Last weekend Jamie and I went to Gordon Biersch in downtown Seattle for some dinner. It was pretty busy, being that it was homecoming weekend and all for the local area high schools. First problem of the night was that we had to wait 15 minutes, when we had a reservation: Strike 1
After we sat down the service was good, like normal. The waiter took our order and our food actually came out very quick. This surprised me since it was so busy. However, this is when the service started to take a turn.
Our waiter didn’t come back to check up on drinks (I had purchased a soda) and my drink was empty for at least 10 minutes. We tried making contact with him, but he never got close enough to get his attention. This just made me remember back when I was in high school that we would leave the tip for the night on the table before we ordered and then take it away if the service was poor, or add to it if the service was great. Ah, those days and our twisted tipping scheme. Anyways, the service was just not that good. Our server was busy attending to other tables and neglected to serve us after the food was at our table. This just made me frustrated because all I wanted was a refill on the soda. Strike 2
After I finished my meal, which was cold at this point, the refill came. That was good, but all I wanted was the check now. Well, actually, I wanted a piece of cake, but that faded when he took forever to come back. So, my dollar was kept in my pocket instead of being spent at their establishment.
When the waiter left for the check, I told Jamie that I was going to round the change. Now, hold up. I usually don’t do this, but I thought that the service warranted this kind of acknowledgement via my tip. So, when it came back I was all too happy to see that the change came to 93 cents. A tip was left using the previously described tipping procedure and we left, taking a handful of the free mints on the way out.
So, fast forward to today when I check my credit card statement on line. I notice that the total stayed at $xx.93. Guess my point was taken and he didn’t want his 7 cent tip.
I usually am not like that when I go out. I prefer to tip well when the service is very good. However, on the flip side, when the service is bad, I will tip poorly and not feel bad about it. I’ll still be eating at Gordon Biersch in the future, but I was just disappointed this last time.