The Back Wall

One thing I should touch on before I write any reviews is tipping. Mostly because I eat out a lot so a lot of reviews will probably be of restaurants’ service, which is directly related to tipping.

Now a lot of people feel like since serving staff get paid a lower minimum wage, they HAVE to tip, since this is part of their income. Not true. The entire point of this system is supposed to be that they get paid a lower minimum wage in order to encourage good service, which then results in tips to bring their income up. They shouldn’t just be tipped just for throwing a plate of half cooked food on the table. Tipping that kind of service is encouraging it. And it’s unfortunate that people are so scared of being thought of as “rude” that they encourage their servers to be rude to them instead.

If I have awful service, I don’t tip. Plain and simple. But it’s a two-way street; if I have excellent service, I tip really well. I’ve even tipped $10 on a $15 bill. This is an extreme case, and unfortunately a rare one (or fortunately for my bank account.. haha). But I think that it’s only fair. I don’t not tip because I’m cheap. If I don’t tip it’s because I expect a certain level of service that wasn’t even close to what was provided. I’m not asking for the world. I’m only asking for a smile and timely service, and when the food is brought to the table that it be what I asked for.

If everyone could remember that tipping isn’t a requirement regardless of service, everyone would benefit - once the correlation between level of service and amount of tip came back into play, I’m sure everyone would notice the difference. Consumers would notice they are treated like human beings again, and serving staff would notice not only a thicker wallet, but also maybe even a little pride in their work.