Went for a nice meal out this week with DH, to a restaurant we’ve not tried before. Food was really nice, atmosphere and service both good. All in all a lovely time.
However am I the only one who finds it hard to leave a tip these days?
I know some places will add a service charge to the bill… no issue with this (assuming the meal / service has not been a disaster), but many others do not, and I’ve found a number of times, as happened this week, the server will just hold out the card machine for you to tap contactless with the amount already on, with no mention of a tip, and no way to add it yourself as you can’t see the screen / are not holding the card reader.
What do you do in these instances ? Ask the server to amend the amount / add a tip?
Like a lot of people we hardly ever have cash on us, and often pay for stuff via Apple Pay on phone so I don’t have cash I can leave on the table afterwards.
Interested to know what others do as I feel a bit bad for not leaving one this week. Should I be verbally stating I want to add a tip before they hold out the card machine (in my opinion a bit awkward) or should I be making sure I’ve taken some cash out to leave as a tip !?
I used to work in hospitality/ waitressing as a teenager & know how appreciated tips are so it doesn’t sit right with me to not leave anything.
In the UK by the way, as I know tipping culture varies by country!