> On 2007-01-07 15:54:37 -0800, HGL cox.net> said:
>

>> When we eat at the sushi bar, a waitress takes our order, the chef
>> hands us
>> the sushi, the waitress brings the soup, salad,sake, etc. Who should be
>> tipped? Is this the domain of the sushi chef, should the entire tip be
>> placed in the glass jar? Or is the waitress entitled to some or all of
>> the
>> tip?

>
> Echo'ing Kramer's viewpoint, though I wouldn't walk if I saw a tip-jar
> in a sushi-bar (I'm too hungry to bail now). I would lower the
> expectations of anything past "sufficient" and be sure to order the most
> frequently stocked fish, smelling each as I go along
>
> This is just my personal experience but a visable tip jar means a low
> quality joint. This can easily be compounded by other aspects which I
> won't go into here.
>
> The tipping goes to the waitress and is added to the tab. The crew has
> a way of dividing all this in whatever way they consider appropriate.
> Just like the generally accepted protocol in many bona-fide sushi bars
> that you order drinks and cooked foods from the waitress and sushi from
> the itamae. Of course if you know the place well and you also know that
> the sushi-chef does much of the cooking and so forth, you do whatever is
> right.
>
> Never put money on the counter, never put money in the chef's hand,
> never proffer your hand to shake the chef's hand. All for the same
> reason: he's using those hands for food preparation. Additionally there
> is a protocal about money and the Japanese, it's generally considered
> low and vulgar to hand out money that way. It would be the same thing at
> a nice French restaurant or any other such place, you don't just pull
> out a roll, peel off a twenty and say, "Lookee here, Pierre, this a
> little somethin' for your childurn." It's just kind a low.
>
> Along those lines I've found a curioisity in my Korean restaurant
> marathon in Garden Grove. They always bring the tab and put it down in
> front of my wife and thank her. NEVER in front of me. In one place
> there was a woman who spoke exceptional English (her new restaurant) and
> we chatted with her endlessly. When she brought the tab she started to
> hand it to Nancy, hesitated and then put it in front of me. I put the
> brakes on and asked her what was up with that. When forced, she
> explained that the perception was that the low aspects of handling money
> was the kind of thing the woman would be expected to do. A man couldn't
> be bothered with such trivial matters. Interesting. Though there have
> been some exceptions, almost all of the Korean (non-bbq) places have
> been staffed exclusively with women too, by the way.

><:> Buddy