Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

So I didn't see the last post, and I haven't read all the comments, but it's a topic that depends on the situation, imo. If it was a large group of people, I would ask again, because that does eat up a lot of one waitress's time. I dined at a nice little place with a friend a few months back, and it was my second time there (pretty sure the waiters recognized me). I had tipped well the first time, as it was a great experience, and the second time, my friend and I completely miscalculated the tip. My waiter came back around and asked us if everything was ok. It was a bit awkward, but I'm glad he did ask, because he deserved more than the $3 we had somehow managed to leave.

I have tears in my eyes. I miss my hometown so much, and posts like this are the reason why.
Someone send me a pie!!!

That thing looks awesome.

Also, is it just me, or has Slice been posting reviews fewer and farther between lately?

It pains me to say this b/c I grew up on Umberto's. Pizza is not the reason to go. Their rice balls and pizzettas are bar none the best. Say hi to Ralph and Paul when you go and get the best arancini you'll ever have but if you want a slice of sicilian you have to go to Armando's.

Actually, it looks like something you might buy at Sbarros. Or get in the cafeteria at work.

I'm sure it's a lot better than that, but that's what it looks like.

Yay cstone!! Ditto to that comment. I would mention I'm an ernesto's fan in the NE too.

no disrespect to the bean, but this is the first thing i have seen that makes me want to visit Boston reeeeallly badly

About 10 years ago, I worked just down Hanover Street from this place. We were a poor, threadbare nonprofit organization run by poor, threadbare 20-somethings. Galleria Umberto was a 3-day-a-week lunch stop for most of us because it was close, quick, and cheap.

Never knew its name, though. We always referred to that great little hole in the wall as Greasy Pizza. *That* was its (affectionate) name to us.

A slice of cheese pizza on a paper plate, along with a bottled lime rickey, would run under $3, if I remember correctly. You had to hurry back down the street to the office, though, because if you didn't, the paper plate would get positively soaked and would disintegrate from all the lovely, lovely pizza grease, and your precious slice would end up on the Hanover Street sidewalk with so much other Freedom Trail detritus.

As I've said here before, tnere are only two places I need to go to in Beantown and they are both on Hanover Street. Umberto's snd The Daily Catch, the best Sicilian seafood I've ever had (and I've had some in Sicily). And yes, let's make it a trifecta and throw Mike's in there for some of their Sfogliatelle (or however you spell it). My son has a friend who's playing in the Cape Cod League. This post just spurred a road trip. Thanks.

Ciao,

Paulie Gee

Tip is left for service which means full-service, as opposed to self-service, right? Even if the server is not what you want or expect, if he/she walked back and forth so you can just sit at your table, shouldn't the server get the minimum 15% unless there are mistakes on the server's part (not the kitchen's)? We expect so much from servers at restaurants, yet accept lousy service everywhere else.

WOW, I feel seriously misinformed. Although, I always tip good, even when I shouldn't, this is what I thought happened in most restaurants. I thought everyone got minimum wage. I thought all the tips were collected and split between all the staff ie; dishwasher, cook etc. I never thought this was good because, a good server deserves more than a bad server, and this spliting up the tips, to me, didn't seem condusive to make a better server out of some of them. Where did I get this idea? Also, do you as a server have to claim tips, and pay taxes on them? This doesn't seem fair to me either, if it's true. I would love some real answers to these myths.

I find this whole debate rather interesting. I do not think that the tip should be added in to the bill. Traditionally a tip is something extra that is given for good service. Unfortunately too often, it is expected, there is a sense of entitlement to the tip. As a former server, I was initially trained on how to serve properly. It always amazes me when a server never returns to see who the meal was? There are some servers who will only return larger bills instead of breaking down the change. Give and you shall receive. If your performance is outstanding you will be rewarded as such. However I firmly believe that tipping for bad service is akin to rewarding for bad behavior.

Tipping is never optional. A 10% tip is mandated by federal law:
http://bit.ly/C7xKC