Restaurant manager chases customer down for not leaving a generous tip, sparking heated debate

Giving a good tip is essential to support people in the service industry. However, the level of service may affect the tip amount. A person who visited a French restaurant in their area decided to tip less because the service was poor. They were stunned when the manager chased them down for leaving a small tip. That person, u/fashien, took to Reddit to share their experience.

"I went to a French restaurant yesterday. The food was decent, but it was significantly overpriced for what it was," the person began. They were already disappointed when the restaurant's manager refused to seat them before their friend arrived. "The whole dinner process took three hours, and it took around 30 minutes for us to order a drink. The manager actually took our drink order because it was clear the waiter was not coming," the person recounted. "Towards the end, service improved, but overall, not great. I tipped 10% on the meal."

The person paid the bill and left their seats. But soon enough, the manager confronted them about the kind of tip they had left behind.

"The manager came after me and said: 'I noticed you didn't tip much on your meal. The standard for good service is 15%+.' I responded, 'It wasn't good service.' She then said, 'Well, don't bother coming back!'" the customer narrated. "Ok? I won't. There are 60 French restaurants in this neighborhood alone. You're not special. If you were that concerned about the welfare of your staff, maybe direct this anger towards the restaurant owner, who can guarantee the standard of living for the servers, but I'm sure she won't."

The person was baffled by the manager's vicious treatment of a customer and wondered what she was like with the staff. "Someone else mentioned this, but the serving staff was likely not documented. I wouldn’t be surprised if the manager was taking good chunks of their tips," the post concluded.

People took to the comments section of the thread to express their thoughts on the situation. u/anomalous_cowherd wrote, "Some people definitely want to be restaurant owners without actually running a restaurant. See Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares for many examples!" u/Emerald_Fire_22 commented, "Leave an honest review. Genuinely, that might be the only thing that lets the owners know how badly their staff is f***ing with their business." u/Ginger630 remarked, "It’s standard practice for some restaurants to not seat their customers until everyone arrived. But 30 minutes to take your drink order? MIA waiter? They’re lucky they even got 10%. Write a Yelp review. Or put it up on social media and name the restaurant."

u/Mechya shared, "Weird, I can't say that I ever had a problem with seating before everyone is present. Places, where I live, see it as an opportunity to sell the people more drinks and appetizers while waiting on the other people for the main meal. If someone comes in and is willing to start ordering then they get seated. They might ask how long it is before the other people get there and then seat you somewhere small temporarily, but never made to wait." u/RoughDirection8875 expressed, "Where I live it varies. The more 'upscale' places like to have the whole party present before seating and the more laid back and casual places don't really care."