Wife and tried something different past weekend and went to restaurant near Galleria.. Moxies
Not bad , Not great , overpriced as expected.
Suprised when receive the bill they automatically added a 20% tip, manager refused to take it off.

Is this common in Houston ?

Not sure how a restaurant can add and enforce that.
Waitress was ok but not $30 tip for 2 people and were there less than an hour.
Overpriced food IMO does not mean you get bigger tip

Blame those who skip paying the tip.

I figure there are plenty of opportunities for me to save money. Tipping a waiter/waitress is not one of the places I do that and generally try to tip 25%.

i know the answer to this one.

kevmiller said:

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Wife and tried something different past weekend and went to restaurant near Galleria.. Moxies
Not bad , Not great , overpriced as expected.
Suprised when receive the bill they automatically added a 20% tip, manager refused to take it off.

Is this common in Houston ?

Not sure how a restaurant can add and enforce that.
Waitress was ok but not $30 tip for 2 people and were there less than an hour.
Overpriced food IMO does not mean you get bigger tip

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Wild Coffee Bar does this and I've heard of other bars auto-charging a tip. I believe Shoot the Moon has a minimum tip, but since you pour your own beer I feel like you should be the one that receives the tip.

Never seen gratuity added unless it was a large party. Certainly not for 2 people.

kevmiller said:

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Wife and tried something different past weekend and went to restaurant near Galleria.. Moxies
Not bad , Not great , overpriced as expected.
Suprised when receive the bill they automatically added a 20% tip, manager refused to take it off.

Is this common in Houston ?

Not sure how a restaurant can add and enforce that.
Waitress was ok but not $30 tip for 2 people and were there less than an hour.
Overpriced food IMO does not mean you get bigger tip

---

Moxies, LOL. Not surprised from a galleria place like that

OP, next time leave your extended mag glock at home

Just read some reviews, seems lots of folks think they're racist for doing this and it's not clearly posted. Also they require a card before seating.

If you're seriously shook then dispute the charge.

Went to a restaurant in Cypress yesterday with some family that was doing an Easter buffet. There were seven adults and 4 kids. All the waitress had to do was get our soft drinks/water and bring silverware. Food was great but WAY more expensive than expected ($45/adult). They put a 20% required tip on there which came to something like $85, for a buffet!

Definitely not a fan of an auto 20% even though that's probably what I would tip. The other thing I have seen recently is when handed the card reader to tip/sign, the pre-populated choices are 30%, 25%, and 23%. Very presumptive and ridiculous. Last place that did was d'Alba in the heights and Federal American Grill off I10. Was reluctant to leave 20% for Federal per the waiter behavior.

Dill-Ag13 said:

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I figure there are plenty of opportunities for me to save money. Tipping a waiter/waitress is not one of the places I do that and generally try to tip 25%.

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So at a place like this where unless you're getting appetizer and water your bill for 2 people will be at or over $100.
I'd say two people on average spend about an hour maybe little more seated at table.

Let's say servers wait on 5 tables .. which is probably on the low end

If they are taking $20-$25 a table then they are basically making $100- $125 an hour give or take ..and in a typical 6-8 hour shift looking at $600- $1000 a shift X 5 days so $3000- $5000 a week for a 30-40 hour work week.

You really think servers are worth that much? Really ?
Doing a job literally anyone can do with zero qualifications necessary?

I don't

What about a real estate agent who lists a10,000,000 property? Was listing the place on har and zillow really worth 300k?

You'll find your answer here.

https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/1611433055836644/moxies-usa/

kevmiller said:

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Dill-Ag13 said:

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I figure there are plenty of opportunities for me to save money. Tipping a waiter/waitress is not one of the places I do that and generally try to tip 25%.

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So at a place like this where unless you're getting appetizer and water your bill for 2 people will be at or over $100.
I'd say two people on average spend about an hour maybe little more seated at table.

Let's say servers wait on 5 tables .. which is probably on the low end

If they are taking $20-$25 a table then they are basically making $100- $125 an hour give or take ..and in a typical 6-8 hour shift looking at $600- $1000 a shift X 5 days so $3000- $5000 a week for a 30-40 hour work week.

You really think servers are worth that much? Really ?
Doing a job literally anyone can do with zero qualifications necessary?

I don't

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The waiters don't get all of the tip as they tip out everyone else. Also, the business can keep as much of the tip as they want.

HtownWilly12 said:

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Definitely not a fan of an auto 20% even though that's probably what I would tip. The other thing I have seen recently is when handed the card reader to tip/sign, the pre-populated choices are 30%, 25%, and 23%. Very presumptive and ridiculous. Last place that did was d'Alba in the heights and Federal American Grill off I10. Was reluctant to leave 20% for Federal per the waiter behavior.

