In the UK we consider "good service" to be when the waiter is completely unobtrusive, almost invisible, but with an uncanny ability to know exactly when you want his/her attention. Waiting staff who continually interpose themselves upon your enjoyment of the food, or the flow of conversation, are viewed as a fawning annoyance, and consequently unlikely to be well tipped. When we go out to eat with our friends, family, or partner it is to enjoy THEIR company - we didn't actually invite the bloody waiter!

My feeling is also that people who tip in Britain, are tipping because they liked 'the meal and overall experience', rather than tipping the waiter because of the service they had.

Waiting staff do NOT depend on tips, they get a proper wage. You only tip if you want to.

We don't tip in Australia usually. I was so annoyed with servers in America hovering around us and being really intrusive. I really didn't want to tip but was pressured into it. The huge portions could be cut in half and use the money to pay their staff.

Its horrible having an expensive meal and then someone expecting another 20% on top because their boss doesnt want to pay them fairly!

In Europe we go to a restaurant to socialise with our family or friends. The waiters are not part of the socialisation. They are there to serve the food and perhaps just pop around once again to ask if everything is OK and THAT IS IT. They leave you alone to enjoy the company of your co-diners. Any more than that is considered a nuisance.

I just want a waiter to give me my food and leave us alone.

British people (in general) prefer to be left alone. They don’t want to be bothered or interrupted by waiting staff.

He did NOT say waiting staff depend on tips. Barbeque is not a dish, it's a way of cooking.

I don't want people hanging around me when I am eating.

We don't like being constantly hovered over - it's intrusive to the conversation...and we don't tip! We pay the wait staff a living wage instead.

I'd tell the server: "every time you bother me, I'm deducting 10% from your tip." - most Europeans don't want to be persistently bothered during our meal. Wait staff in the UK do not *_depend_* on tips, but they're obviously happy to receive them UK and the EU actually pay our employees [more] adedquately.

In Britain, interrupting a meal is rude. If a waiter came over to me when I was still eating, I would pay and leave at once. Americans want to be babied. Brits want to eat in peace. A good waiter in the UK is basically silent and invisible.

All British waiters etc are paid. There is a national minimum wage and it applies to everyone that is employed. So tipping does not form part of their income, it's a benefit.

Tipping is a choice in UK not expected by waiting staff if they do a good job we'll tip um.

Starter because it starts the meal. The word Entrée is French for 'enter' or 'start'. Cutlery is named as it made by a 'cutler', it is also a surname as people in antiquity were often called after their trade.

I've never taken any food home from a restaurant in the uk, its never even occurred to me.

Tipping does not form a large part of servers income in the UK. I am a Dominoes driver and I get maybe £5 in tips on average per week. The UK does not have a tipping culture. The tipping culture in the USA is unique in that you guys somehow don't see it as the business owners duty to pay their staff a wage that allows them to make a living.

If you go to a restaurant in Britain, you walk through the door. Most of the time you're greeted and shown to a table. They wait while you take your coat off and you get comfortable. Then they ask if they can get you a drink. They come back with the menus, then go and get the drinks, or maybe the other way around. Then they give you 10 minutes or so to peruse the menu and choose what you want. They take your order and come back with any cutlery or condiments that you might need, (ie a steak knife etc). Sometimes they'll bring you warm bread rolls and butter. Then eventually they'll bring you the starters. They might come up once during the meal to see if everything is ok. Sometimes they do it more often, and it can be bloody annoying. Usually, you'll order the main meal at the same time as the starter. Sometimes service is included, and it will say this on the bill. Sometimes it's not. If not, and if I think it's been worth it, I generally leave a tip, in cash. How much I leave depends on how much cash I have on me. But it's generally £2 to £3 per person. I'm very sceptical of expensive restaurants. The service might be good, and the food might be nice, but how much do the ingredients cost? A few times I've been to a really expensive Indian restaurant, where the environment is very nice and the staff all dress up in vey ostentatious Indian robes and outfits. The food is very nice. All the normal stuff like Chicken Tika Masala, plus fish in chili sauce. And you always get hot damp towels to wipe yourself with. And it can generally cost around £150.00 for a three course meal for 2 with 1 bottle of red wine. The same meal would cost about £40.00 in the bog standard Indian restaurant up the road. How different are the ingredients? I'm sure they'd cost about the same. How much more expensive can it be to cook them? Maybe it's just me? Maybe I'm just tight fisted? Waiters and servers in Britain DO NOT depend on tips. We have a national minimum wage over here. Lawrence hasn't been in the UK since Stonehenge was built!

