Tipping banned at NYC restaurant: Sushi Yasuda

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 9:11am

NYC restaurant Sushi Yasuda has implemented a ban on tipping.

I have several thoughts about this...

1. If you can afford to eat at this very expensive restaurant then you can afford to tip. Unfortunately those who can afford a place like this are frequently known to be less than generous with tips.

2. Sounds like a good idea to include the tip in the menu item.

3. I agree with the comment posted by Alexandra on this link that says: "Tipping has lost its meaning in the US. Tipping was meant to be a reward for an outstanding service. But now, consumers in the US tip because we are expected to offset the cost of wages, which is, really, an employers' responsibility, not the consumers'. Even when we receive lousy food or service, we are guilt into giving a tip because we feel bad about the minimum wage or social pressure."

btw - if you are curious the restaurant is located conveniently at 204 East 43rd Street...in walking distance to most theaters!
Good Morning America story on Sushi Yasuda tipping ban

[SNAFU]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 9:25am

Having traveled in Europe where waiting tables is a profession and not just a job and where waiters are compensated properly for their time and tipping is not a custom, I found I had better and more attentive service.

[AC126748]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 9:28am

A restaurant that I frequent recently did away with tipping. They raised their prices marginally (about $1.50 across the board) and now pay their servers a high hourly wage. As a former waiter for almost ten years I love the concept.

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 9:34am

The only place(s) I know I get good service has been by frequenting the same establishments and by being a good tipper. The waiters have come to know me and jump because they know I historically tip them above average. So it has been an expectation and unfortunately waiters have come to expect poor tips so they give poor service. It is a vicious cycle that keeps tipping in decline. I also know that better service will not necessarily increase the mindset of those who tip poorly...only that they will complain if the service doesn't meet their expectations and then it justifies their behavior to tip poorly.

An extra $2 or $3 may not seem like much but to a waiter that much more is very much appreciated. Think of that next time you are calculating a tip. You've wasted more for less... Starbucks coffee?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 9:39am

Olive Garden in NYC includes the tip as part of the price. Also, the diner at the Edison Hotel used to do this. I find that the service was bad in these places.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 9:44am

There is no tipping in Sweden. There is also no service in the average restaurant. I have wondered how it is in an American chain like TGIFridays in Gothenburg

[AC126748]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 9:45am

I had breakfast at Edison the other day and I don't remember a tip being included. Don't frequent The Olive Garden so I really can't say.

[Tom1071]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 9:50am

I really do hate having to tip when the service is bad but my conscience just won't let me not do it. Much like Brian I end up eating at the same places all the time where I know I will get good service because the wait staff know me.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 9:52am

I've generally gotten excellent service in countries where the service is included and waiting is treated more as a profession. Similarly, in New York, in my experience, waiters generally provide just as good service to those larger parties for whom the service is included (in restaurants where that is the policy) as they do for smaller parties where it is not.

With respect to Sushi Yasuda, I have two questions:

1) whether the wait staff's overall earnings and benefits are improved or diminished by the change. If this is better for them, then I'm all for it. If it's not, then I'm against it. I hope very much that it is.

2) why a ban? Generally, when service is included (although perhaps it's different in Japan)), that doesn't mean that the customer doesn't have the option of rewarding good service with a gratuity (usually much smaller than what we think of as a 15-25% tip), and routinely a nominal gratuity (such as rounding up the bill) is added. It seems odd that Sushi Yasuda would go so far as to tell its staff and customers that they are not permitted to accept or give a gratuity.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 10:05am

"I had breakfast at Edison the other day and I don't remember a tip being included."

I think they stopped that practice. Although the last time I was there, they were trying to impose a minimum charge on customers. I was there with four other people. Three of us ordered lunch and two just ordered soda. The waiter said that he had to charge the soda drinkers $5 each because there was a "minimum".

