Restaurants - Tip #5 Don't give the HOOK

This is a tip for all of you to ensure that the waiter will NOT spit in your food or put pepper in your drink.

I understand that sometimes waiters, especially when it gets very busy, aren't around enough. The bad one's just don't know how to multi task and man that sucks when you are waiting for your drink or to pay your check.

So, before you go waving to your waiter from across the room, or giving the hook (the one finger giving the 'come here' motion), think about how long its been since your waiter was near by. Also, think about how often they came around in the past.

Sometimes you need to get their attention and I get that, but sometimes, they are around all the time checking in quietly, scanning the table making sure everything is good and is present just in case you turn to look for him. So remember that just because at that very moment you decide you need your waiter, the other 5 tables may be taking attention away, but a good waiter will check to make sure his section is secure before leaving.

If he doesn't do that, then please, feel free to wave to him from across the room because chances are he really did forget about you.

Restaurants - Tip #4 Tell em how you feel

This one goes out to all my waiter friends out there.

Tip #4 - Don't Lie

I'm giving a shout out to my good friend Katie who talked to me about all the annoying things that you have to go through when you are a waiter. We shared tons of stories, but one of the things I loved, that I never had the balls to do, was to tell my tables the truth!

What a concept right! When you are having a bad day, tell them. The worst thing you can do is have a totally off day, forget things left and right and have your tables treat you horribly, complain to your manager and worse of all, leave a really crappy tip. All because you are having an off night. They happen to everyone, and they even happen to people who have 9-5 jobs. But their waiter isn't there to breath down their backs.

So, when you have an off night, just say, listen, I'm not on my game, and it's been kind of a rough day. So if you think I forgot something, I probably did, so just remind me and I'll make sure to help you out. They laugh, you laugh and everyone is happy in the end.

Happy waiting!

Restaurants - Tip #2 Tipping

Here's a story for you. I was working in this mid town restaurant in NYC. For those of you who don't know, when you work in mid town you will be dealing primarily with tourists. So this post.....for you. Anyway, I had this very lovely table with some business associates from London out to dinner. They sat for a few hours, relaxed, enjoyed their meal and drank quite a bit. At the end of the meal, I handed them the tab. When I came to pick everything up, (btw, I created an amazing atmosphere for this table) I look and saw that they had rounded up to the nearest dollar. That was my tip. That was how they thought I was going to pay my bills. By giving me that $.20 that made it easier for them to balance their checkbook. That's what I got for spending over 2 hours of my time making sure they were happy.

Tip #2 - In the United States, you need to tip.

A minimum of 20% is now the norm. 15% is considered an insult. Do not round up because here in the U.S. waiters live on tips. They get paid way below minimum wage (I got about $2.15 per hour). The reason for that was to cover any taxes, however it doesn't cover nearly enough so even though I always got a paycheck with $0, I still needed to pay TONS of money during tax time.

So please, all of you coming from another country where your waiters actually get minimum wage or a bit higher, we don't do that here. Please note - WE LIVE ON TIPS!

For those of you coming from another part of the country, 20% is the minimum. 15% is an insult, and when your waiter sees you bringing out your cell phone or handy little 'tip card' like the one seen above, just know that they wish they would have spit in your food.

Here's a tip on how to tip. Round up and Double it, for example, lets say your tab is $16.75. I'd take the 1, round it up to 2 and double it, leaving a $4 tip. Here's another one, your tab is $54.32. I would leave a $10 tip (take the 5, no need to round up, and double it). Here's a tricky one, your tab is $6.50. Well you aren't going to leave a $12 tip, instead, I would always leave a minimum of $2. Okay, let's go to a 5 star restaurant. Your tab is $250. Any guesses? You got it, leave $50. And for those of you who don't tip on bottles of wine....shame on you.

Happy tipping!!