I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned how much quieter it is in British Restaurants. In the UK, diners tend to speak quieter to each other.

I've been a barmaid and waitress in several European countries including Britain (I'm English) and we treat customers like fellow human beings who've come in to this place to eat or drink. If you need something you call us, but don't expect anyone to read your mind, and we're no there to entertain you. The wages aren't great but they're enough to live on, tips are welcome but not absolutely necessary; I usually made good enough "gratuities" to make it worth smiling at customers, but I wouldn't have starved without them. I think it's so weird, and so wrong, that you don't pay your wait staff a proper wage.

As I've said before Lawrence out of date now on current uk things unlike in the USA waiters in uk are paid the national minimum wage (approx 12 dollars an hour) so not as reliant on tips as usa

US food is not cheaper. Check out the videos of American ex pats on this who live in the UK. Portion sizes are bigger in the US but food quality is poor. Food contains many additives that are banned in the UK and the EU

Lawrence is wrong. Servers in the UK do not rely on tips as they receive a proper living wage. Tips are only given for outstanding service.

Lawrence at it again. Will he stop making videos. No the staff aint depending on tips they get paid a living wage, with 28 days paid vacation too.

Waiters in the UK do not rely on tips as they receive a proper wage. However, you are still welcome to tip if you wish to do so.

wait staff dont bother us, we have to ask, as we are notunder pressure to be moved out, , best of it all they are there to help when asked, we are left alone, to enjoy our evening, whether with family or a loved one.

I would find it so absolutely annoying if a waiter constantly came up and interrupt me.

My wife is Chinese - from the Anhui Province; where they boil / steam their meals - Lydia loves spicy / hot food. Which is more related to the Sichuan Province! Her cooking is always phenomenal!

In uk we say “can I have a doggy bag” if we have leftovers. However we rarely need a doggy bag because we don’t have massive portions in most places. Although there are still place that serve large portions in uk & we do occasionally take home leftovers. Just not that often. Maybe once every year or two.

We do tip our service staff on occasion, but we pay our staff a guaranteed wage. The box thing I found isn't that uncommon in the UK, especially if you go somewhere like a buffet. Occasionally, pubs will even do it. Pizza Hut, and Frankies and Benny's. But yeah, I found a lot of people in the UK love spicy food, no matter where it comes from. I love Mexican, Chinese, and Indian food, and Thai food is amazing as well.

There is a subtle linguistic difference. Servers in the UK are not 'dependent on tips' in that they are paid at least the minimum wage per hour. However, it might well be true that the amount of tips received makes a material difference to their take-home pay. Having done online research into chains like Macdonalds and Burger King, the large portion sizes in the US does not mean better value for money. Our smaller portions cost less than the larger US equivalent. "I've never heard that!" Yes, you have. Mulitple times......

Tipping? No need. Staff are paid a proper wage and receive proper benefits in the UK including paid vacation days of 25 days per year. We don't have to put up with servers constantly bothering us while we eat our meal. If you want more you can get it without being constantly irritated. I lived in California for a while where I met my wife. It was so annoying to eat out.

Sadly now we are seeing compulsory tipping coming in stealthily. Not only that ! But now some restaurants are now giving time limited slots. You usually get the table for the night ! It must stop. Now.

I was brought up to 'always leave something on your plate'..as this was polite manners and demonstrated you were not needy or greedy. So to ask to take leftovers home would be considered a bit embarrassing ..as if you weren't well fed or poor. (This was for more upper class restaurants, not for your local Chinese.) Times are different but I would still feel uncomfortable asking.

