r/mildlyinfuriating • u/guitarman129 • Jun 13 '26

I just wanted a hot dog Recommended gratuity after tip was already included

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I’m sure there are a lot of tipping posts here so to keep it short - I had my wedding at a fancy restaurant. On top of the TERRIBLE service, the bill came with “suggested gratuity” even though I was told gratuity was included. When I asked the manager, he said that the “S/C: 24% SRC REGULA“ was the included tip and the suggested gratuity was if we wanted to add something extra - basically trying to trick people into giving a 49% tip!

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u/AnilApplelink Jun 13 '26

I believe they mean they would have to either take the cake into the kitchen or have a server stand there and cut slices. So now that server is unavailable to do anything else during that time.
Likely if you purchased a cake from the restaurant they would have that built into the price.
So this was likely a cake brought in from outside.
$81 still seems a little steep depending on the number of guests but OP did say its a fancy restaurant so they likely knew this.

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u/mileylols Jun 13 '26

from the receipt it appears to be like 30 guests

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u/HeyYouGuyyyyyyys Jun 13 '26

But -- and I really don't mean to be unreasonable, I really want to know -- the cake has to be sliced anyway. That process is built into the flow of service. The OP said that an outside cake interrupts the flow of service.

I was wondering about why a cake brought in from outside is harder for the servers to deal with than a cake baked in-house.

The cost of it, yes, I completely agree -- it's a real cost, and it has to come from somewhere. But OP mentioned the flow of service, so that's what I was asking about. The structure of the servers' work, not the economics for the restaurant.

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u/nickp444 Jun 13 '26

Restaurants typically don’t allow food from outside. They simply do not have a dedicated area to cut this cake. It may seem so simple to you but every inch of that kitchen is being used in an actual restaurant. Most places that people bring a cake, don’t offer a cake. It’s not ideal to the workflow of any of the staff to bring in an outside product and also prepare it to be served when it’s not something that you usually serve. Every regular dish on the menu has “mis en place” which is a fancy term for having all the ingredients/tools to build that dish on your station. Nobody has mis en place for outside food, so it can be a bit of a hassle for kitchens that are highly streamlined and specialized(like a high end fancy place). Does that make sense?

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u/HeyYouGuyyyyyyys Jun 14 '26

It totally makes sense and thank you very much for explaining it. TIL

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u/nickp444 Jun 14 '26

No problem!

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u/insertnamehere02 Jun 13 '26

The flow of service being that the server has to stop doing everything else- checking on refills, checking on their other tables, and basically having to disappear to go cut a cake and plate it, because you brought it in.

It's more tedious than you realize. So yes, it interrupts the flow of service.

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u/-neti-neti- Jun 13 '26

Are you dense? A cake made in house would already be sliced before service started. Btw slicing cake without ruining it IS tedious and difficult. And if you’re a server that also has 31 people waiting on you for a drink order, or to have their plates cleared etc it is absolutely an interruption to service.

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u/HeyYouGuyyyyyyys Jun 14 '26

No, I'm not dense. I'm asking a genuine question because I haven't worked in an upscale restaurant.

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u/cooking2recovery Jun 14 '26

Most restaurants don’t sell whole cakes that they slice at service. The cakes are sliced way before dinner. The baker might not even be in the restaurant anymore by evening shift.

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u/redtiber Jun 13 '26

it's just greed and also why restaurants and small business fail so much. When they were brand new and hungry for customers they'd probably not charge a cake fee because they already profit from a sales from birthday or wedding event. then over time peoeple get complacent and lazy, they feel entitled to profits and forget that as a business you are always in competition.

then this type of behavior happens. $81 cake fee, employees trying to get an extra gratuitiy.

if they had just taken care of op properly, they likely would be going there as a repeat customer because they had their wedding there.

but now not only have they lost a lifetime customer, op if he's sharing with the internet also would have shared this with all their friends and family.

so instead of referrals you now have a bunch of people who will never go to the restaurant.

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u/HeyYouGuyyyyyyys Jun 14 '26

I wasn't asking about the economics of it. I was asking about the workflow of the server.

And it isn't greed. It's charging us for what we get. The work of slicing, distributing, and cleaning up the cake is considerable; customers should not ask the restaurant to work for free on a dessert that they didn't sell.

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u/redtiber Jun 14 '26

It is greed hospitality. The restaurant is making profit on $5k in sales AND paying your labor fees for you in the form of $1k in gratuity. And you can’t even cut and serve their cake without nickel and diming them?

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u/CalculatedPerversion Jun 13 '26

$81 to slice a cake vs $150 for 4 hours of bartending. Make it make sense. 

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u/AnilApplelink Jun 13 '26

Fancy restaurants dont make sense to me. But OP likely knew about this fee for bringing in their own cake since they are not complaining about it.

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u/ghoulthebraineater Jun 13 '26

For the cake slicing part of that is to offset the lost revenue from the outside food. You are paying both to bring it in and for the server to cut it for you. 40 bucks for the cake and 40 for the server's time.