I'm a bit conflicted on this whole issue. On one hand, yes 20 quid for sausage and mash is extortionate but on the other, that's not the fault of the waiting staff.Dr Lobster* wrote: Fri 16 Jan, 2026 08.14 Also the culture of tipping and service charges pisses me off. Like £20 quid for fucking sausage and mash isn’t enough already.
When I worked at Café Rogue 20+ years ago, we all relied on our tips because the company paid us less than minimum wage. The loophole that made that legal was that if in any given month we didn't receive enough card tips (from which they took a 10% "processing fee") to boost it to minimum wage, the company would make up the difference. (In reality, that only ever happened if you'd been off sick or on leave.) I'm pretty sure that's illegal now.
But... we gave excellent service, if I do say so myself. The company gave us good training and we took care of our customers well. These days when I eat out at a chain, I'm usually made to feel like an inconvenience to the staff, they can't answer basic questions about the menu and forget that people need cutlery to eat with. There are exceptions, obviously.
If there's a discretionary service charge, I have no compunction about asking for it to be taken off if the service is bad.
When I do get good service, I always want to reward it but nine times out of ten, the waiter will bypass the option to add a tip before handing me the card machine. Presumably they're hoping I'll leave cash instead, but I don't carry it so they lose out. I feel bad but then again, it's not like it's unusual for people not to have cash these days and if they've cut off their own nose like that, it's not my fault.
So, yeah, the whole situation's a lot more complicated than it used to be.