Restaurants and tips have long had a murky, muddled relationship. The theory is simple: the bill is for the food, the tip is for the staff who’ve served it.
More or less, it worked out like that when tips were entirely discretionary — when people left cash, or scribbled a few quid on the tab. But it hasn’t played out that way for a long time, since bills started to arrive with the optional-but-not-really 12.5 per cent service charge ready and waiting. Card payments could be kept by businesses, which some did as a way to add a little shine to their profit lines. In 2009 and then again in 2016, how restaurants divvied up these charges suddenly came under scrutiny, with Pizza Express, Bill’s and the Côte chain all coming under fire for allegedly dipping their hands into the waiters’ pot. Running costs were usually offered as justification.
