a tipping tip

My wife and I went to Pittsburgh Friday with some friends to shop at IKEA. IKEA is a great place...lots of fun, lots of ideas. But, I will admit, the IKEA idea was more for the ladies. The guys? The highlight of our day was definately the lunch buffet at Quaker Steak and Lube!

Quaker Steak is famous for their wings--and we ate a few of 'em that day. Actually...a lot of 'em. They also had boneless ribs, mac and cheese, fish & chips, hot Italian sausage--it's a solid buffet...you know, guy food.

The lunch buffet costs $7.49. When the bill came, the question arose...what's an appropriate tip for a buffet? Have you ever wondered that? I mean, after all, I'm the one who went and got my food. The waitress just brought drinks and took away dirty plates. How much is that worth?

Well, I've never been sure about how much to tip at a buffet so I went online and did a little research. There's a site out there called "The Original Tipping Page." TOTP give guidelines for tipping in a variety of situations. And here's what I learned about tipping at buffets, and I quote,:

5% to 10% of the total bill is suggested. This depends heavily on exactly how
much work is done by the waitstaff. In some restaurants, the waitstaff does very
little. Usually is simply bringing fresh linen and/or utensils. In some other
restaurants, the staff brings drinks, and some orders from the kitchen directly.

So there you have it! Oh, in case you're wondering...my total bill on Friday was about $17.00. I left $2.