I like homestyle Korean restaurants rather than fancy ones with service. This is because they leave you your utensils, your water, your big ass beer. The waitresses are there to carry the piping hot food from the kitchen but that is all. They either leave the check immediately when your food comes out (since authentic Korean restaurants don't serve dessert) or you holler (literally holler because there is a lot of borderline yelling at the waitresses and it's perfectly acceptable).
The American system of tipping bothers me. I always leave at least 20-25% because that is the socially accepted norm. But once my waiter starts to really suck, I start evaluating their performance in my head. Well, my water has been empty for about 70% of this meal. I had to wait 45 min for my bill after I asked for it TWICE. But he was quite charming in the beginning and he is an awfully cute gay. I start putting monetary values on my lost opportunity cost and deducting from the standard 20%. Then some dining friends insist on doubling the tax (16%) while I like to leave 20-25%, everyone has numbers in their head. Why should I have to deal with this added stress when I am trying to enjoy a meal with my friends?? Why??? Rarely have I experienced a server so awful that I deduct. However, on the occasions that I do, I feel like a grade school teacher. Can't I enjoy my f in dessert and get on with my life?
There was one extreme example in the States where I saw one waitress go around a bar asking every group she served, if there was something 'wrong' with the service because she didn't think they tipped it enough. I saw her flip this game to 4 different groups in the duration of my stay. Obviously that waitress was a terrible person, but if we got rid of this tipping sytem, we would also get rid of the tackiness of having to deal with money issues between friends and the strangers that serve us. Are we so obsessed with putting money values on everything and utilizing it as personal motivation that we must, on occasion, sour our downtimes with money matters?
I have had my American waiter friends want to leave like 30% for standard service just because they like to receive big tips when they work and they sympathize. This is their livelihood for goodness sake, or so they say. The tipping system is better because otherwise waiters wouldn't work as hard because they have no individual motivation. This is some BS argument to me. Waiters would work hard for the same reason the rest of the non-service workers work hard, because they're scared of getting fired.
I didn't need my clients to tip me a monetary value after every conference call to know if I did a good job or not. I showed up to work, not because I would lose out on tips for the day, but because otherwise my boss would notice and I would be unemployed. Yes, it is different because most service people aren't necessarily working towards a promotion at the restaurant (maybe at chain restaurants like Applebee's where they use that as motivation). However, the switch from a tipping to non-tipping system wouldn't give you extra motivation to completely slack off. You work because you need a job.
My waiter friends also point out that if we didn't have a tipping system, service would be deplorable. Well, I've been to 2 cities in recent memory with a non-tipping system and I have not had one noteworthy horrible waiter. In fact, for the most part the service was the same, if not better. I challenge anyone to say different that the service is noticeably different in those places.
Anyways, I go off topic as per usual. The soup was amazing, I love egg custard. The end.
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