A Great Waitress At The Wrong Restaurant

Continued from yesterday.

Sunday night me and the boys had dinner at Golden Corral — their choice after playing at the park. Something that confuses me about GC is tipping the wait staff. As GC is a buffet, the wait staff used to bring us new plates and utensils, keep our water/tea glasses filled, and clear away dirty dishes, but that’s it. Customers get up and serve themselves everything from rolls to main meal to dessert.

Lately they don’t even bring new plates and utensils — customers get their own tools, now. The only real thing a GC waiter or waitress does directly for the customer now is refill their beverages and clear away finished plates. So are we customers still supposed to tip the wait staff? And how much should one tip for just beverage refills and table bussing?

I do still tip GC waiters/waitresses the standard percentage, but it seems wrong — tip them the same as I’d tip someone who served me everything from order to dessert. That’s either a rip off of the customer or an insult to the full-service waits. But maybe I’m the oddball for tipping at GC? I’ve noticed some other GC patrons don’t leave any tip on the table.

Our most recent GC dinning experience made me think more about this concept. Our waitress was very nice, pleasant, friendly, and service-minded. She greeted me and the boys with a big smile and a happy demeanor. She was attentive with the tea and water refills, and she was prompt but not over-grabby with taking away our finished plates (some GC servers will snatch away a half-finished plate if you don’t watch out). But still, like all GC wait staff, that’s all she really did for us directly; that’s all she could do for us.

She would probably make better money at a “real,” personal-service restaurant where her great attitude and attention would be more appreciated and supported with better tips. I wanted to tell her this, but with her working hard and me managing two young boys at the table, having such a conversation wasn’t really doable.

There was a “How Are We Doing?” form on the table with her name on it, and she had written her name on the register receipt, over the “Take our online survey” information. When we finished our meal, I made sure to take these two items with me.

In my wallet I only had a fiver and a twenty — paying before eating often makes leaving a tip difficult, because I forget to get proper change before sitting down. I would like to have left more than five dollars, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave the twenty — the meal total was less than $22. At least $5 is more than the standard 15% tip.

I filled out the paper survey and took the online survey once I got home. (I checked “Excellent” and “Strongly Agree” on the forms — thanks for the great service, Charise.)

To be continued. . .

Bullgrit