Splitting the bill - from a waitress’s POV.

[MazDazzle]

If you’re out for a meal in a large group and you want to pay individually, how do you go about it?

I’m a waitress in a smallish bistro. It’s a nice place and we do our best to accommodate our customers. We had a table of 23 last night: starters, mains, pudding and some sides, plus cocktails and coffee. Instead of asking for the total bill, each person came up to the til one at a time and asked to pay for what they had.

I had to listen patiently while each person tried to remember what they had. It’s a long process; I had to log in/out multiple times for each customer, shut down screens, open new ones, trawl through the very long bill trying to find each item, create a new table for each customer, cut and paste it to a new bill... this is before we get to the cash/card payment. 23 times!

It took a good 3 mins per customer, so for over an hour the restaurant floor was one person short. It happens all the time and both the restaurant owners and staff are sick of it.

WIBU to say ‘Sorry, we’re unable to make up individual bills, but I’m happy to print out multiple copies of the total bill and provide a calculator. Each person can pay by cash/card, whichever is easiest.’

Would you think it was rude if a waitress said this to you?

I think the restaurant is responsible for sorting out a system that works for them.

I've been part of big groups like this a couple of times and the restaurant insists on taking everyone's orders as part of the same bill (as everyone is sharing a long table the restaurant has prepared...), and then has everyone go and pay their bill separately.

When it's a very big group like this, it's not feasible for one person to play bank and put it all on their card - that might work in a group of 5 but the total bill must have been several hundreds with meals and drinks?

Flabbergasted that anyone in such a large group would think this was an acceptable thing to do. So self indulgent and entitled. Do it yourself if you must do it down to the last penny (urgh)

I would never expect a restaurant to do this. I have always just split the bill equally x

Whenever I’ve been out in a large group where it wouldn’t be fair to split the bill we’ve worked it out ourselves at the table. All putting in cash and organiser making sure bill amount is covered. If it’s a smaller group , maybe family we split the bill or if that really not fair say because some people haven’t been drinking, one of us pay the bill and then we reimburse. I think it’s unacceptable to expect the restaurant staff to spend an she doing this.,

I agree with others ... when taking the order ask will you be paying individually or on one bill and if so who would like the bill at end of service. I would find this quite acceptable as a diner.

If we are dining as a large group one person will add up at the end how much people owe, the waitress will then collect the cash or bring the card machine round. I'd never expect the server to do it, I can imagine that'd get very tedious.

I thought this was why some places add a service charge over 6 people.

Offer set menus only for large parties then this issue will become slightly easier

this is a software issue - it should allow for splitting bills

back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and people wrote orders down it was easy enough to split bills. This is one area where technology isn't making things easier for anyone.

I always add a bit on for a tip too although you can only suggest everyone does. Can’t enforce it.

I think you need to get the customers do the work. For customers in groups more than 6, give them a calculator and some paper to work out what they owe and tell them to let them know when they are ready to pay.

This used to annoy me when I was a waitress. In the end I'd give them a pen, paper and calculator and ask them to work it out. I never felt rude doing this and noone ever seemed to mind!

If we eat out in a large party and have to split the bill, then we do so ourselves. Everybody has a mobile with a calculator on it. We cross stuff off, write down totals, make sure it all agrees, add on £1 for a tip or whatever and then pay.

I think you need to ask when you take the orders if everyone will be paying for their own bills, so they give everyone a tab number and everyone puts their items on their own tab and pays for their own at the end. You just need to stress that all the orders need to be cooked together so that everyone eats together. It doesn't always work on automated systems as other orders sneak in in between. However if you are a small restaurant, then you should be able to put all of the orders in together.

Or if you give one bill at the end, then it is up to the customer to work it out, just say "I'm sorry, our software doesn't allow for that, please let me know when you have worked it out and then I can take the payments".

It is definitely up to your customer to sort out, especially if 3 shared a starter or dessert or wine or whatever.

You should check the calculation though to ensure that it adds up correctly and covers the bill, to cover yourself.

Some people just can't split the bill 23 ways, because some people eat/drink a hell of a lot more than the others, or have a lot more money.

I've always worked out how much my meal was, as do my friends, then informed the waiter/waitress how much I'd be paying when they came over with the card machine.

