Do You Tip Your Meal at Chinese Take-Out?

[Ro_Laren]

I just went to my local Chinese Take-Out to get an early dinner. The place is super small. Customers go to the front counter, order their meal, and then the cashier up front yells the meal to the cooks. A couple minutes later the meal is finished and the customer walk up to the counter to pick up his/her meal. The customer then goes to the condiments station to get soy sauce, chop sticks, and a can of soda.

When you pay up front the receipt has the option of the tip. Since you have to sign the receipt right in front of the cashier I always feel oligated to pay a tip- he is watching you know! Do you always tip your local take-out restaurant? Is it the proper thing to do?

 

[JoeZhang]

tip them for what?

A tip is for a service, there you are simply paying for food.

I've never seen a receipt in a Chinese take-away "CASH PAYMENTS ONLY".

 

[MNM]

I always feel oligated to pay a tip- he is watching you know!

So?

Do you always tip your local take-out restaurant? Is it the proper thing to do?

I despise the concept of tipping and the sense of entitlement people who expect it have. The attitude that if you dont tip they are perfectly able to mess with your food etc...

No I am not giving you extra money just because you have a crappy job and dont get paid much.

 

[MacLeod]

I suspect this might be a cultural thing. Take-out is totally different to eating in a restuarant. Aside from cooking the meal, they haven't provided you with any additional service.

So no I wouldn't tip for a take-out, whilst I might tip depending on resturant/level of service for a sit down meal.

 

[O'Dib]

I'd tip, but not the customary amount. Just round up to the nearest full dollar. I skip the tip line and enter a new final amount.

A friend of mine said he found out a lot of Asian owned-restaurants don't let their waiters keep the tips, so he stopped feeling the need to tip there. Which resulted in a Thai lady chasing us into the street to ask if anything was wrong with the meal.

 

[Canadave]

If I get Chinese delivered, then yeah, I tip. But take-out? No, never, there's no service to top for.

 

[scotpens]

I despise the concept of tipping and the sense of entitlement people who expect it have. The attitude that if you dont tip they are perfectly able to mess with your food etc...

No I am not giving you extra money just because you have a crappy job and dont get paid much.

Maybe you should educate yourself on food servers’ wages and tips.

That being said, I tip for table service and for delivery. I don’t tip when I pick up a takeout order because I’m just purchasing food, the same as going to a fast-food burger place or buying ready-to-eat items at the supermarket.

 

[Thena]

I don't usually tip for take-out. However, there have been a few exceptions. At a Thai restaurant, I had to wait longer than usual for my take-out. The waitress suggested I take a seat and even brought me a glass of water, so I left a cash tip. There's also an Indian restaurant where I get take-out often. One time, I showed up before my food was ready and mentioned that I had just gotten off of work and was a little worn out. They got me a table and brought me a free appetizer while I waited, so of course I left a nice tip!

 

[RobertVA]

Tips are for table service or delivery. For over the counter, dine in or carry out, tips just aren't customary and the restaurant operator should be paying at least minimum wage (as normaly required for employees in non-tipping positions).

IMHO "Fast Food" doesn't really exist anymore. Most chains have so many items on their menu they can't maintain even their level of quality without waiting to prepare most items to order. Decades ago the customer's mere presence at the counter was a reliable indication you could slap a patty on the grill and scoop a serving of fries out of the bin (there wasn't much else on the menu board).

Since employees at buffets are just bringing clean plates (sometimes beverage refills) and busing tables they have significantly lower workloads per customer, should be able to handle more tables for the same effort and be tipped at a lower rate than full service (take orders and bring food) servers.

 

[KJbushway]

My family does not tip if we have to pick up the food. However, if we are at a resturant like waffle house or someone drops food off to our house, we give a good tip.
In this situation, I would not give a tip unless of course they cooked my food fast and got me out faster.

 

[Small White Car]

I despise the concept of tipping and the sense of entitlement people who expect it have. The attitude that if you dont tip they are perfectly able to mess with your food etc...

No I am not giving you extra money just because you have a crappy job and dont get paid much.

