Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 08:50     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
Also remember tips are now income tax free. This makes me too less knowing they get to keep it all.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 08:45     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
Anonymous wrote:The problem is the service fee does not go to the server so you are stiffing them. I am currently traveling with people from several countries. They all hate the US tipping system.


I only encountered this once (don't go to DC much) and I saw "service fee" on the check, circled it and didn't tip to acknowledge that that was the tip- a fee for the service already included. It's how it works everywhere for parties of 6+ or whatever so I didn't think anything of it. That's not how it works?
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 08:44     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
Pizza paradise includes a service charge. Their site says also that this is not a tip, but that tips are no longer expected but are welcome. I stopped tipping when I saw that - we always get it as take out. So my guess, is if they have a service charge, then the tip amount can be much less than another 20%.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 08:39     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
Anonymous wrote:The problem is the service fee does not go to the server so you are stiffing them. I am currently traveling with people from several countries. They all hate the US tipping system.


It’s hardly a “system.”
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 08:37     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
The problem is the service fee does not go to the server so you are stiffing them. I am currently traveling with people from several countries. They all hate the US tipping system.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 08:32     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
I do not tip if a service fee is already added in. And then I won’t go back to that restaurant.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 08:28     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
I don’t add a tip when there is a 20% service included. I’ve been to a few restaurants where that is the case and it is clear it is the tip. If that isn’t the case at brasserie libertie I’d asked for the service charge to be removed.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 08:24     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
Just go. Sit and have a single drink. Don't order just sit for an hour or more nursing your drink and when you leave explain that the service fee is distasteful and tip the server a lot in cash. The restaurant will get the message.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 07:45     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Same happened to us, but it was the waitress who alerted us that the 20% service charge is not the tip. She was really sweet and I don’t think she was scamming us, rather the restaurant is keeping the 20%. Restaurant was Brasserie liberté in Georgetown
same restaurant


This is the biggest grift. We noticed this too and it was the first and last time we ever went to Brasserie Liberte. It left such a bad taste in my mouth.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 07:38     Subject: Re:20% service charge which is not the tip?
We've mostly stopped going out to restaurants also.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 07:36     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
Anonymous wrote:3 of us went to dinner and had a wonderful sweet waitperson. When the bill came it wa a brought by the manager (?) and it had a 20% service fee added on. As my husband was putting his card out he said (to confirm) oh the tip is included already? And the man said no it’s not the tip this is the service fee because we had to raise prices to meet the new DC minimum wage. So then when the bill came there was a line for “additional tip”. We gave our waitperson the real tip in cash but
1. it felt like the restaurant is stealing wages and that a lot of people probably assume the tip is included in the bill and then the waitperson gets unintentionally stiffed,
and 2. Our dinner for 3 (with 2 glasses of wine) cost us almost 240, so we will not ever go back- the bill for the meal was
148 pretax
18 tax
30 (20% service fee)

Is this 20% service fee a real thing?
40 tip


So 150 for food and another 100 for fees/tax? Too rich for my blood.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 06:53     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
If they are paying minimum wage you don’t need to do a high tip. I refuse to go anywhere with fees.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 06:46     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
I would refuse to pay the service fee if it wasn’t disclosed ahead of time.
I’d leave a cash tip.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 06:43     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
Hate places that do that!

I once parked in a parking garage and there was a service charge when I was paying the parking fee at exit. It's not even a place with valet or a human at the booth. So that was so odd and annoying.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 05:43     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
Good to know which place to avoid. There should be a list of all restaurants that do this.