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The free online dictionary defined gratuity as "a favor or gift, usually in the form of money, given in return for service." If it's required then it isn't a favor or a gift, it's a fee. So @mongoose is correct.

As for the article... A 18% gratuity on their $73.87 tab would have been $13.29, not the $16.35 they were charged so that's unfair to the customers. The article I first read about the incident mentioned that the group waited over an hour for salads and wings, that their waitress went out for a cigarette break instead of bringing their napkins/silverware/etc, and that they had to go to the bar to get their drinks because no one was around to wait on them.

Yes waitstaff deserve a break but leaving a group of people for an hour without any service is irresponsible. Not bringing your table the items they require like drinks or silverware or their food is irresponsible. The restaurant barely did what they were supposed to do. The customers should not be required to pay. I think they should have complained to a manager and pointed out the math error in the bill and explained why they were refusing to tip instead of just walking out.

I live in NYC and tip an amount that is double the tax (always rounding up to a whole dollar amount). Coins are tacky. Service jobs are hard, physical (and often emotional) work. I get genuinely nauseated when someone tips less than 15% for average to great service. At my favorite places, I have tipped 50%.

If you frequent a particular restaurant, tip well. It's worth every penny. Remember dining out is not just about feeding your face. It's an experience.

Don't try to justify your bad decorum. If you're too cheap to tip the recommended 18% pre-tax gratuity for decent service, for the love of gastronomy just go to supermarket and buy a frozen TV dinner.

I agree, honeycrisp. I definitely judge people based on their tips. I would kick a cheapskate date to the curb, and I avoid dining out with friends whose tipping is crappy, because I am filled with anxiety when the check arrives.

I hate the whole tipping custom. I would much rather pay one person (the restaurant owner) enough to cover the REAL cost of my meal AND the service. Instead, I have to pay both the restaurant owner (for the food and setting) as well as the server and whoever else gets a share, over which, please note, I as customer have no control, although how much I leave in addition to the price of the meal is supposedly a response to only the server's behavior. AND, I have to do the math, which I don't enjoy. Also, I hate the idea of having to give a free job performance review at the end of a meal (I hate doing that at work, too, but that's another story; at least I have gotten paid for it).

That said, I usually tip 20% if the service is average to good, maybe a bit less if it isn't, because those in the biz didn't set the rules and it's not fair to punish them for working under stupid conditions. But I still hate the whole darn thing. We are chumps to put up with it, but I don't know how to change it.

I tip well (18-20%) by and large - since I too have worked in service jobs and know how hard it can be.

However, I will leave a low tip (5% or so) or no tip for bad service (rude, slow, inattentive, errors), and I don't feel badly about it. If you chose to work a job where your tip is like your commission, you need to EARN it, find a new job, or quit whining about getting low tips. If you do a crappy job, you don't deserve a good tip. Plain and simple.

This wasn't a meal; it was a money laundering operation.

2 chunks of parmesan: $28
Not having to tolerate the company of the poor: priceless

Why is everyone mad. He added about $50,000 to the US's economy. Remember that he is from Russia and deals in rubles. Now his rubles have become dollars. Go USA!

@DCLSweetspot: Well, by that logic, why do we do a percentage for different dishes as well? It takes the same effort to bring out a plate that costs $20 as a plate that costs $8. We still do a percentage in those cases. Perhaps we should just give tips of a set fee rather than a variable percentage.

@sheba0915: a little strange that they didn't drink any vodka though.

I took my sweetie out for a lovely Thai meal on Sunday, no wine or beer and I had a diet cola. I didn't order appetizers because I was trying to keep the bill reasonable and it still came out to about $28 with tax and tip.

We each ordered combinations that included our dish of choise, veggie pad thai and steam rice. I was pretty satisfied!

@sanhedrin: It was a table full of Russians. Therefore, the amount of alcohol consumed was not particularly outrageous.

I don't see why there are so many people upset by this. Sure, we don't have money like this guy, so we can't indulge like he does; for that I am either jealous or envious, can't figure which one. I can't say I am disgusted by it though. It's his money, he could flush it down the toilet if he wanted, and essentially he just did, but again, it is his money. Everyone knows restaurants charge ridiculous mark-ups on alcohol, particularly wine and Nello's is no exception. Hell, I drink wine that is $5 a bottle from my local liquor store and have seen it on menus for $8 a glass!! Okay, I'm jealous and envious and it seems most of you are too.

Unfortunately, this makes me detest the rich even more than I did before.
I'm sure the alcohol was used as a 'lubricant' if this was a business meal. I guess if your are a Russian oligarch, then you don't seem to mind spending a year's salary (not mine!) on one little ol' luncheon. This just shows that the excess of the classes is still alive and well and living in the food industry as much as Wall Street.