Vocal Voices

Since Covid, Mrs O and I haven't eaten out at any of our local country pubs - until this week when we had a Saturday evening meal at the Fox and Hounds, East Knoyle, which was great as they managed to shoehorn us in amongst the reservations, and today; lunch at a pub near Queen Camel (Kaz ) which I won't "name and shame" publically in case I get my bank account frozen.

Pre-Covid, we went there regularly as it's very close to my SiL. She phoned us up this morning, poorly with a tummy bug, and asked if we could do some shopping for her as she's a bit cut off where she lives. We said yes, popped down to Waitrose and got her £12 worth of stuff as requested, and whistled it over to her. After we'd dumped it off, we drove round to this pub for old times' sake and lunch.

Well, like most eating out places, it was pricey compared to pre-Covid, and they didn't have the usual board out with cottage pie, fish 'n chips and so on. A slightly more up-market menu, and clientele to match, a couple of "loud" parties.

Anyway, the menu was one of those where they tend to fight shy of disclosing the price. You get items along the lines of: "Thai salmon fishcakes, salad and chips 15"

15 what?
15 chips?
15 tortillas?
15 men on a dead man's chest?

OK, I can live with that, but when I paid for our meal - 2 mains and a pot of coffee - I looked at the bill, I found they'd added a service charge of 10% . Took the bill over £40.

Now, nowhere in that pub - on a notice or on the menu, unless it was buried in the small print - did I see any notification they would levy a service charge. That, to me, is very, very underhand. I could have paid that bill by card and not thought any more about it. But I paid cash, and because I'm a stingy beggar , I asked for a receipt and scrutinized it when we were back in the carpark.

How do you feel about that - adding a service charge? Acceptable practice? Do your local pubs do it - and if so, do they publicise it?

(Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, my philosophy is don't get mad, get even . Their loss - they won't get our custom again .)

Absolutely not Ossie, I would have asked for it to be removed.

I no longer tip unless the service is out of this world and it never is.

My friend Sarah still insists on leaving 10% right down to the pence. So she pays my half now as I wont. The other week she was overcharged at a coffee shop, they refunded her £2 and she put £1 of it in the tip jar......mad

Back in the day waitresses were young mums and the waitressing was a bit of 'pin' money to quote my mum. They were paid rubbish wages and their tips were handed to them and pocketed away.

Now you pay by card the tips dont go to your server and even if they did, with minimum wages being £10.45 per hour, I no longer see the need to tip. No one tips me or anyone else I know for doing our job

In my opinion it is an outdated custom and needs to be forgotten on the whole

I think that's really expensive for a pub lunch Ossie

I thought this was about gas and electric, but hey.

When it comes to cafes and restuarants I always try to pay cash. But service charges should always go to all the staff, equally - cooks, waiters, washers etc.. They are the ones who make eating out an experience. It's certainly not the managers / owners.

I'm not a tipper either, the service has to be extra special to warrant one in my view. As for service charges, I don't think it's acceptable and if it isn't clearly shown on the menu I would query it.

We were recently treated out to a meal by our son and his wife .
We went to a local Harvesters and while the meal was very good I was amazed to see a sign that said ,no cash taken,so when the waiter was working out the bill on his electronic gadget he said ,how much would you like to add on for the tip !!
Now daughter in law always tips but I have never known it so blatantly asked for

One of the cheekiest we had was at a Chinese buffet restaurant in Wolverhampton that we went to when Tom was at university there. They added 12%. The only service given was drinks brought to the table, we picked up our own plates and served ourselves.

John likes to tip, I don’t.
We went out for lunch for my Dad’s birthday at the pub in our village. Our neighbour owns it and his wife was our waitress and tipping felt awkward, plus they have expensive cars and nice holidays so obviously don’t need tips even though the service was excellent (plus Dad said he was going to treat us all and then went quiet when the bill came so me and my sister unexpectedly had to split a £210 bill for lunch, dessert and a soft drink each for the seven of us so we didn’t fancy paying any more).