Has watched 8-10 videos on British food and culture where the term 'pudding' has been described as both a sweet and savoury food item, but he's NEVER heard that before. Tyler you literally have the memory of a goldfish lol

The cultural differences Europe/America are so obvious here. We like to receive good food, well presented, and then be left alone to enjoy it and chat with our guests/family. If we need something, we'll ask for it. Americans love to hover - whether it's servers over their customers, parents over their children's every breathing moment, or store clerks over patrons as soon as they cross the doorway.

I think the difference also is that in the uk one goes to the restaurant for an occasion and we do not like to be rushed, socialising and conversation are an important part of aspect .From what I understand from other videos in USA people go to a restaurant to eat and then leave

You always get a new plate at british buffets

The Brittish national dish is Chicken Tikkamasala. It's weird, but it's the actual national dish

In the UK server get a fair wage and don't have to rely on the tips to make up their income, where as US servers are on minimum wage and rely on tips to live, in the UK a tip is a bonus not relied on to live, It really got to me on my visits to the US that I was subsidizing the owner with tips for him to pay 3 world country wages.

the waiter will ask at the end of the meal how everything was, if there were any issues etc - if a big problem happens ofc the waiter will be there. But we like to give our customers the room to breathe and talk with their invited guests. Not with the waiter lol

I have found your channel just yesterday and must say it is really pleasant to watch you. You are really amusing, I love your humor, you have that special gift. But what is even more important - within these two days I have learnt further details about the American and British way of life faster than within the last like ten years.

If tipping is optional it's because it's not customer duty to pay the waiter wage it's the restaurant owner to do so

In Britain, some restaurants offer appetisers and starters as two different things. Appetisers are usually shared and will be something like a bowl of olives or a bread basket with balsamic vinegar and oil, whereas a starter is a larger but still relatively small course after that.

In Europe, we are not forced to tip the waiters like you are in the states. Here I only give a tip if the service was really amazing. For that reason service is not always good because the waiters are paid better wages. they don’t have to put out extra effort to get a higher tip, they don’t even expect one.

Our love of ethnic food is really historical. Because of the British Empire. Particularly India. Running India and all our other colonies required a lot of administrators. when the Empire started to contract and nations got their independence most of these administrators came back to the UK, bringing their love of the spicy and exotic foods with them. Even bringing their ethnic staff with them.

He doesn't mention how you are expected to leave when you've eaten in the US. In Europe meals are social occasions to be lingered over then followed by cheese and drinks etc. I asked for the cheese board in a 'French' restaurant in San Francisco. They brought a plate of mousetrap 'Cheddar'.

In the UK they still have to come over in a restaurant to ask how your food is once to give you an opportunity to make a complaint

This guy has been in the US too long. I disagree with a lot of what he says. Especially the clean plate thing, I’ve never visited a buffet that didn’t expect you to have a clean plate each visit. As well as pricing, from what I’ve seen recently we are cheaper on the whole for better quality.

There are Indian and Chinese dishes everywhere in Britain. In London there is food from everywhere around the world.

Here in Australia we are mostly on the same Page as the UK WATER (tap which is extremely safe )IN RESTAURANTS /CAFES it Is Compulsory to provide it related to our hot climate either provided from a bottle iced or warm to the table., request it , or help yourself and limitless , National Dish Prawns , sausage sizzle , and a mixture of Sunday Roast foods from Uk Chineses / Indian , Fish and chips you can buy any where ,NO TIPPING as it’s a regular wage for hospitality but some people tip but not a common habit , for the man on the street you say Pudding but the posh folk call it a Sweet /Desert ,Utensils seems to be popular as is cutlery never Silverware , We ask for a Doggie Bag for left overs but it’s not expected to be on tap but quiet exceptabe to do this , we use Entree never a starter which is a green leaf salad and Main course , very enjoyable as usual 🤣👏👏👏🤷‍♀️

In the uk we go to restaurants to talk to the people we go with not the wait staff. So we prefer to be left to it, but most staff are on the ball when you do call them over as tip depend solely on service. Our restaurants are also more expensive as all staff are given at least minimum wage, so some restaurants put all tips in a pot to be even share amongst the wait staff and the kitchen staff.