Lol! What a timely thread. I was at a big lunch yesterday and we all paid for ourselves as we left. It was really easy! The waitress had a bill, and crossed out all our meals and drinks as we paid. I said wow, this is so easy, why don't we always do this?

Also, by only paying for what I'd had plus a small tip, I felt like I'd had an amazing bargain, because I routinely pay double what I've consumed when the bill is split. So just to pay for my own felt luxurious.

The restaurant was otherwise quiet, and we were peeling off in dribs and drabs anyway. I get that if they were busy and we all queued up at once it could be pretty tiresome.

It's not just what you ate and drank that's a problem in my family, it's who counts as a, paying adult and who doesn't. We have about 5 young adults in the family who drink alcohol but don't usually pay on meals out.

Also my sister has three kids and I have one. It's like brexit, it's an impossible negotiation, and we've never cracked it yet.

If splitting the bill , we work out what we all need to pay ourselves and then just tell the waitress what needs to go on each card , having included a tip between us . It’s not 100% but factors in if someone’s had a veggie dish or a mega expensive one or someone’s not had pudding , drunk alcohol etc ...

People seem to be missing the point: I’m sure The OP is perfectly capable of adding up. It’s the shared bottles if wine, and the shared garlic bread, and the olives “for the table” that is the pain in the arse. I’m guessing that not many electronic POS systems have buttons to add a fifth of a pizza or two dough balls and a slurp of garlic butter.

In Denmark for the hols.Restaurant we have just been in has a big sign, in English saying "we do not split bills"

I rarely go out with people who do this - in my friendship group we just split evenly. But it has happened on work nights out and usually we’ve just been given an itemised bill and we work out what we’ve had and put that amount into the pot.

My parents own a restaurant that has a relatively new electronic system which go straight from the tablet to the kitchen.

When we have big groups, they use the old paper system and write a name on top of each individual receipt with that persons order. They take all the orders on paper and then add everything to the system in one go. If anyone’s orders anything else through the night, they just ask which name to put it under. At the end of the night everyone has their own bill.

I know it’s a bit of a faff, but much quicker at the end of the night

I don’t think splitting the bill on the basis of what was consumed is unfair... I’ve been out with friends before who racked up a few bottles of wine/several cocktails between them whereas I had two diet cokes. When the bill came, they wanted to divide it equally amongst the 7 of us which I disputed given that a. I wasn’t drinking alcohol and b. I’d had two drinks compared to everyone else’s minimum of 5 drinks. I definitely felt no shame in speaking up about that and I couldn’t care less if that makes me a tight-wad.

I think you were very patient indeed. I would expect to get the bill and work it out on the mobile phone calculator.

If we split the bill, we tend to get the bill to the table as one single amount and then split it evenly and do it ourselves either by smartphone calculator or the old fashioned way. Or one of us will pay it all on their card and the others will transfer their part by online banking.

The system does sound like a PITA though.

For those who can’t imagine a scenario where 23 people would want to pay for their food/drinks separately. Work do? School/college/uni reunion? Sports club/hobby night out?

I hope they left a big tip!

I think this is easily sorted by the waitress saying at the time of order (for tables of 4 people of more for example that will be a faff later if they need to pay separately) that the bill can’t be separated after ordering so would they like it separate now or would they like the bill joint. We have had a waitress tell us this when introducing herself before ordering and it definitely comes across as much less rude this way. Because it was a restaurant policy that they couldn’t split a bill for 4 or more people unless specified at the time of ordering so that they could load the orders as table 10a 10b 10c etc. This was when there was a group of about 9 of us and we agreed it was much easier to have separate from the beginning and it made paying quicker and easier for everyone. When in a smaller group of my friends usually the same 3 of us we just have a joint bill and either take turns to pay or send the one who paid the bill our share via online banking.

Splitting the bill between the total number of people is fine as long as you are all eating roughly the same value meals and drinks. But if someone is ordering a meal costing twice as much as everyone else and drinking several glasses of wine when everyone else is having tap water or a soft drink,then it can be unfair. I've experienced this in the past,and I've not been happy about subsidising one or two peoples' more expensive choices.