Difference between service and great service
I WENT to a chain of a rather famous restaurant recently, a place where girlies tend to take Instagram pictures in the Ladies because of the silk flower-bedecked ceiling. My mother would have called it a huge dust catcher.
We’d booked and there were six of us, including two relatives in their 80s. We had to queue in the street and up the steps to confirm our booking at a desk in the porch of the restaurant before we were allowed in.
It was a rather cold day and there were four people in front of us who were being ‘processed’, which included being asked if they had any dietary requirements.
Deep joy, there was one glutenfree, one dairy intolerant and one with nut allergies. So whilst we stood shivering in the cold, the ‘receptionist’ furtled around under her desk for the appropriate menus… 12, eventually… taking them to their table.
It was beginning to feel like some bizarre round in Squid Game but at last, in the early stages of hypothermia, it was our turn. We were vetted and shown to our seats, juggling our menus... still swathed in hats, scarves, gloves and coats, which we bundled on the banquette next to us.
It was a celebration lunch but only three were drinking, so instead of Champagne we went for Prosecco…..£48! You’ve read it correctly, £48 for a bottle of Prosecco! I nearly choked on it… but of course rather than upset the apple cart – or should I say grape trolley – I drank it!
It was an average lunch, in fact I didn’t have a main course as it was undercooked and by the time it was ‘redone’ everyone else had finished eating, so I politely declined.
The manager naturally apologised profusely, saying it would be deducted from the bill, which I happened to catch sight of with its 12.5% service charge!
I believe some places are charging 18% nowadays. I hate service charges put on your bill without your say so, assuming you are thrilled that somebody actually brought your food to the table efficiently.
Yes, I know it’s purely discretionary and there is no obligation to pay it, but it doesn’t half make you feel like a cheapskate if you ask for it to be taken off and say you’d prefer to leave a tip instead!
And where did all this tipping come from anyway? There are various claims that it started back in the Roman era and even further back but it’s widely accepted that it started in the Middle Ages, resulting from the caste system that ruled Europe. Originally tips were given to servants or those who were lowly paid. The history of tipping in restaurants started out in European coffee houses, where the phrase ‘To Insure Promptness’ could be left on the sides of bowls so that patrons could ask for prompt service and so it has become what we know it to be today, a way of saying thank you for being efficient and pleasant.
I’ve never had any problem leaving a tip if I’ve had great service... although I still think it’s rather strange that after paying, often quite handsomely, for something quite average, we have to pay for it to be brought to the table.
How else am I meant to get it? Apparently, Sir Rod Stewart tipped staff £10,000 after a recent trip to the luxury Gleneagles Hotel in the Highlands! Lord knows what they did. Perhaps they all wore leopard print leggings and sang Maggie May?
I should add that the manager also cancelled the cost of the Prosecco!
Now that was worth a tip!
‘Instead of Champagne we went for Prosecco... £48 for a bottle!.. I nearly choked on it’