Inside Danny Meyer’s Lonely War on Tips

Visited a restaurant in Barcelona. Printed on the bottom of the bill was a message, "Don't tip. We pay our staff fairly". The service was excellent and I very much appreciated not having to do the arithmetic.

Now if someone could just take on the whole 'no tax shown on price tags' thing (I've only ever seen this in the USA). If it's not optional, then include it in the price!

We just returned from Amsterdam and Belgium. We never had a bad meal, and we never had decent service. Everyone gets paid fairly and no one cares if the customer sits for 30 minutes waiting for a beer, or asking for napkins, or requesting coffee. It was our first long term sojourn in the land of No Tipping and it wasn't good. Hospitality was non-existent. A hostile "Do you have a reservation?" met us in empty restaurants at early hours. Eye rolls were common. Waiters stared at their cell phones while we signaled madly for the check. The piece of resistance was the waiter who served the meal, then vanished. We watched for him for 30 minutes, and finally spied him. He was headed out the door, done for the evening. When my husband walked to the server area and told them we saw our waiter leave, the response was a peremptory "What do you need?" He told them we'd like two beers, and they were delivered. No one looked at us again all night. We sat for 45 minutes with our dirty dishes. The restaurant economies of the Netherlands and Belgium would prosper if they'd just try some salesmanship and adopt a professional mien. I vote No on abolishing tipping.

In NZ you don't tip, and we actively boycott restaurants that treat staff unfairly.

I much prefer it this way.

non paywall link: http://archive.is/mwqlP