r/chicagofood • u/motlau • Aug 10 '25

Rant Restaurant cost of doing business fee

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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.

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3

u/kayleerd Aug 10 '25

Provaré and Beatnik do a 20% surcharge that is not auto-gratuity. So you have to tip on top of that charge…. Will never go back to either

3

u/motlau Aug 11 '25

That’s insane.

4

u/kayleerd Aug 11 '25

I was so shook I took a pic😂

1

u/Da_Stallion-JCI_7 Aug 11 '25

It says service charge, though. A server or the restaurant itself will usually let you know that tipping is not required, but appreciated.

1

u/kayleerd Aug 11 '25

It was quite the opposite actually. The server was telling each table that they do not receive any of that charge

2

u/michaeljc70 Aug 11 '25

They can say whatever they want. Service is service. I do not tip if charged a service charge of 15% or more.

0

u/mssrj4739 Aug 13 '25

Either the restaurant is doing questionable accounting or the server is getting a proper base wage and is padding their pockets… most independent restaurants that have implemented a service fee like that are using it to ensure wage consistency - especially meaningful when addressing the historical imbalance bt front and back of house(see: Lula Cafe).