In the Uk wait staff who earn the minimum wage are paid $14.44 per hour and at a lot of restaurants any tips are shared amongst all the staff (including pot washers) unlike in America The United States federal government requires a wage of at least $2.13 per hour be paid to employees who receive at least $30 per month in tips. If wages and tips do not equal the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour during any week, the employer is required to increase cash wages to compensate. Why should the customer be helping the employer to pay wages?

In UK you are left alone, but attentive waiting staff will be keeping an eye on your table as soon as someone looks up and appears to want help they should jump in. Or what usually happens is you sit there yelling, please help me in the hope you can get their attention. For me the first gets a tip the second type doesnt get a tip.

Tips don't form part of the waiters wages because tips are voluntary. In America it's disgusting that the waiters need tips to survive and have a living wage. In restaurant in America I had to tell the waiter could they leave us alone to have our meal the amount of times he would come to the table was annoying. All I wanted to do was enjoy the meal with friends and not be pesterd every 5 minutes He took the sutle hint in the end. You go to a restaurant to enjoy the food and have a good with the people you are with not to be pestered by an overbearing waiter who has to work to get the tip which they expect. Pay them a decent wage so they are not reliant on tips to survive.

Minimum wage in the UK is £10.42 per hour, which will soon be going up to £11.44. This applies to ALL workers once you've reached the qualifying age, including wait staff. So yeah tips are nice if you earn minimum wage, but not as necessary as Lawrence implied (unless he wants to start tipping supermarket staff over here as well). China is a massive country, the entire country doesn't eat the same food! The spicy Chinese food is (in the West at least) associated with the Szechuan province.

Lawrence as a Northerner, which to a Scot are still Sassenachs and southerners stated we don't do mushy peas down south, well we do and most other things people from up north say the South don't have/do is incorrect.

Popular Chinese dishes in uk are things like: sweet and sour chicken, lemon chicken, chicken in a black bean sauce, chicken curry (I know weirded right), prawn crackers, spring rolls, sweet chilli chicken ribs.

As a Canadian it's really neat to see the influences we've gotten from from both countries.....definitely normal to go home with leftovers (it's one of my favorite parts of going out to eat) but Sunday roast dinners are definitely a common thing here as well......but the best part in canada is our ethnic foods are definitely more authentic because of our multiculturalism...real Indian Thai Japanese Ukrainian Korean Jamaican....it's just so so yummy!!!

In the UK Staff do not depend on tips. Some places do include tips in the bill which is called customer charge or you can tip by choice and you say to the waiter how much you want to do. The only free refill is tap water which you ask for as some people may not want it and is usually a big bottle or jug to be shared or a glass. I always say to the waiter to pack the food that is leftover to take home even the food that I haven’t finished in my plate not just food that are shared. For the people you don’t take the left overs home is such a waste of food and money. All the restaurant that I have been to have always had a box or a tub ware or something to put the left overs into. We don’t call it doggy bag. I just say for it to be packed to take home.

Taking food home from sitdown restaurants is abnormal to me, I can't comprehend it xD

Tyler, you’ve never heard of pudding being used as a catch-all for dessert because you don’t listen - I’ve watched you come across this in at least 4 or 5 different videos, and you always get so involved in explaining what pudding is in the US that you don’t listen to what it means in the UK. Finally, someone has put both words on the screen at once!!

Wait staff are not tip dependent in the UK, he said that they get a lot of their earnings from it, which is a different statement. In the UK, most people do not want to be unnecessarily interrupted while eating or talking and it's not uncommon for a pitcher or bottle of water to be placed on the table, more so on request, so that the customers can refill their own glasses. Restaurants tend to be more expensive in the UK than the US but conversely groceries in the UK tend to be a lot cheaper than in the US, so food itself is not more expensive as such.

Smiling at the "low tip because you only free refilled twice!" Shock and horror when there is 0 refill, because thats just not a thing. You order a drink, pay for that drink. Order another drink and pay for that. Water usually doesn't come free either. ( the bill does come all the way at the end, only when you signal that you are ready to leave though, they don't just pop up with it)

In a pub you get a clean glass every time.

