How much should I tip in restaurants?
Posted in Thailand
ReindeerF offered the following advice on Jan 20, 2008:
I’ve spent enough time here now and have enough Thai friends that I’ve started to figure this out, but I don’t claim to really understand it yet. I also still ignore it on purpose.
Don’t tip at food stalls. At short order restaurants it’s ok to leave the change, but leaving more seems kind of weird to Thai people. If there’s someone that comes back repeatedly like a real waiter and the place seems like a decent sit down restaurant, tip normally - though Thais tell me about 10% is right. As an American I always tipped 20% even at quickie food stands, but I’ve actually had restaurant owners chase me down and give back the money thinking I lost it, so I had to adjust my behaviour. Other nationalities will have less of a problem getting a handle on tipping. In super touristy areas, though, tips may have become expected, so you may want to tip more like normal.
The Thai thing is that if you feel like you got good service then you tip whatever the change is on your bill and if you think you got great service then you tip more. Most of the time, in my experience, this translates to Thai people leaving like 7-12 baht on the change tray, but I’ve seen them break out 20 baht or whatever. If you want to play it safe, tip around 10 baht on small stuff and you’ll be seen as generous but not stupid. 20 baht is decently generous. Anything over that, in my experience, and your Thai friends would start giving you the eyeball and saying TOO MUCH.
Pompous Rhombus offered the following advice Jan 20, 2008:
For tipping at a restaurant, I generally leave the coins behind on anything more than 200 THB, maybe a 20 THB note or two if it’s over 300 or 400 THB. It’s not so much a tip for the waiter/waitress as it is you showing that you don’t need the money.
Spog, Sep 05, 2006 15:08
For restaurants - leave the coins. Maybe 20baht on a meal if service is not charged extra. Tipping is not customary beyond that point.