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Or joints that calculate the tip after adding tax and/or service fee.

I've definitely noticed the creep in what a "standard" tip is. It's 15%. I frequently go above that but I'm not hitting 25% unless it was really outstanding. Messing up the order because you don't write it down is not outstanding.

Tipping on takeout is a bit murkier. I rarely did prior to Covid and and then it was usually in a business setting where I needed the same person to be spot on time on a regular basis. (And I've been dressed down at work for doing so.) During Covid I always tipped on takeout. Now things are open but I don't feel in person has returned to the previous levels. So a little torn there.

Same for fast casual places as well. What's the proper tip when I order at the counter, get my own drinks, and pick up my food at the counter. Isn't that the same as Whataburger?

Friend of mine took his kids to a Rockets game and ate at Island 1515. Service was slow, their orders were wrong, and when he got the bill a large tip had been automatically added. This was for a table of three.

I figured Downtown restaurants started doing it since they got hit so hard when Covid shut everything down.

drumboy said:

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Same for fast casual places as well. What's the proper tip when I order at the counter, get my own drinks, and pick up my food at the counter. Isn't that the same as Whataburger?

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$0

Then there's this.

Screw that. Unless they had that policy clearly posted I would dispute the charge.

TXTransplant said:

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I figured Downtown restaurants started doing it since they got hit so hard when Covid shut everything down.

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negative. This is the 1st time I have seen it for a downtown restaurant.

I've literally thought about getting a side hustle as a server or bartender again. They are banking in this current economy it seems like.

but yes, if a place is taking cards when you sit and auto grat'ing...they were having problems with it.

The one at Wild Coffee/Bar almost got me to add 20% on top of the auto-grat. I'd had a few and barely caught that there was auto-grat and it was asking what I wanted to add on top of that.

I wonder if this is normal at the instagram-ready places or if their customers normally don't tip well.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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What about a real estate agent who lists a10,000,000 property? Was listing the place on har and zillow really worth 300k?

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If you're selling a $10MM property and all the agent did was put it on HAR and Zillow, you're the idiot.

Pretty sure moxies gets stiffed on tips a lot

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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What about a real estate agent who lists a10,000,000 property? Was listing the place on har and zillow really worth 300k?

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Too idiotic for a response...

swimmerbabe11 said:

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I've literally thought about getting a side hustle as a server or bartender again. They are banking in this current economy it seems like.

but yes, if a place is taking cards when you sit and auto grat'ing...they were having problems with it.

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Killen's BBQ is paying $25/hr to sling BBQ during Astros home games.

kevmiller said:

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Dill-Ag13 said:

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I figure there are plenty of opportunities for me to save money. Tipping a waiter/waitress is not one of the places I do that and generally try to tip 25%.

---

So at a place like this where unless you're getting appetizer and water your bill for 2 people will be at or over $100.
I'd say two people on average spend about an hour maybe little more seated at table.

Let's say servers wait on 5 tables .. which is probably on the low end

If they are taking $20-$25 a table then they are basically making $100- $125 an hour give or take ..and in a typical 6-8 hour shift looking at $600- $1000 a shift X 5 days so $3000- $5000 a week for a 30-40 hour work week.

You really think servers are worth that much? Really ?
Doing a job literally anyone can do with zero qualifications necessary?

I don't

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I don't think that hard about it and look to be generous to someone who's doing a job I wouldn't ever want to do.

I wish we just did away with the tip nonsense and had the waitstaff cost factored into the menu price.

I feel the opposite. I wish more things cost less and I could decide how much people actually deserve to get paid by me based on their performance.

kevmiller said:

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Dill-Ag13 said:

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I figure there are plenty of opportunities for me to save money. Tipping a waiter/waitress is not one of the places I do that and generally try to tip 25%.

---

So at a place like this where unless you're getting appetizer and water your bill for 2 people will be at or over $100.
I'd say two people on average spend about an hour maybe little more seated at table.

Let's say servers wait on 5 tables .. which is probably on the low end

If they are taking $20-$25 a table then they are basically making $100- $125 an hour give or take ..and in a typical 6-8 hour shift looking at $600- $1000 a shift X 5 days so $3000- $5000 a week for a 30-40 hour work week.

You really think servers are worth that much? Really ?
Doing a job literally anyone can do with zero qualifications necessary?

I don't

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I know what you are saying here… but most places with $100 check averages for 2 aren't turning tables most tables in an hour and waiters are getting more like 3-4 tables, not 5 or more. So… all of your assumptions here are just stupid beneficial for your argument relative to reality. Also, $100 for 2 check averages are also the type where waiters are tipping out 30-40% of their tips and assuming even a full boat of 3-4 tables for more than like 2 turns on a shift is a huge stretch.