I visited Texas in '86 and went to a restaurant out there with my aunt and cousins. What was odd is you call the toilets 'restrooms' instead of just labelled as toilets or ladies, gentlemen and disabled as you'd have here in the UK. To a 14 year old me, I assumed a restroom was a room where you'd go to have a lie down to recover if you're feeling too stuffed from eating too much and you can barely walk. And why you also call it a 'bathroom' when there's no bath is odd too. Also on the aeroplane on the way over (as opposed to 'airplane'), there was a drawer in the toilets labelled 'sanitary towels' which I assumed was clean towels that were sterilised in an autoclave or something and not tampons. Then again, the UK didn't have Tampax adverts on telly until the mid '80s.

In the majority of chain restaurants here, the waiter takes your order, brings your drinks then food and comes past about two minutes later to ask if everything is OK having made sure first that your mouths are full so that you can't answer! Never any water with the meal either unless you ask for it, and if you have refillable sodas, you have to get those yourself. Maybe that's why if you leave a tip, 10% is considered the going rate

The tipping culture in Britain is changing and becoming more like America. That's a bad thing.

You'd never starve eating out in Britain. It's just that you won't be able to taken much/anything home for the next day as that's a pretty alien concept to us. Better for reducing waste and waist 😉 Also: Americans aren't used to spicy foods? I always thought Mexican food was spicy...

In the UK, you tip only if you think the waiter or restaurant deserves it. Totally optional, since restaurant staff are paid properly. Asking for a doggy bag does happen in the UK, but it's less common. What you said about English words sounding like the fancy US term (e.g., silverware vs cutlery) is, oddly, exactly how Brits feel about borrowed French terms (possibly for similar historical reasons - British nobility were originally French, just as US nobility were originally British). So in the UK saying serviette is fancier than saying napkin, for instance.

Yes boxing up your food at the end is rare but not unheard of. The other week I did it because I suddenly didn't feel well shortly after ordering, my appetite completely disappeared and I only managed to eat a few bites.

We like to spend time in a restaurant, not be hassled by a waiter to be in and out of the restaurant. They’d be told to go away until we are ready. Some restaurants in the UK do now have free refill drinks. Lawrence is a little behind the times.

Here in Italy people "resisted" the doggy bag concept because, IMHO, we are traditionally... not a rich people. So taking leftovers home was seen like a stingy thing, leaving them on the plate was normal, as in "I'm not so poor that I have to take leftovers with me, I can afford to leave them here". Now this has luckily changed, and asking for a box is totally normal, exp. for the younger generations. I don't think my mother (she's 85) ever asked for a box in her life, and she probably wouldn't.

Not true that waiters in the UK depend on tips, they may not be well paid but at least it’s a living wage.

This is one thing that embarrassed me when touring America - knowing when to tip and how much. I remember when in an All You Can Eat/Buffet restaurant in the US that the children would get one portion, not finish it and go up for another portion. The food waste must be enormous.

I'm quite amused to see a channel I watch refer to Chicago Burer in Cleethorpes. I know it well! The burgers are pretty good but in particular they do one of the better doner kebabs in the area. On the whole I think most people tip if in a proper retaurant but where it gets murky is where the bill already has a service charge on it. It may seem impolite to not tip but if there's a service charge you've already paid for that.

In a restaurant in the UK, after your food is served, you may be asked once if everything is OK, and then invariably you are left alone to eat and talk. If I had an 'attentive' waiter I would not choose to return to that restaurant - it would annoy the hell out of me. I usually tip 10% if I've had a nice time and the food has been good. Waiters aren't dependent on tips to supplement their income but in London I imagine that every little helps.

