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.

I'm a former restaurant industry employee(front and back house). I never tip for take out. It takes no more special effort to plate the food in a to-go box then on china. If anything it often times takes less effort and skill to throw something in a box. And as far as gathering up plastic forks and napkins.....nah, that doesn't merit any special compensation. On the other hand if I sit down and have a server, it's always a 20% tip, provided it is decent service. I remember what it was like on the other side.

ok, the second time i went to college..i put myself thru the damn place by working at a restaurant. sure, it is a piece of cake tossing a pile of noodles into a flat box, but imagine 20 of those orders. you walk up to the counter and see them stacked up...you grab all the tickets and organize the BS. gather the utensils, chopsticks, stupid fortune cookies...and gobs of soy sauce (you folks drink the stuff).you get home, and the beef chow mein you ordered is correct and not chicken chow mein? that is because of my sharp as a tack mind, and strong organizing skills! during a lunch craze when the place is packed and all the interns (or low man on the totem poles) are standing about waiting to take food to the bosses...the job sucks.

i will always give the cashier a few bucks. (probably less than 15%) and tell him/her, "can you give this to the person who packed this up?" for the record, my wife who has never worked a day in the food industry, doesnt tip. annoys me.

I bartended for about 5 years, so I tend to tip good. It's not that hard on me (honestly, how much does an extra $1-2 hurt) and helps make up for the azzholes that stiff on the tip.

I tip 20-50% depending upon what I've spent when I'm being served. Let me explain the 50%. I've been someplace and spent $6 or $7 on lunch. If someone waited on my for almost an hour, I think they deserve a minimum of $3-4. I sure as hell wouldn't wait on someone for $.90 or $1.20 for a whole meal.

When I go someplace to pick up take out, I'll sometimes write in a tip of something like $1.50 (whatever rounds the bill up to a nice round number), but I don't think it's necessary to tip on take out.

Doesn't tip for take-out, or doesn't tip at all? Like I said, to me, tipping for take-out is unnecessary, but I tip generously for regular sit-down service.

I am a simi-regular at a local Chinese food restaurant. They have a great lunch special that is more food than I should eat for lunch. High quality ingredients and fresh from the wok. The total is only $5.80 and the service is friendly & fast. I usually leave a $5.00 tip. Most of my lunches cost me about 10 bucks so this is just average cost. It is the only place that I eat at that all the staff comes over and says hello. Even the cook comes out and asks if everything is OK. It is one of my favorite places to eat.

trouble is when the chinese come over here. my wife's cousins moved here. they couldnt grasp tipping...now they both work in a restaurant...i suspect they understand now.

When I pick up at the curb (Outback for instance), I always round up add a few more $.

I tip 5-10% for take out. And $1 for the carhops at Sonic.

i dont tip for take out. no matter what she looks like, im not gonna hit so why give her my money just because she is a chick. maybe if i new she was a single mom, might be different.

what about at a buffet. anyone tip?

here in myrtle beach, tourist town, the service can be bad a lot of the time.
we stay away from the big tourist spots, so the service seems better. the big chains we eat at here are abuelo's, carraba's...wow, i guess thats it. those are usually good service.

I go to an Indian food buffet from time to time. They keep your drinks filled, bring around the naan when it's fresh out of the oven and keep the tables clean of old dishes. The wait folks are as busy at lunch/buffet as they are in the evening when they are serving. Yes, I tip there.

When we eat out we tip 15-20 percent. I don't usually go places where the service is bad. My wife tips at take out. I don't.

I never tip for take out but do tip at a sit down joint - depending on the service, if I do a crappy job at work I get fired so there is no way I will give extra money for a guy or girl that does a crappy job

If the service is bad, leave a once cent tip. That way they know your were upset about the service. If you leave nothing the waiter just figures you are just a major cheap-skate. One of my other simi-regular favorite places is normally pretty good about service. One day the service was just horrid. I was out of water and I had to wait over 10 minutes just to get my bill. I left a one penny tip right on the credit card receipt. It is simple message that they will understand.

i never tip for take out
delivery yes. more if you are quick and it still feels hot.
if you circle the block more than once i might give you less. the house number is right there by the front door and with GPS you shouldnt be getting lost.

if i sat down and was actually served and waited on you will get a tip. but putting a box in a bag with some plastic fork and a paper napkin, isnt what i would call being waited on. if the guys in the back do this you dont even have to worry about presentation.

the back of the house rairly see's tips of any kind. i never did at all the places i cooked and dishdogged in HS and college. we were paid full hourly wages. front of the house other than managers relied on tips to make up difference in the cut below min wage.

I do when the service is very good. Usually 5 or 10 RMB which equates to <$2. They appreciate it and remeber the next time you show up.

As for take out tipping I worked in food service for some time so speak from the other side of the counter. Completely optional, i would appreciate the tip, particularly if i did something extra, but i do not expect one. Best 'tip' is to be polite/nice and not be an elitist ass to the servers.

I typically do not tip when I pick-up food, unless there was extraordinary effort involved or they did something special with the order. (For example, our son has food allergies so we sometimes have to request ingredient changes or side-dish exchanges, etc.) I do tip delivery people, typically around 10%, and tip pretty generously for good-to-excellent sit-down table server performance. I recognize it is a tough job and many people doing it are busting their butts to scrape-out a living - students, single parents and so forth.

For all y'all that don't tip on takeout, you are probably costing the server money.

They generally have to pay a percentage of total sales, used to be 8%, at a minimum. I presume this is still the case, when do they eliminate taxes(never) I generally toss them 10% on takeout.

Why does the person behind the cash register have to pay 8% of my takeout order?

Because the tax man says so.

I had this same discussion on another forum, glad to see others kind of struggling with this.

Me, I tip for take out, as long as the service is satisfactory, but only about 10%, not the full 15-20%.