What, No Tip? Service Charge Faces Struggle at Restaurants

[Onkel Neal]

Is the right to stiff the waiter as American as apple pie?

Thomas Keller, chef at the extravagantly priced Per Se restaurant in the Time Warner Center in Manhattan, does not think so. Indeed, he is taking tipping off the table at Per Se starting next month and replacing it with a flat service fee of 20 percent.

But in doing so, he is trying an approach that chefs and restaurant managers say has never caught on in this country for a simple reason: American diners relish the power of the tip to reward or punish their servers, and the servers want them to have it.

I've never been a big opponent to tipping, but it's getting out of hand. I'm tipping the car wash guy, the pizza delivery boy, even the Sonic girl these days.

How much do you tip? How is it tied into the level of service you get?