It is really rude if you sneak some leftovers from your meal with you in Europe

We have waiters in the UK, no servers! In Britain a mimimum wage wich results in a large majority of the wages comes from their salary

"Entrée", which is a French word, literally means entry, entrance, starter. It's different from appetizers which are small bits, and is the first course, usually of small to medium size. I don't know how it slipped to be the main course in the US. It's often a confusion with American tourists in Europe in general and France in particular. Servings being already smaller in Europe, if they comfuse an Entrée with a main course, they might end up with a really small and light meal. Almost everything of what was said is applicable to Europe as a whole, not just the UK. In most of Europe, service is included in the bill. In several countries it's even mentioned as a line on the ticket. I think it's also linked in the US to the prices not including tax in stores. In Europe, if you only have a 20 euro or pound note in your pocket, you know exactly how much you can order in a restaurant or what you can buy in a store. Prices include tax and service. Though it's always viewed positively to tip at least a few coins. But it's not really usual to give large tips like in the US. In most European countries if not all, waiters must have a salary and can't work for tips only. It's also common to have shared tips across the entire staff. The incessant bugging of waiters in America can be really annoying for Europeans. To the point I sometimes had to promise a good if they left us alone until actively asked. Ironically, the only restaurants where the ataff is a lot more discreet in America, are the high-end ones (the luxury ones, not simply the expensive nouveaux riches ones), which says a lot. In high-end European restaurants, the staff is very present yet discreet and do not engage much. They often restock the bread and many other little things but they won't ask you every few minutes about something. In some luxury restaurants they'll even wait standing a couple meters behind in case you need something but will wait for your demands most of the time. And above all, they won't fake interest and go over the top like how a dog throws you a party when you come home like in most American restaurants. One other thing : It's a lot less usual to heavily customize what you order in Europe. Sometimes in America it's like that : "I'll have the Cesar salad, but without green leafs, replace the chicken with tuna, replace the Parmigiano with cheddar, add croutons..." The kind of thing that can be frowned upon... Some degree if customization is OK, especially when it's about allergies or intolerances, but far from the level I've seen in America. And in many fast-food chains in Europe, you can ask to remove something from a certain burger recipe but you usually can't swap nor add anything, even if you pay. And some regular restaurants may refuse to alter the dish's recipe in any way, which can be surprising for American tourists.

I would say the opposite when it comes to tips. In America waitmstaff know they are getting tipped, wait staff in the UK don’t, so the opposite argument of attentiveness should be more true of the UK. The difference is, when we go out to eat we want to be left alone, we don’t want wait staff constantly hovering. We go out to enjoy the meal and company in a unhurried manner. If we want something we get the wait staff attention.

I think also brits generally do not like that constant interruption and over attentiveness. We want to eat in peace and not constantly have the wait staff come over. If we want them we will call them over. As for tipping I don’t remember ever leaving a tip other than when its included.

Ben Deen recently did a series of taste tests in the UK. Chinese takeaway , Indian takeaway, classic British dishes.

Tyler - 1. WHY we don't like waitstaff making their presence felt is because what waitstaff are expected to do is fade into the background. They don't try to make friends!! In fact someone who kept wandering up to the bunch of total strangers and making meaningless enquiries would be in breach of good manners and wouldn't last past the first day.. When you say that people hovering about & intruding is because they "treat you like Royalty" that's the dead opposite of how Royalty is treated. Professionally trained waitstaff should be invisible...and mute. The higher up the social scale one goes the more that waitstaff are expected to blend into the background. They are expected to anticipate your actual needs: did you drop your napkin? Someone appears with a clean one out of thin air. Did someone get given the wrong dish? This is replaced without a word other than a murmured apology. 2. BEWARE! The word "entree" is French and it refers to what you call "starters". So if you are eating in any other country and say "I'd like to have a steak for entree", you'll get a small morsel of meat with some artistically arranged little pieces of either fruit rind or a couple of slivers of a colourful veg! 3. YEAH, like others here I dunno where he got the idea that American food is cheaper? No matter the metrics, that's glaringly wrong. A little amused by the fact you guys that you don't know how much of Chinese cuisine is hot enough to blow your molars out!! Just like Indian food. They keep it bland and boring for Westerners, so if you want "proper" Chinese or Indian food you have a word with the waitstaff.

That’s probably why most Brits hate tipping in the US as the service is so bad. Go away, stop asking question, Don’t be friendly. I’m not there to talk to you so f*** off. US is also get you in and out ASAP. In the UK we expect discreet service. Good service is to get us seated and with menus quickly and offer to take drinks orders. After that, take the food order once we have our drinks, starters out within about 15-20 minutes, table cleared shortly after we have finished, mains coming out together 5-10 minutes after starters with everything ordered. Then no hurry to get out.

