It's rare for restaurants to have a service charge or any kind of automatic gratuity. Generally it only happens on large parties, where it tends to be around 18% (you are not expected to tip on top of any automatic gratuity).

An ex-girlfriend of mine had an aunt who had waited tables for years and years until she landed a seriously rich husband. Whenever they'd go out to eat, she'd deliberately be the biggest possible bitch she could to the waitress.

I tipped a bartender on someone else's tab, once. They guy was Israeli, tipped $2 on a $100 bar tab. I'm Jewish and it was a small town so I tipped her $20 to make up for it. Saw the asshole reading Torah a few months later at services and thought about throwing my siddur at him.

When I was wee bee-eater, my fam was in San Diego to ogle the trapped animals. One night, we went to an Outback. The guy there was AMAZING. Called my dad "boss", memorized our orders, and went above and beyond for my sister and I, who were fanatically picky eaters. My dad stops him in front of the manager and handed…

You'll enjoy this, then.
I read this on a local news site, but it should be easy enough to google. A cook decided to make the cream sauce extra creamy. The customer noticed, complained, and the food was given to the police.
The prosecutor successfully made the case that making someone drink your bodily fluids without…

Some people are just terrible.

That is crazy, I've never heard of this. The owner is setting their staff up for failure.

Eh, I know you only lightly edit people's submissions. It mostly made me wonder if they were just lying about not being Americans. I expected pretending to be Europeans confused about American tipping was going to be a plot twist.

Tipping—or the lack thereof—was nearly a dealbreaker when my now-husband and I started dating. I'm a very generous tipper and always try to keep my eye on the check no matter who's paying to make sure the tip is adequate. I was flabbergasted on one of our first dates when I realized he had drawn a line through the tip…

So don't read them.

The only dating advice my mother ever gave me was "Never date a man who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter." It has served me well.

I'm a 20% tipper. You'd have to stab me in the face to get that knocked down.

Only then did he realize I'd removed the cymbal from the stand and put it behind my drum throne. I was playing "air cymbal," keeping the beat with my bass drum and hi-hat. I smiled at the asshat. Big grin.

I think it depends on social norms with both where you are and how you were raised. As a child of the South, I'm familiar with waitstaff being overly friendly and extremely hospitable. My girlfriend is from northern New Jersey. My first visit, I wanted some pizza, so she took me to one of the local joints. To me,…

"Back in my day, music didn't even have percussions! Damn kids playing their Selena Bieber music. TURN DOWN THAT DAMN AIR CYMBAL!"

*plunks down for story time* I GOT SOUR GUMMY WORMS YALL.

"Short me fifty cents, huh? Short me fifty cents?! I'll show him fifty cents with my chicken BALLS!"

They're likely the same people who think telling women in public they're "prettier when they smile" is an act of civil nobility.

Should I talk about the time my mother accidentally burnt a restaurant down?