> On Aug 21, 2011, at 7:54 AM, turquoiseb wrote: > > > 1. Tip well. The waitress can either be your best friend, or your worst > > enemy. If you want to come back and write in this cafe again, it is far > > better to be perceived as an over-tipping American than a cheapskate > > Dutchman. Just sayin'.
Applies even to carry outs. Better to tip generously, but even a standard amount is acceptable. Just don't go below the standard. The expectation of a tip can really have an effect on service. If you are an infrequent diner, if you send some kind of non verbal cue, that helps, but usually you can't really do that, other than just being pleasant to the server. Yesterday I was a little clever. The daughter and I stopped in for a quick lunch at Ruby Tuesdays. They've got a great crab cake appetizer and a great salad bar. Salad bar is $2.99 with anything ordered, otherwise it's $8.99. We ordered one crab cake and one salad bar, and that server was watching me like a hawk making sure I wasn't going to partake of that salad bar. (It was for my daughter). I asked for the bill early, gave him a generous tip (well over 20%), and then got an extra serving or two at the salad bar which I ate without guilt. But in general, it's nice to be perceived as being a little generous, which I can often do, because my lunch and dinner bills are usually pretty small.
