PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

Lance Allison · #57 06-07-2019, 05:25 PM

Without straying too far OT, I'm curious how you guys handle tipping at a buffet. Someone has to bus and and clean tables between customers but since they don't directly serve the food, I'm not sure the 15-25% rule applies.

I rarely eat from buffets so I never really thought about it until the following scenario a few years back.

Went with 3 officemates to a Chinese buffet which none of us visited before. It was a typical Chicago winter day, cold, snow, etc so everyone was bundled up with heavy coats and gloves. Ate lunch and the food was okay. This place was setup to take the payments after the meal and the pay station was way in the back, at the far end of the restaurant. As usual, I paid with Amex and would square up with the others back at the office. I assumed (incorrectly) someone left a tip at the table and they assumed (also incorrectly) that I would take care of it with the card. So no tip was actually left.

When I paid at the register, I wrote "cash" in the tip section of the receipt and totaled it out with my signature. We bundled back up and got ready to head for the car. As we got to the door, the lady who took the payment started shouting from the register then began running through the restaurant toward us, yelling like a crazy person. She was waving the receipt around in the air as she ran toward us. She was screaming something like "You say cash for tip on receipt and there is no cash on table". The place got completely silent and we were instantly the focus of everyone there. Like WTF? Not leaving anything for a tip was an honest oversight. We weren't out to screw anyone over.

Long story short, the 4 of us ended up giving a tip that had to be far more than the cost of our lunch. We were pretty embarrassed and just wanted to get out of there.

Sooooo.....what is a fair percentage for a buffet gratuity?