I pulled a Dave Ramsey no, no. Those of you who know who Dave Ramsey is, knows that he advises his listeners to avoid credit at all costs. He also says that when you are in debt, you can't afford to eat out. Well Sunday, I ate out. Even though, it was a bad financial decision on my part, I am going to discuss the place I ate at.
It was one of the buffet places. You know one of those places, where you serve yourself and eat as much as you want. I paid better then $11 to have the opportunity to eat some turkey. I just love turkey. This buffet's turkey isn't as good as Old Country Buffet was before they left town, but it was turkey. For $11, I could have bought a turkey breast, potatoes, corn and fixed my own and still had left overs for another meal or two. The part that really bugs me though is a practice that I see at all the buffet places.
That practice; that I begin seeing in recent years, of asking you to tip the "wait staff." I wonder what wait staff. The person that sits a few extra plates on my table? I mean they certainly don't wait on me. I get my own food. What service am I really paying for when I leave a tip.
Now don't get me wrong. When I go to a restaurant and order from the menu, I leave a tip. In fact, I generally will leave a tip in excess of the 20%. I will even get upset, if someone in my party, says they aren't going to leave a tip, because everyone else is leaving a bigger tip. When a waitress (wait person) does an excellent job and is friendly they should be rewarded. However, as I said before, what service am I paying for at a buffet place?
The worst place for this tip thing was at the former Old Country Buffet at Westridge Mall. I would go in there and get my plate of food, then go get my drink and sit down. Then a young lady would come over to my table, and say, "Hi my name is ... and I will be your waitress today." On more then one occasion I wanted to push my plate aside and say, "Oh, I'm sorry was I suppose to wait on you. I will have ..." OCB's food was better than any of the places that remain in Topeka, but their wait staff were less wait staff than the place I visited Sunday.
I have never understood the logic of paying for an overpriced meal and then being asked to tip someone for not waiting on you. It just doesn't make since to me. I will continue to tip at sit down restaurants, where someone actually is serving me, but at a Buffet, where I serve myself, I have a hard time giving even serious thought to tipping there.
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They clear your dirty dishes, therefore you should leave at least $1.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the whole buffet concept as you don't. However, I've never eaten at one.
ReplyDeleteOh the hypocrisy! To post a whiny complaining post about giving $2 to a minimum wage employee. Then to post: "If you like this post, buy me a coke." PUHLEEZE. Talk about a worthless tip. You need to think about the people you stiff.
ReplyDeleteThis Little Piggy -
ReplyDeleteUsing that logic, I should leave a tip for the bust boy at a traditional restaurant, besides the waitress.
"However, as I said before, what service am I paying for at a buffet place?"
ReplyDeleteI TOTALLY DISAGREE 100% with this little piggy, because them taking your dishes away is ***NOT*** something they are doing FOR YOU unless you are at a small table that it would bother you. The things you are paying for at a buffet is most buffet restaurants the server actually **BRINGS** you your soft drinks or water or tea. Most buffet places I don't even need a refill, because the glasses are so huge. The server takes your order, delivers your bill and normally you pay at the table at buffet places, not up front. So the tip is for them doing all that for you and it has NOTHING to do with taking your diry dishes away. Service is what benefits YOU, so if taking those dirty dishes doesn't benefit you at all, WHY base that in the tip as "SERVICE?" Honestly, as long as I am not at a small table, I could care LESS if they EVER take my dirty dishes, because if you just stack them up, WHO GIVES A CARE if they take them? I could care less if they do it when I am there or after I have left.
I personal tip a buck or 2 at a buffet restaurant for a party of 2.
I have been to a couple of asian buffets that have served alcohol, so when I had that served to me, I tipped 15%.
Now, as far as places like CiCi's Pizza where you pay up front, get your own drinks and no one takes your order, you should NEVER tip at those type of places. Them taking your dishes away is just that, NOT service to benefit you and they have big tables there. I personally don't care if dirty dishes did bother me to simply MYSELF put the dirty dishes on another table. I don't need a busser in my service for a buffet. I am not that lazy that I couldn't just move my dishes to another table.
Well, when you tip at a traditional place, the bus boy does get a piece of the tip. Sometimes hosts and others do as well.
ReplyDeleteSo the way I look at it is I tip a small amount that would normally go to a busboy anyway. I wont tip less than $1, so it's usually a buck. I would probably only leave a buck for the whole table, 1-4 people or so.