Noticed Loudmouth adds a 3% fee for the kitchen. I feel like this is just another opportunity for restaurant owners to not pay their staff properly and leave it up to their patrons. Have any of you actually asked to have this removed?
by osamabinballin16
31 Comments
Nah — didn’t have them remove it. Just won’t ever go back. The food is mediocre and overpriced anyways.
I went for dinner a few weeks back and a buddy of mine asked them to take it off and they took him out back and shot him. They fucking killed him. Just pay the fee. I miss you Eric.
Totally disagree with this 100%. Give them a raise.
I paid it but come on man.
I won’t go back.
Average stuff.
Building is cursed since the wine store left.
Their pizza stinks for the price. Sub was pretty good though
“The American-Italian tradition of extortion” didn’t have the same warm and fuzzy ring to it.
“Fuck you… pay my kitchen staff!”
What is the difference between a 3% auto-fee and adding 3% to the price of each menu item dedicated to increasing wages? There isn’t any difference in wages IF the 3% fee actually goes to the staff. But there is a difference in consumer behavior.
They are raising their prices across the board but trying to hide it. Higher menu prices means that people might go to the “cheaper” restaurant down the street instead. And, some people will ask to remove it, which will help keep them as customers while letting the owner claim “see, it is the diners who caused you to be underpaid and not me!”
So this whole thing seems both anti-diner and anti-worker. But I don’t think people refusing the fee is a solution because it doesn’t fix the flawed tipping culture or issues with employee pay structures. It just theoretically underpays the specific workers at this restaurant.
We were so disappointed by the food here. The Caesar salad was the only thing we enjoyed. The wings were rubbery and had thick breading that held too much sauce and were cold and soggy when they hit the table. The marinated burrata was ok, but the “marinated” part was it was sitting on a bunch of pesto that we didn’t discover until halfway through because they also added a ton of greens which soaked up all the “marinade.” The pizza was ok but there are only 6 choices, and all the choices except Margherita had at least one overpowering topping you had to commit to (ex: hot honey, bbq sauce, pesto, calabrian chiles, etc).
Our waitress was nice but generally inattentive and spent the whole time talking to the two other tables she had. She left every single one of our plates on the table until well after we paid. Never asked if we wanted a second round of cocktails. And this one is maybe just a weird/personal preference, but we had wings and no extra napkins and she was nowhere to be found, and when we asked for extra napkins she brought the brown paper napkins like you would see in a restroom? It just seems like at that price point they could offer real napkins or wet wipes. And our bill after tip was $160 for two people!
Also apologies for the rant, I don’t want to leave a bad review on google because I want to support local business, but I have been feeling a little miffed since our experience there.
Fees suck.
But honestly, I have always wanted to tip the back of house more than the front of house.
This always confuses me, the patron is always paying the staff…..the add on fees are just so that they don’t have to raise the list prices more.
Who do you think pays the owner to pay the employees? The customer is always on the hook for what the employees make. The other option is to raise prices across the board, except with the fees baked into the POS, they are easier to account for (and get taxed the right way.)
Don’t go out to eat if you don’t want to support restaurants and their employees. It’s really that simple.
Why not just raise prices and pay employees a livable wage ?
Just raise your damn prices and pay your staff a living wage. Don’t hide a fee in tiny print at the bottom so you can make the customer the bad guy for questioning it.
I’ll add this to [nosurpriseeats.com](https://nosurpriseeats.com) !
I just remove stuff like that from the tip. I go out to restaurants to enjoy myself, not have weird exchanges with servers about removing from my bill whatever new fee the restaurant invented, nor to get nickel and dimed on already overpriced food.
What’s bullshit is the Indian joint in the Domain Curry Up Now charges a 20% auto-grat “large party fee” to everybody, regardless of party size. Also, they’re counter service. This has gotten really lame.
Do y’all think restaurant owners have some secret pile of money that they pay staff with that somehow isn’t connected to your patronage? The price you pay pays the staff. If it’s not an added 3% on top of your bill it would be baked in. And at least they’re being upfront about it.
“What do ya mean he don’t tip?”
Loudmouth isn’t good anyway, wouldn’t go there to begin with, especially not with Hillside Farmacy right next door, which is fabulous.
Loudmouth is just another yuppie Instagram trap for bachelor and bachelorette parties to wear sunhats and cowboy boots to feel like they are living the Austin Influencer lifestyle.
Don’t most of these places just do tip sharing? I haven’t worked in a restaurant in years so could be wrong.
This auto-tipping has to stop. It rewards shitty service. Just raise prices. If you raise them too much and folks stop coming, lower them. Risk/reward.
Is it really a good business model or an actual tax haven if you have to have the customer pay extra in hidden charges so your employees can make close to a liveable wage? Owner is getting theirs and asking you to help their employees out….
I had a food truck guy downtown give me $5 back in change on a $20 for $12 worth of tacos the other day. When I asked about it he screwed up his face and spun his screen around to show me that the total with tax was $13.05. So I’m like, ok, where’s my other $1.95? And he goes, what are you not going to tip? And I said well fuck, I might but that’s MY call. Is this shit normal?
What’s the problem? They have it on menu and they mentioned you can ask to remove it. You can feel however way you want about it and that is fine, but as long as they state such charges (which they ALSO state on their online site), I’m ok with it. I always check out menus online before going to places when I’m not traveling *shrugs*.
I wonder if their system tracks this and the BOH actually gets paid less when it is removed.
I know where i will not be dining anymore
The DRAMAAAAA!!!!
“I won’t go to a restaurant that has extra fees but I think they should just charge us more to pay their staff” do you all even hear yourselves??? 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. Yall just want to complain about everything.
If the industry charged what they need to pay their staff, none of us could afford eating out. If we stopped tipping and servers made flat hourly rates, your customer-always-right more ranch now ten refills type of service is gone. We might not have the answers to a broken system, but stop criticizing people trying to make steps in the right direction.
20% for 5 or more people? Wtf? I’d never go to this place that’s insane…
I regularly tip 20% but the tip should be earned, not forced. Pay your employees yourself.
I usually prefer when they just raise their prices. I don’t mind when they clearly state why, like paying staff and inflation, but don’t add fees.
Then again… if it’s technically a gratuity it has more legal protections, right? More likely to actually get to the workers?
I always just reduce the tip by whatever amount the restaurant sneaks into the checks. They can call it whatever they want: “service charge”, “kitchen appreciation fee”, “server healthcare fee” “fuck you we’re charging you because we can fee”… whatever. The amount I may on top of the menu prices is always locked. If servers don’t like it, they can take it up with management.
I’m sick of this stuff. Instead of paying a fair wage they make ME the patron feel guilty. Of course I assume my 20% tip some is being given to the back room cooks etc. I’ll never eat here.
Two things…
One — if tipping 23% is gonna break the bank for you, then you probably shouldn’t be eating out anyway. Stay at home and make your own food. Or pick up from Dominoes and stfu. They have stuffed crust now. I’ve never understood people who go out to eat and are shocked when it costs more than going to the grocery store. These places have a lot of overhead expenses. And they’re trying to make money. Everyone has to get paid. If you’re eating there you probably make more money than 90% of the staff. You might make more than the owner.
And two — if you don’t like it, then don’t go there. Just because you don’t agree with their business practices doesn’t mean you’re right and they’re wrong. Go somewhere else.