaming match from the kitchen which soon spilled out into the dining area...yep, our waitress and a cook. The highlight was when our waitress grabbed a knife and threw it at the cook. (It missed, he hauled out of there, good decision that.)

Bu this time, we finished our meal and left, stopping at the cashier to pay our tab. And, no, we didn't tip the waitress.

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OK, one more story. Having breakfast at that great diner on Rt. 1 just north of Ogunquit (Wells?). I ordered hash with poached eggs. Our waitress arrived (she must have been all of 16) and dumped the poached eggs in my lap. The yolks, of course, broke making one heck of a mess on my shorts. I started laughing ...

The poor kid started crying over what she had done and ran back to the kitchen. Manager comes over and I'm going on about how it's just an accident, no problem. I asked him to find the girl and tell her that it was OK, just bring me some new eggs.

She came back, still shook up,I told her that I had a grand-daughter just her age and not to worry about it.

I finally got a smile out of her.

And yes, to show no hard feelings I left her a very good tip, very good indeed.

Too many people are so worried about everyone else that works there. It's not your problem. If you get bad service then tip accordingly. I would feel guilty tipping a bad server good because I was worried about the dishwasher. I'd be doing the server an injustice letting him think his service was good and not giving him reason to improve. If you want to tip 20% or more for horrible service that's your option. The next time you go back and get the same server you can expect the same service.

:BigApplause:

Tipping low or not at all for poor service is like survival of a species? :boom:

I'm a 20-25% tipper but when the establishment automatically adds 15% gratuity to the check, then that's all they get. I hate when they do that.

We had three different meals at Taverna Red during Feb/Mar and all three were great. The food was terrific, especially on the German Night we attended. The only comment I agree with is "service can be slow" but the food was great even when we had a party of 12. Sometimes you have to cut people a little slack - waiter or otherwise. I'm just saying......
Irish

I don't understand that assertion and ask if you have a reference other than the common "my uncle told me so when we were at the bar"

There is no income tax in Florida thus Florida has no interest in regulation of the income of servers. Perhaps when you said "In the state of Florida" you simply were saying that Florida does not allow its citizens to ignore the federal requirement. The IRS does have regulations and they have been successful in going after restaurant OWNERS for failure to pay.
The summary of the rules are at Reporting Tip Income - Restaurant Tax Tips

To summarize the restaurant (not the server) is expected to report total tips of at least 8% of sales (not including take out) and allocate that 8% to servers and others. These individuals are to keep records of their tips received and submit a monthly record with name SSN etc. However, and this is important, the restaurant is only required to withhold taxes, FICA, medicare on the amount the employee reports (s)he received each month. It is not the owner's job to enforce honesty. I could not find any case where the IRS went after a server for under-reporting and we can debate whether that is good or bad, but they have gone after owners for failure to pay the employer's share of FICA. This went to the Supreme Court in Fior D'Italia case and the restaurant was forced to pay FICA but no action against the employees for failure to report.

Taverna Red
 

Went there tonight (Monday) with my girl friends for the $10 prime rib special. The piece of prime rib was very thin, but delicious. As my side I had sauteed green beans and they were yummy also. I ordered soup (Chili) and it was nicely spiced and only $1.50 extra. I had a coupon from the paper for a free dessert to share, it was Italian Wedding Cake. Everything was good and they had $3 martinis to boot. They had an excellent entertainer in the bar. Can't ask for anything more than that. The Country Clubs charge $9 to $10 for a sandwich. This was a real value. Whooo hOOO. Certainly worth the money. I am thinking of going tomorrow for the German night. They have live entertainment then as well,

When that happens to me, I make it a point to tell the server he just got screwed out of an additional 5-10%. And I usually ask for the manager an tell them how their policy is cheating the help.

The usual answer is they do it because there are so many who do not tip. Not a very good answer and most certainly does not solve the problem and does cheat the server.

I know, I know we can always leave more....that is/was not the point.

btk

Taverna RED!
 

We had a similar experience except our service was so slow and the food was crap. When the waiter came over to ask us how everything was we asked him if the service was always this slow and the food always bland. His response was "yeah, pretty much" We will never go back and also didn't leave a tip.

Are they under new ownership/management? The menu looks quite different from the last time I was there as does the interior. http://www.tavernared.com/home.html

Everybody is different in that I would have listened to how someone said something as opposed to the actual wording. If the waiter said he wanted his tip in cash in a nice way, I would have accomodated him. If he was brusk, I wouldn't have accomodated him.

I can think of only one time when I thought of leaving a 10% tip. I was at the jersey shore in a non busy time for breakfast and the waitress was extremely slow or non existence when I requested something. I realized she was just a kid trying to work her way through college so I left a 15% tip.

I always leave 15% or more of the bill, not with the tax included. I also agree to leave something extra if they add 15% to the bill assuming the service was excellent. I don't penalized the server if the cook screwed up and they should do what's right by their follow coworkers. I would also give a restaurant a second chance on the basis it might have had been a good day.

Everyone makes mistakes and it's easier to go with the flow of life.

What were you expecting for $10? A 24 ounce bone-in?

You are taking this one sentence out of context, the slice was thinner than the usual cut, but delicious and, as I stated, this was a great value. Please read the entirety of my post. I was not complaining at all, and i did not expect, nor could i eat, a huge cut of meat. i always order the small portion if available, if not it goes home with me. If people only want a thicker cut, this may not be the right menu choice for them. Every meal I have ever had at Taverna Red was good. Try their unique lasagne, yummy!