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Comment by abbot2 | Hacker News Reader

It's England. You don't tip here.

Well, in restaurants now the tip's already on the bill, unless you want to make your entire group or date uncomfortable by "talking to the waiter about taking it off".

To be fair, I've only ever seen this in expensive restaurants.

Really? I rarely have dinner over 20 pounds a person (which isn't cheap, I get it, but for London prices it's also not expensive), and I haven't seen a bill without service charge added in months (excluding Whetherspoons). As soon as I don't manage to order at the register, and instead someone brings a menu, there will be a service charge.

There was one restaurant recently that didn't have one, and we almost freaked out about it.

Really? I've seen it in heaps of places in London - adding 12.5% "gratuity" is common at many places where you'd pay ~£15+ pp.

http://www.visitlondon.com/traveller-information/getting-aro...

"You can tip taxi drivers as much as you like, but most people round up to the nearest pound."

Apart from restaurants

Not really, it's a service charge that in most places is charged for groups over a certain size (4 or 5). There is no culture of compulsory tipping for anything, because it's ridiculous.

My experience does not match what you are saying. I was always taught that (unless a service charge is already included) you should tip 10-20% in good restaurants. Not to tip I believe is generally seen as rude/a sign that service was bad.

Of course, most of us don't regularly eat in "good restaurants" - pretty much anything on the high street/your local shopping centre isn't, and anywhere you can get a meal for under £15 a head before drinks doesn't count as a "good restaurant", in my books.

I mean where you draw the line is up to you, but if there are three of you x £15, plus drinks lets say total of £64 , I would normally round it up to 70. By good restaurants I meant anything that isn't fast food (Subway, McDs). But perhaps I am not a typical customer, I don't know.

Often I go out to a restaurant with a friend and order fairly common food - totalling <£30 including drinks, and not making many demands of the staff. I don't think tipping someone to do the bare bones of their job is reasonable.

On the other hand, if I were to go with a reasonably sized group of people, had to get a table big enough for the lot of us, have people with dietary requirements or order cocktails or who otherwise make many demands of the staff... it's worth tipping as we're a pain in the ass, basically. And many restaurants automatically add a service charge in that case anyway.

Seems reasonable!

Sure, but you wouldn't leave a tip after getting a cup of tea at a wetherspoons, would you. I guess that's the UK equivalent of coffee at a diner.

Some places accept tips, and perhaps in some you should. The vast vast vast majority don't expect them as par for the course.

I have never heard of someone getting a cup of tea at spoons ;)

Ok, but I still think restaurant = tip expected. But hey, you are free to tip/not tip as you see fit.

In London I see this charge all over the place even for only two people... usually it's 10-12%.

I normally round up or if I have called a minicab in real bad weather I might add an extra couple of pounds to a £7 ride to say 10

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