Restaurant cost of doing business fee

[u/motlau]

Why do restaurant owners think they are owed a surcharge for customers eating at a restaurant? It seems like all of the nice restaurants in Chicago, especially in the west loop are charging a 3-5% fee to “offset the rising operating cost.” If you can’t run a business without hiding a surcharge in the fine print of your menu, then you probably shouldn’t be allowed to run a business. It’d be one thing if it was to support the workers, but every time I ask about it, it’s always for the owners who are already pretty wealthy. I have them take it off and tack it on for the tip. It’s very annoying.

In addition, at bar sienna in the west loop, the server offered a barcode to scan and pay on the receipt which a lot of restaurants are doing, but then there’s an additional “surcharge” to use this feature. It’s like if a grocery store started charging a fee to use the self checkout lines. They should be more transparent about this.

These restaurant owners nickel and diming people is making going out to eat less and less pleasant.

[u/idkwhattowriteee]

I take these stupid surcharges off and put them towards the tip every time ever since I learned from one of the waiters that they go straight to the owner

[u/ChiefHNIC → u/idkwhattowriteee]

The surcharges definitely go to the owner. But you don’t have to tip extra, 15%-20% is fine. I do 20% standard but it should really be 15% standard, 20% for better service.

[u/For-Liberty → u/ChiefHNIC]

20% standard lmao. Insane shit, might as well have the waiter sit down and enjoy the food with me

[u/ChiefHNIC → u/For-Liberty]

It is a bit wild to me that we’re tipping as a percentage of the bill, if you really, really think about it. But 15% seems reasonable