...at the one (Thai) restaurant where I work now:
1) A group of three (very young) (Chinese from China) girls who use some phone app to scan the menu and convert it into characters -- "Why do they need that?!", I was like, "All the words are like 'vegetable' and 'noodle' and 'sauce'!" -- and who all have drinks and appetizers and a few expensive entrees and dessert, too, and who split the bill evenly and all go to pay ApplePay for their $28 share of the meal ($28!), and 2 of them leave a $2 tip and the third leaves no tip at all.
And, when my one (Chinese from China) coworker does the spiel about was everything okay with the food and service etc., they say yes, and he points to the tip, and one is like, "We don't have the money," and they leave.
(And, they had a decent amount of food left on the table, they didn't even leave clean plates, and, like many [Chinese from China], they just don't do leftovers, so it was like a $90 dinner that they claim they can't afford, and they don't even bother eating all of the food, while tipping shit to your face even when challenged.)
2) A young (South Asian from South Asia) couple come and take a table by the window and flirt, and when after they've looked at the menu a long time, I stop by their table, the guy is like, "Come back in five minutes," and so I just let other people take the table, and they order a few expensive entrees -- one fish, so they're (Pakistani) or (Bangladeshi)? -- and dessert, too, and at some point I see the (young) guy lean across the table and put a fork-full of mango stick-rice into her mouth, and when they go to pay the $69 bill, they leave no tip, so my one (Chinese from China) coworker who's helping them does the spiel, and the guy looks in his wallet and pulls out a crumpled one dollar bill, and gives it to him.
And, when he comes back to the back and tells us this, I see that the (young) couple is still lingering by the doorway, so I run up and am like, "Oh, oh, was everything okay!", and quite blankly the (young) guy says yes, they like our food a lot, they've been here three times already, and so he catches me offguard like that, and so impulsively right away I say something like that if that's the case, the tip should be minimum fifteen percent, the total is even listed at the bottom of the receipt if they have a problem with math, "it's a cultural expectation," and it's the way that the servers make money, "it's a cultural expectation."
And, they just look at me like they've never heard this before and they don't know how to process it, and I say something to end the interaction and turn around.
(I'll see how they tip next time they're in -- if it's still bad, no service like refilling water glasses from me.)
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