Award wining restaurant - complaint

Ur guess as good as mine. In theory it should benefit the people who server you I suppose, same way as the tip. But perhaps it is shared more equitably than tips seem to be, including KPs and other behind the scenes people.
 
bond-007 said:
What does this service charge cover? Who benefits from it?
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a) vote with feet and don't go to places that charge service. personally i don't belive in it. but i do know tipping is poor in general.

b) service charge is only "suggestive", by it is not compulsory like i said earlier in this thread. but "I Guess" it covers the promise of a restaurant (that adds service charges) to go beyond the process of serving (like i desribed in detail in earlier posting). If they do not pamper and suggest things and do all the things they promise to do, or if you are not happy for a good reason, then ask for it to be removed. simple.

c) Who Benefits?
Hopefully the staff, but unfort not always. There is no law for a restaurant to have to distribute these charges to staff. in fact, by law, service carge can be used as part of minimum wage payments. this is a real shame in my view. These service charges are then taxable, because the restaurant manages them.

If the staff pool together tips that are not part of a service charge, these are not taxable, and in theory they split as they see fit (and may or may not include the chefs/kps) but there is no guarantee that even these staff get all these tips, so the rule is ask - (do staff get tips?) if answer is no, consider tipping at all.

most decent and long term restaurants distribute all tips to their staff.
i don't believe in general all the service charges are distributed to staff.
best to ask.

you can even have the service charge removed and leave the"tip" in cash
 
bond-007 said:
That is something those places are very reluctant to do?
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its my belief that once you enter a restaurant that adds service they must deliever well above the normal standard service. if this is not achieved, then you have the right to take it away.

i agree they would be reluctant to swop service charge for tip. but if you establish that the service charge is not going to staf, its an option. personally i just wouldn't go back.
 
Couple of points on this.

Service charge is discretionery if you feel you have not received the level of service you expect from an establishment.

Average tip of 3% is correct technically but it includes all sit in restaurant meals - I don't tip in mc donalds.

A european court case approx 5 years ago gave an answer to bad restaurant meals. To cut the story short the court decided that the diner had to pay for the drinks & the raw material cost of the food & the utilities used. - Basically cost of drinks + 25% of menu cost.

If I have messing time, I'll try & find a link to it - was very interesting at the time.
 
mcaul said:
Couple of points on this.

Average tip of 3% is correct technically but it includes all sit in restaurant meals - I don't tip in mc donalds.

A european court case approx 5 years ago gave an answer to bad restaurant meals. To cut the story short the court decided that the diner had to pay for the drinks & the raw material cost of the food & the utilities used. - Basically cost of drinks + 25% of menu cost.

If I have messing time, I'll try & find a link to it - was very interesting at the time.
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average of 3% was study of sit down irish restaurants by BDO Simpson.
not fast food outlets.

would like to see link
 
i agree with that. merits on average only 3%

but even when service is very good / excellent, i see people leaving no / little tip and i feel embarassed.
 
I always thought a service charge for large groups was to compensate for the inconvenience of timing service for the large number. Which still makes little sense; if the restaurant is full then they are serving large numbers anyway, what difference who is at which table?
meatmonger said:
c) Who Benefits?
Hopefully the staff, but unfort not always. There is no law for a restaurant to have to distribute these charges to staff. in fact, by law, service carge can be used as part of minimum wage payments. this is a real shame in my view. These service charges are then taxable, because the restaurant manages them.

If the staff pool together tips that are not part of a service charge, these are not taxable, and in theory they split as they see fit (and may or may not include the chefs/kps) but there is no guarantee that even these staff get all these tips, so the rule is ask - (do staff get tips?) if answer is no, consider tipping at all.

most decent and long term restaurants distribute all tips to their staff.
i don't believe in general all the service charges are distributed to staff.
best to ask.

you can even have the service charge removed and leave the"tip" in cash
Click to expand...

In my waitressing days, only cash tips were distributed - anything added to a cheque or credit/debit card went straight into the owner's pocket.
 
I received a resonse to my last letter to the restaurant concerned; their way of apologising seems to be to call me a liar and tell me to come back any time. They said the gent beside us was Finnish and he didn't say his food was fine he said it was fin which " is high praise indeed in any Scandanavian language". Seems strange to me that when he was asked about his meal and said it was fine, the manager said just fine? to which the response was yes just fine - doesn't sound like praise in any language to me.

Anyway I've sent off a last and final letter suggesting they look at their manager more closely if he won't even admit there were issues that night. As for me I'll never darken their doorstep again but I'm sure that won't bother them!
 
And if it was that bad why not tell us where this eaterie is ??
 
I have had a similar dreadful experience in a well known very expensive restaurant in Dublin.
We were not offered a pre-theatre menu, even though it was available (we found out subsequently)
The waiter ignored my complaints (during, not after the meal), responding with a "hmmmm, that's the way it's supposed to be served, " and nothing further, when the dish had quite obviously been incorrectly seasoned.

My main course arrived without half it's ingredients, which then arrived towards the very end of my meal.

The staff were completely unapologetic, and I certainly will not go back to them again.
It is interesting behaviour in recessionary times, and bad for business.

I put a review of the bad service up on menupages.ie.
I wonder if it has been removed!!

Nicola
 
these complaint stories have zero credibility unless the restaurants are actually named and shamed on this site.
 
AFAIK naming and shaming is generally not encouraged on this site, whatever the scenario.

In certain circumstances it might be permitted, but I would tread carefully.

Shaking, I would suggest sending a PM to one of the mods before you name anyone here.
 
I see jim langan, aer lingus, esb, ntl, vodafone, ryanair and everyone else named.

why on earth would you be worried anout naming a restaurant?

why is it different?

if so, close the thread.
 
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