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 12:39pm

After a HORRIBLE meal at Ben's a week ago with a waitress who ignored us and made a number of mistakes with our order (which she took about twenty minutes to take and then a half an hour to fill), we tipped about 80 cents. Because that was the change due us, and judging by how long it took to get the check from the moment we requested (at least 15 minutes), we didn't feel like waiting for our change. I don't regret it. Bad service is bad service.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 2:39pm

Iluv, I don't think you should regret it for a minute after that kind of service; but sorry to hear you had a bad experience at Ben's. It used to be decent, if not always great, and there just aren't enough places to go for that kind of Jewish deli food anymore.

Posted: 6/11/13 at 2:50pm

Is this the Sushi place where the waiters sleep in the dining room?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 2:52pm

I also wonder about pricing/tipping in different areas of the city. For example, I feel really sorry for waitstaff who work in the Theater District and have people come in at 7:15 and want a full dinner and they need to make the 8:00 curtain. I do feel that under those circumstances, they should receive more.

But I also understand that restaurants work on a very tight profit margin and it's easier for the big chains like Applebees to survive.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 3:25pm

Henrik, thanks. I actually go in quite a bit because it's near my office, and an easy, quick (normally) lunch. But this experience was so bad it put a bad taste in my mouth.

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 3:28pm

once you leave a .80 tip you never dare set foot in that place again. If I like the place and got poor service I'd still leave something neutral so at least I wouldn't be remembered as the guy that needs spit in his food next time he comes in.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 6/11/13 at 10:00pm

Oh, I'd never go back. But the .80 was generous.

[SoonerOrLater]

Posted: 6/12/13 at 5:12am

As a Brit, where tipping is now more 'expected' but doesn't form part of the servers actual wage I find it odd too that tipping in this restaurant is not allowed. I'm all for including service so that waiters get a decent pay packet but also think that they should be rewarded for excellent service. Particularity in a country where it's customary anyway.

Although tipping isn't mandatory in Britain, I always leave a bigger tip for good service, and a basic (10% is the norm here usually) for average service. If someone does a good job they deserve it.

[Addison D.]

Posted: 6/12/13 at 7:26am

There was just a really interesting segment on the 'Freakonomics' podcast--examining many facets of the "tipping" economy.




Should Tipping be Banned?

Updated On: 6/12/13 at 07:26 AM

[John Adams]

Posted: 6/12/13 at 7:34am

The concept of tipping is one that began as a grateful gesture from customers, but has been abused into the mess of a system it is today. Tipping should always be the customer's choice only. The customer is a consumer and should expect to pay only for a meal. Customers should not be strong-armed into paying the salary of the person who serves them that meal as well. They are not the employer.

I think that a good way to reverse the situation is to move the pendulum toward the other extreme (as this sushi restaurant is doing). Going to the extreme by saying "no tips allowed at all" creates a stronger momentum to reverse the current thinking. When customers begin to *expect* to pay for just their meal (rather than both the meal and their server's salary), the "no tips at all" concept can be relaxed. It most likely will be once the idea of tipping is restored back to the customer's discretion rather than the management's. Updated On: 6/12/13 at 07:34 AM

[John Adams]

Posted: 6/12/13 at 7:58am

>> a really interesting segment on the 'Freakonomics' podcast

Thanks for that link!

I'm currently listening and haven't heard much yet, but that first point really got my attention.

"It leads me in the exact opposite direction. Whenever there's someone who's doing a job that deserves to be tipped or that socially we think should be tipped, it's always my inclination to not let them do their job."

I have to admit that I've fallen into that situation. It's not so much that I'm "cheap" as it is that I'm poor. Other than restaurants, there are many tipping situations that I never would have anticipated, or financially prepared for because of my inexperience in those situations. More than anything, it's embarrassing to feel like someone is thinking that you're deliberately slighting them. Updated On: 6/12/13 at 07:58 AM

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 6/12/13 at 8:45am

I told the manager at the Cheesecake Factory in Seattle, the reason why I refused to leave a tip, bad service is bad service.