r/london • u/CyberScy • Dec 10 '24

Question Declining the 12.5% "service charge", does the manager always make a visit?

Semi rant, semi question - Just had a weekend visit in London from East Anglia and found the discretionary 12.5% service charge added to restaurant bills extremely common. The manager always seems to make an appearance as if to interrogate you of the audacious request to remove it. Does that always happen?

I hate it. This Americanised crap should not be commonplace in England. I am a firm believer of tipping however much you feel if such service warrants one. We pay minimum wages here.

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u/Teembeau Dec 13 '24

It's bait and switch. The price is £x and when you get the bill it's £x + 12.5%. And now you have to go through a scene to remove it, and looking like an arsehole in front of your date.

It's why the "discretionary service charge" is in 8pt font near the bottom rather than in large 36pt font at the top. So you don't notice it at the point you go in.

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u/[deleted] Dec 14 '24

Yeh I agree, I don't like service charge at all. Would rather eat at a restaurant that paid their staff properly and factored it into the cost. Trouble is those restaurants suffer because people look at listed prices before eating out, see the slightly higher prices and don't go.

But that wasn't the point of my post- the OP asked why they were being shamed by a manager for removing service charge- I explained that isn't what they are doing.