Then don't eat out or move to a country where your way of thinking is the way they do things.

I'm serious, those are your 2 choices. They're both acceptable choices but continuing to eat out in America with your attitude is not ok.

Tips are for table service or delivery. For over the counter, dine in or carry out, tips just aren't customary and the restaurant operator should be paying at least minimum wage (as normaly required for employees in non-tipping positions).

It REALLY depends on where you are. You can't just say "carry-out" and expect there to be a universal rule for everyone.

If you go to Wendy's, they're making at least minimum wage. Don't tip.

If you go to get take-out at Outback Steakhouse, those people are working at a normal restaurant and are making less than minimum wage, just like any other waiter there. They had to get the food and bag and box it. They're doing work for you and getting paid less than the Wendy's employee because they're in a 'real' restaurant. You should tip them. Not the full amount you'd tip if you ate-in there, but 5% would be nice.

I really, really don't know what the deal with Chinese food places is. If I get it from a real restaurant I treat it like Outback and tip a little. When I go to the places that are just a counter...I assume it's like Wendy's and I don't tip. But I'm not 100% sure there. I'm just guessing and acting on that guess. I could be wrong about them.

 

[Starbreaker]

Yeah, what a dick thing to do. They probably know you at every restaurant and spit in your food - or worse.

 

[Amaris]

Except in rare cases, I don't tip when I get Chinese take-out.

 

[Timby]

I'm a notoriously big tipper, to the point that my wife gives me the look when I'm signing the charge card slip at restaurants, but I don't tip for any sort of take-out ... that's like tipping at the gas station when you buy a bag of popcorn.

 

[Hoser]

Yes, when I can.

 

[Sean Aaron]

I suspect this might be a cultural thing. Take-out is totally different to eating in a restuarant. Aside from cooking the meal, they haven't provided you with any additional service.

So no I wouldn't tip for a take-out, whilst I might tip depending on resturant/level of service for a sit down meal.

Yeah, I would never even think of tipping for a takeaway. Not only does it make no sense, but I never see one with a tip jar...

 

[Alidar Jarok]

If I'm picking up food, generally no. If they have a tip jar, I'll tip loose change and maybe up to a dollar. But there's no real service provided. The person on the register just takes the order. Now if I knew for a fact the tip would go to the cooks, that might be different.

 

[Thestral]

I despise the concept of tipping and the sense of entitlement people who expect it have. The attitude that if you dont tip they are perfectly able to mess with your food etc...

No I am not giving you extra money just because you have a crappy job and dont get paid much.

Then don't eat out or move to a country where your way of thinking is the way they do things.

I'm serious, those are your 2 choices. They're both acceptable choices but continuing to eat out in America with your attitude is not ok.

QFT.

If you go to get take-out at Outback Steakhouse, those people are working at a normal restaurant and are making less than minimum wage, just like any other waiter there. They had to get the food and bag and box it. They're doing work for you and getting paid less than the Wendy's employee because they're in a 'real' restaurant. You should tip them. Not the full amount you'd tip if you ate-in there, but 5% would be nice.

Generally true, but... when I worked at Texas Roadhouse, we usually had hostesses at the takeout window. Hostesses got paid minimum wage plus a small share (maybe 1%?) of the total nightly reported tips to split between them and the bussers.

Though of course they usually got a small tip as well.

 

[Timby]

That's odd. I know about bartenders and sometimes wait staff pooling tips (which is bullshit, but that's another story entirely), but as for tip outs, in all my time in F&B, I only ever encountered the bar paying out a percentage of overall tips to bussers, while wait staff tipped out a percentage of drink sales to the bar and a smaller percentage of overall sales to hosts.

 

[Ro_Laren]

I suspect this might be a cultural thing. Take-out is totally different to eating in a restuarant. Aside from cooking the meal, they haven't provided you with any additional service.

So no I wouldn't tip for a take-out, whilst I might tip depending on resturant/level of service for a sit down meal.

Yeah, I would never even think of tipping for a takeaway. Not only does it make no sense, but I never see one with a tip jar...

My Chinese Take-Out joint has a tip jar too...