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SF has a half dozen extra taxes that aren't listed on menus. It's not quite 1.5x bad but they aren't too far off.

>> In San Francisco, if you sit down at a restaurant, take the written prices on the menu and multiply them by 1.5 to get what you'll actually be paying.

>Is this anything other than taxes and gratuity (which, technically, you can give 0% for)? I'm trying to understand how even with 20% gratuity and SF's 8.5% tax, how you could get anywhere close to 1.5.

It's mostly hyperbole. There's an additional 4-6% charge that's fairly common to see for "SF employer mandate" which is sort of BS in its own way, but that only gets you up to a bit over 1.3x.

Ah, ok, similar to the service charge concept that's common around Seattle in lieu of tips.

I haven't been to the Bay in over a year, wasn't sure if something's changed since.

Most restaurants have an additional percent charge to provide healthcare or other benefits to their workers.