More than a little peeved at this place. My family went to this restaurant and the prices for the food were a bit high for what you got. The final bill was $85 for 3 people! ($74 before another issue I'll mention) My daughter ordered Penne noodles with sauce and it was $17! My wife payed extra for her meal to be Al Forno (melted cheese on top) and they only put it on half of the meal. Both adult meals were drowned in sauce. Overall the food was ok, they even said good.
My biggest problem was the forced Gratuity charge.
I will start by saying that I do indeed tip, but what I tip is based on the service provided by my wait staff and the restaurant as a whole. It is my belief that a tip is my way of saying thank you for great service and I will choose the amount that I think represents that. In my opinion, if it is forced then it is not gratuity. I also believe that a tip or gratuity should never be enough to buy a meal from the restaurant, unless the tab and party is MASSIVE.
Continuing, While the party wasn't small, it wasn't large. There were 9 people total with one more showing up for cake that WE brought at the end. On top of that my family of 3 was on a separate tab. 2 of the party members were small children that don't really factor heavily into party size since they don't require much.
If there was a sign it wasn't apparent. My wife did not see it when they went in, so dropping this on her was unexpected, not fair, and why she didn't catch it. She isn't the one who usually pays the check.
The forced gratuity on a $67 pretax tab was $12.21. This is 18% of the ticket (or $73.77 post tax and 16.5%) I don't know what other people tip, but generally speaking and based on the experience this was way too much. The waitress wasn't bad, but there was nothing special or exceptional to warrant this amount. Please note that I am not complaining about the service. It was fine. Also, as I said above, if I wanted to leave that much then it should have been my decision. Just as it should be my decision to leave more or less based on the service provided.
Lastly, after adding the automatic gratuity they allowed my wife to add an additional tip on top of it. Granted, its possible a customer may decide to leave more than the automatic charge, but if you are adding $12+ to the ticket then you should probably verify that the customer is aware. I don't make a lot of money and have made less in the past. To me the cost of this meal is already a big output of money. We planned to expect a larger bill, but price changes made it a hard hit. To have $12 added to the bill made it harder. Not knowing to look for the additional charge and having them let us add additional gratuity means that my bill was a huge hit.
Automatic gratuity is not gratuity. Per federal and state law it is considered a service charge. I do not appreciate businesses that use this practice. It is deceptive and results in higher charges and deceptive menu pricing. While the food and server was good, I will not return to this restaurant or any other that follows this practice.
Note: I know there will be alot of people that are going to attack my review and statements talking about how tips are part of wages and how its hard to work a large group.
I'll be honest. I do not care. In California servers are paid at least minimum wage. If you want a good tip, then offer exceptional service that will earn a good tip. In areas where servers aren't paid minimum wage I believe the same thing, though I hate to think anyone isn't paid a fair wage.
When push comes to shove, we all choose the jobs that we work in one way or another. Do a good job and you will be rewarded. Its not a thank you if its forced. read more