That's right, the title itself starts to reflect how do they like to conduct their business of providing a high quality food and beverage experience along with smiling faces. All this is not worth the prices that they charge you but should be additionally incentived...with Tipping the severs. It can totally not be your budget constraints to just afford the food prices being out here. It can also certainly not be at your own discretion anymore as it is totally at the discretion of this establishments managing leadership.
Before entering such community oriented places at Oak Bay in Victoria, BC, you could easily expect a warm welcome and definitely a cozy seating here.
Honestly, we had a great experience till we finished our food on our anniversary.
But, when we had just got done with our food, my spouse continued the previously initiated telephonic chat she had earlier with them, the conversation being that does the restaurant offer any requested experiences like any desert that can be free for her as a gesture from them for the first time visitor (my spouse had been in a fix due to their budget for this dinner that they wanted to pay for) and that was what she was giving me a surprise with.
The server was great since the beginning and she was the one who agreed to extend the free desert to my spouse earlier after we had our food. Although, the first bill that came to us still had the desert included with its price but after my spouse made another request without my knowledge, we got another bill that didn't have the desert included anymore. My spouse thanked the server and appreciated the bill that was well within her budget for the night. Unfortunately, any Tips would have been too small of an amount since any more would not be within her budget for the night.
Post the successful bill payment, we started to play a board game there since had to take a bus back to our home and timed it well to have played a 15 min game before we leave.
To our shocking surprise that just spoilt the whole experience for this restaurant was the floor or restaurant manager that came rushing towards our table on the floor above the main one.
His only focus was to express at our table, how his restaurant conducts (or atleast likes to conduct their business) essentially it was all to make an example of my spouse requesting free desert and not being able to pay a Tip to them.
He just started addressing me on how all this free desert and no Tipping is not acceptable for him. Mind you - everyone was at this point only looking at us and in our direction (nothing being there in front of us so clearly us) and the manager's voice was easily audible enough in this upper floor small area with around 7 to 8 tables being occupied. When I told him that am sorry but I was not at all aware of anything as it was my spouse trying to manage everything for the night but yes, he should still address me and not be passively aggressive towards my spouse then he plainly said that he wanted to make sure I knew about this and how bad it looks and how not acceptable it is for how they conduct business.
Anyways, I went downstairs and just paid a 50% tip to appreciate the server and to ensure that there is a discouragement from a toxic Tipping culture being pushed but just earned from someone who has the means and not just someone coming to a fancy restaurant (even though I didn't have to pay anything as well).
I told the manager that him spoiling our night when it was clearly our anniversary as well as Valentines, he had no business to publicly shame and make a spectacle out of us. Embarrassing your spouse for no mistake but just being mindful of a budget is totally uncool.
My biggest concerns are - Does this restaurant not pay enough and industry standard wage to its servers? Are there any tips that the restaurant is justifying to offset burden to its payroll? and are they making customers pay at a certain restaurant specified/expected discretionary range of acceptable tips? If yes, then why? What's the desperation to squeeze out more from the customers? when clearly the food or anything else is not out of this world but adequately worth the prices they charge (some might still not agree).
Any restaurant has a right to decide for a free desert at their discretion totally. They never said no which they should have, my spouse was clearly a romantic with a budget and am sorry for that.
If they are pressed against the wall with their declining profits and increasing expenses (macro impacts from inflation and global supply chain challenges has micro impacts for us all too so totally understandable) and or they just don't like someone from not around their classy area as new customers. Not sure what's happening in reality but giving them the benefit of doubt being around a long time here, please be straightforward with customers with a yes or a no and if you don't give autonomy to your servers to be giving free desert for someone's special days, please emphasize it to everyone or atleast to your own staff. Your ambiguous discretion for your decision making should accommodate customer discretion for Tipping decision making as well.
If the free desert or a decently warm and welcoming smile plus service comes at an additional fee or price then be upfront about having a service fee that directly benefits your servers performance management and Tipping match by yourself to them to also grow these incentives into real world benefits.
Your discretionary decision to give a free desert is not equal to customers paying tips, it beats the purpose but certainly possible by many who can.More