The Luke-Warm Meal Was The Tip Of The Iceberg

I am out eating with my boyfriend and his family to celebrate his grandmother’s birthday.

In Austria, tipping is not mandatory but commonly done if service was excellent. Our server did an okay job — nothing to complain about, but nothing special, either. The only thing we weren’t too happy about was that some of our food was only luke-warm, but since it didn’t ruin the whole taste, we decided it wasn’t worth complaining.

After we all finish eating, my father-in-law walks up to the front to pay the bill, as this is how it is done at this restaurant. None of us hear exactly what is said, but when he comes back he says that the server was kind of mad he only got one Euro as a tip. I don’t ask my father-in-law why he didn’t give more, but since the tip is only a bonus and not mandatory, I don’t blame him for anything.

Suddenly, our server walks up to our table with a very pissed-off look and puts down the printed out bill plus a one-Euro coin. “You can keep that,” he says, “as a sign of love.”

We all think this is really disrespectful, and my father-in-law gets visibly mad. The server has already walked away, so he follows him to the front, still mad, but not aggressive in any way.

While we all put on our jackets to prepare to leave, we hear my father-in-law ask, irritated but in a normal volume, what that whole scene was supposed to mean. The server gets even more pissed and says that since our bill covered almost 100 Euro, one Euro wasn’t enough of a tip.

Now my father-in-law has had enough and says, “Well, since a tip is given for excellent service, which usually includes properly heated food, I wouldn’t be so surprised.” And with that, he walks out of the restaurant, now really angry, but somehow he managed to keep his temper under control as he doesn’t like making a scene.

I get that maybe a small tip can be a bit disappointing, but being disrespectful to your customers like that isn’t gonna help you get a bigger tip in the near future.