Tipping trends

[Jenise]

An interesting snippet from Eater:

Gordon Ramsay brought American-style tipping to his London restaurant — and the Brits are not having it: The celebrity chef has added a 20 percent service charge at his restaurant Lucky Cat on at least two occasions, making headlines in British papers this week. As the Independent pointed out, the charge is significantly higher than restaurants from his British peers; tipping is not as widespread in the United Kingdom as in the United States. “We need to push back hard against this b.s or it will become normalised,” reads the top comment on r/Europe.

Yes but.

The USA shows tax separately on restaurant bills and, as I understand it, tipping is calculated on the amount before tax.

But that separation doesn't happen in the UK, the bill is inclusive of tax, which is 20%. So Ramsey isn't adding 20% to the meal cost, but to the meal cost and 20% tax.

(the bill is also inclusive of the high taxes applied to alcohol, much, much higher than in the USA).

There's an easy way to avoid Ramsey's rapacious pricing - avoid.