It annoys me that if passive-aggressive waiters annoy you, and you tell them off, ^you're^ the villain.

Here in the uk we class good service in a completely different way. We want quick efficient service and then to be left alone to enjoy our meal and conversation. American service can sometimes feel to over the top and in your face.

Brits if you said silverware they would expect actual silverware and fine china plates on the table. Where as cutlery could be plastic or metal it doesn’t matter.

In the UK we differentiate in types or titles of eating places. We have eateries advertised as bar food places (eg pubs etc) , fast food places (eg McD etc), cafes or cafeterias, usually smaller independent places etc (offering simpler food and sandwiches) or restaurants which offer three or more courses. All of the places can offer ethnic meals and all usually offer doggy bags. It seems such an exaggeration and over inflated grandeur for Americans to call a cafe or Pizza Hut a restaurant.

In the US I find it so annoying the staff dont leave you alone.

Im not embarrassed to ask for a doggy bag but i recall it was much more common in the US, because the portions were used.

We went to a crab shack in San Francisco . OMG I have never been so embarrassed in my life! The staff suddenly started climbing on the tables and singing and dancing! I felt like crawling under the table and getting the f**k out of there! Also the breakfast menu. I am not a weight lifter so why would I want a 9 egg omelet with sausage, pancakes and grits! I ended up ordering from the children’s menu! The portion sizes are insane! You can literally get your whole days calories allowance at breakfast!

I went to Cuba for a holiday they expected to get a tip in all restaurants in fact when we landed I used the toilet and a Cuban lady stood at door with her hand out😂😂

I usually eat everything on the plate at a restaurant, but if I don't then I'd almost always just leave the rest and make the restaurant throw it in the bin. It's unlikely to be much and I normally wouldn't expect it to be particularly good the next day. I'd also be a bit worried about food safety, since it will generally take me a while to get home - and I might not be going straight home - so from the time the food was cooked to when I get home it will often have been unrefrigerated for well over two hours. But if it's a piece of cake or something like that that doesn't need refrigeration I might take it home.

My sister and niece recently visited New York. In one restaurant they were given a horrid table near the toilets, had to wait ages for the meal and the food was unpleasant. They paid the bill and left as quickly as possible, not leaving a tip. The owner/manager chased them down the street demanding in an aggressive, loud manner to know why they hadn't tipped. They explained that they had not enjoyed any aspect of the meal and felt a tip was not deserved. Two women upset and embarrassed at being shouted at in the street.

Here in the uk waiters are not your slaves. They do get decent wages but tipping is a bonus. And guess what!! Your not pestered through out your meal. When I went to America I wanted to say “ will you piss off and leave us alone to enjoy our meal” but I didn’t. She just got a small tip and she had a cheeck to ask for and English cigarette 🫤

What about the difference that you can take your 16 and 17 year old kids to a restaurant, sit down for a meal and ALL of you enjoy a nice pint of beer or a glass of wine! Yes you can drink in a restaurant at a table with a meal at 16 so long as it is beer, cider, wine etc (so not spirits). Technically only knives are CUTlery but we still use that term anyway. Serving staff still get at least minimum wage ie £12-13 per hour (not sure what it is now) so tips are an extra. Pudding is a term usually for a mixture of stuff cooked or often steamed as a mass like a sausage etc. Most of these were savory back in the day but a lot of them lost the meat and became sweet like a mince pie which did have meat in it at one time but is now just fruit. So this is why the sweet course was called pudding as a lot of sweets are puddings eg bread and butter pudding, Christmas pudding etc. We still have some of the savory ones which is why they are also puddings.

Staff do not rely on tips , in The UK . They are paid at least a minimum living wage . Tips are usually given , it the food and service. Have been exceptional . Most people do not tip . The staff also get paid holidays . Usually if they work full time, it is at least 28 days .

The clean plate is t true, it’s been such a long time since he’s been in UK. At a buffet your dirty plate is taken away and you collect your clean plate, so that’s crap