Tip Etiquette
 

So if you pick up take-out food from a sit-down restaurant, do you add a tip to the total? I do not, but I wonder if I'm jipping the cook, or do they get part of the tips?

if i pick up food, no tip. if they deliver or serve food, there is a tip. unless the service is atrocious. which brings to mind the 'the bayou' here locally. there is about one server in that place that earns her tips.

It depends on who hands me the food.

It seems to me that it is usually the cashier/host.

I was thinking more dude or chick. The former? no tip. The latter? probably.

But...just the tip?

I tip for takeout depending on the service and what is entailed in packaging up the food. I think a good takeout tip is 10%. I get sushi from a place a few blocks from my house and it is always packaged very carefully, they know my order when I call, and they occasionally throw in a new item they think I might like for free. I feel like they earn a 10% tip.

Same with Chinese food. If it is carefully packaged they have earned some form of tip. They could have put it on a plate and brought it to the table or carefully packaged it and brought it to the front of the restaurant. The effort involved is slightly different and the tip should reflect that, but shouldn't be eliminated entirely.

On the rare occasion I order pizza the delivery guy gets a tip.

It's simple. A tip is based on service. If one was performed, a tip is warranted. How much is an entirely personal and subjective decision.

When you dine in the restaurant, do you tip the cook?
No. You tip the waiter/waitress based on the service.

In most (all?) states, wait staff are paid sub-minimum wage as they are expected to earn the balance in tips. Cooks, otoh, are paid at least minimum wage - usually more if they are any good.

My answer to your question is, No. Some places (waffle house) add a surcharge to carry-out orders to cover the cost of the papergoods. They may try and tell you it goes to the cook, but I doubt it really gets there.

I have never worked in food service, but I know the waitress splits the tip with others. Just not sure if the cooks are included.

I always feel bad when they hand you the slip with a spot for the tip. Just making sure I'm not violating any social contracts...

they get full min. wage in Oregon

but I'd tip if whoever did something special like the wrapping described above

I always tip pizza/food people when delivered to my house.....if the weather is ****ty I'll tip more, because I didn't want to go out it the bad weather :D
Take out orders I don't normally tip, but again, one chinese place near home packages well, are very polite, and have NEVER screwed up an order so I always round up 2 bucks from the total....
Sit down places where we're served, the "tip scale" as I call it clicks down, or up depending on the effort..

One thing that really bugs me is at buffets or counter type places you get the evil eye when you pay and put down no tip, even though the servers do refills and make sure you're happy, for this I always make sure I've got cash......I won't pre-pay a tip......

No tips for takeout. I've worked in a couple restaurants and the wait staff doesn't throw anything at the cooks unless they pull off something extraordinary.

Wat staff will share tips with bussers, expediters (people who help deliver the heavy plates), but not the cooks or dishwashers.

of course. bagging and boxing up all that food is a PIA. i give tips.

yes I tip when picking up take out. As vash noted the boxing and bagging do require effort and I try to be specific when handing the cash that it makes it to the right person.

I do not tip for takeout, unless it is my regular place and they are great to me.

The effort involved in putting chow mein in a paper box doesn't really move me.

I do tip for delivery, but we rarely do that.

Wow - no clear answer. I thought someone would tell me I'm a fool for asking or a fool for not tipping.

If you do tip for "boxing/packaging", who get's the tip and who does the boxing?

Former (or current) restaurant people - do you know?

I tip for takeout, particularly in better restaurants, where one person is tasked with handling all of the orders.

JR

Bigger restaurants will often have one person in kitchen handling to go. If not the cashier at the smaller spots will usually take resposibility.

I do not tip on food I pick up.

McDonald's, BK, Taco Bell, Subway, even local places - I pick it up (well they don't deliver) I don't tip. Sometimes I'll throw the change in their jar.

SO, Sit down places like Outback, Applebee's, DeLuca's (Local), Carraba's, etc I don't tip because they don't deliver and I have to pick it up.

Now places that offer sit down AND delivery which is far and few between where we frequent. If they DELIVER it I TIP, if I pick it up I DO NOT TIP.

Curbside to go is a gray zone. Because they are delivering it to my car in the parking lot. Should I tip? Sometimes I think so and other times I say skip it. What's the rule on this?

Otherwise it's pretty simple really. Some exceptions do apply! If I was to frequent a place weekly or biweekly I would tip because I wouldn't want 'something' to happen to my food...

If you're in China, you just don't tip.

In the US, I have never tipped for take-out.