Shout-out to the Fat Lady! Not all restaurants are schmucks.
Check out OP's Reddit name.
You don't gotta call it out.
And they properly excluded the sales tax from the tip calculation… woohoo!
A rarity, I might add!!
Honestly, so rare these days that it is to be applauded
Nah, they're just using Toast, which means the cost of that is passed on to the customer.
All costs are passed on to the customer, it's not a charity.
People complaining about $55 prime rib at the Fat Lady can easily go to google maps and check 2023 prices.
TLDR: in Feb 2023, it was $54. The Fat Lady never was a cheap place. And no, they didn't incorporate fees into the price. That was the price all along, without any bullshit fees to make an impression of lower prices.
What about in 2019?
Great restaurant — in more ways than one!
Absolutely amazing place and vibe. Some of my favorite nights out started at the Fat Lady
Sales tax is 10.25% in Oakland?
Yes.
So this has government imposed hidden fees?
Yes but that one we'll never get rid of.
How is sales tax "hidden"? It's a standard number across every store in the county.
It's published everywhere.
Depends… we may vote out those who impose those “hidden fees” on us … one day.
Hidden fees? You mean the total that's listed under tax? Do you call that hidden?
The original “hidden fees” was a 6 to 18 % “livable wage” on the bill not listed in the menu.
So are you informed in the menu on the taxes before you order? If yes are not hidden if no are hidden. This is especially annoying because the taxes are not the same in the same county, in the same state, in the nation. How fucking difficult is it to put what I will pay on the menu ? They do it all around the world only here you get the surprise tax when you pay.
if you don't understand that government taxes are added to almost all purchases.. not just restaurants..you have a problem
Say you haven’t actually traveled much without saying it, lol. There are plenty of other countries which add tax at the end, including Japan and South Korea.
That’s not a hidden fee. People learn about paying tax as children.
You Idiot: re-read my comment. I did NOT say “not add the tax at the end” I said “Inform on tax percentage that will be added”. And that is specifically for the example I wrote where taxes differ between cities, counties, states.
Japan VAT tax is 10%, Tokyo or Kagoshima.
San Jose VAT tax is different than Oakland, and so on.
We don’t have VAT. 🤡
And why would I listen to someone who says “VAT tax”? That’s a redundant statement dumbo
Those prices aren’t too bad.
I mean, this is all we asked for. These aren’t cheap prices, but can be done as a splurge. And these prices are high enough with a tip to give the wait staff a living wage.
I’m not having much sympathy for the restaurants whining about hidden fees. Just give us the menu prices and we’ll decide.
I don’t want to tip though since the menu prices are so high
That means the restaurant is out of your budget and you shouldn’t go there
that means that the restaurant is too expensive for you. go someplace cheaper
In and Out has very fair prices and tastes good. You gotta work within your budget.
Then you can’t afford to eat there.
Do you think the high cost of the meal is all profit?
Actually, no. It actually generates additional profit due to value add. So when the meal is $215, the restaurant makes $300, and the wait staff makes $200 from the 15% tip. It’s a money glitch the government doesn’t want you to know about. The government hates this one trick. Life hack!
We need a website for hidden-fee less businesses
But the fees are actually hidden here. As opposed to itemized.
If I have decent service at a restaurant I'm giving 20% more than my bill.
I don't care how it's distributed. $100 check with a 20% service fee? No tip. 10% service fee? $10 tip. No service fee? $20 tip.
Super simple. Sure it takes me a minute to look over the check before I write it out, but whatever, it's fine. It's not my problem to figure out how that 20% goes to whoever or whatever it goes to. I'm not in the restaurant business.
I'm adding 20% to my bill and THEY can figure out where it goes. It can go to healthcare, the dishwasher, the bartender, paying for the owner's cell phone, or the price of crab. It's not my problem nor is it my knowledge. They get 20% extra and that's it.
In the "tip" box, I just put the leftover $$ in there, circle it, and draw an arrow to the service fee so they know what I'm doing, and why.
We should start a subreddit. Bay Area hidden fees
I could never pay for a 215$ dinner fuck I’m poor 🤣
I could at one time. But never did. But now? Forget about it. I'm glad there are some people in CA who can still afford it. I'm just not one of them.
Love that place!
Just take the surcharge (SF mandate) out of the tip :)
I added it to www.seefees.ca thanks!
This website needs context for the fees. For example, Liholiho Yacht Club is 20% but tip free. Which is very different from say Quince, which is 20% as well, but also includes tipping
Can you explain more/link to your source about Liho? I am trying to avoid interpreting what each restaurant says their fee is for or trying to describe the level expectation of additional tip etc.
Source: The menu says 20% in place of gratuity.
Have a photo? Their online menu doesn't say anything about 20% service charge but does mention 6% fee
I've never heard of this place, but it looks really good.
What is the vibe like? It kinda feels like a fancy-ish date night kinda place.
Dark, lots of wood, kind of an old school pub vibe. Good food and drinks.
It’s kinda old school, funky cool. Date night but kitschy.
Is it still a good time with good food?
Went there for my 6th anniversary with my GF, amazing restaurant, got there a tad bit late after our date and we stayed till closing and they were chill as fuckk about it.
One Chinese restaurant hid a huge tip they added, seeing that we were already going to tip cash. So they were looking for a double. I absolutely know they were doing it because most people don’t sit and add the whole cost of everything.
Suggested tip starting at 18%… I remember they used to be 10%
Honestly this place was worth the cost, especially with the high cost of food and labor! I stopped going there because I don’t want my car window broken for the hell of it!
Sure but I'm pretty sure theres some sorcery with how the tips show 25% first and gets lower. And when did 25% become acceptable? Cmon 20% max for dinners, and 15% max for lunch.
In almost every restaurant, it's in incremental order 15%, 18% and 20%.
golden
God damn it’s expensive to eat out these days…
Technically, they hid a $0.01 fee in the sales tax, but I think that's acceptable!
A restaurant used to be a place where you went to eat for a reasonable price. Now it seems to cost 10x compared to eating at home.
spends $8 on garlic bread and worries about fees.
okay.
Sometimes it’s the principle, not that you can’t afford something.
$195 pre-tax "ballooned" to $250+ with tax and gratitude.
Tipping and tax are nothing new.
So I just read that there's a new bill to exempt restaurants from the hidden fees bill that goes into effect on the first.
Newsom still has to sign the exemption. Hope he doesn't, but I'm not holding my breath.
He owns restaurants, doesn't he? So yeah, he'll probably sign it.
Yeah, he does. That's why I'm not holding my breath lol
can't believe we're praising a restaurant that starts tipping at 18%, historically that range was more 10%-15%.
I had the foresight to be poor before you guys and sounded the alarm years ago, now the chickens has come home to roost.
the 'sf mandate' fee is an sf thing, not bay area wide thing.
They just call it a healthcare fee, cost of living fee, inflation fee, etc in other places.
I moved from sunnyvale... I did not see such extra fees in the south bay
Here's an incomplete list of places that have junk fees in the South Bay. This is everywhere in California and may have infected other states as well.
I went to tipsy putt putt and don't recall junk fees
Just got a 4% “healthy Oakland” fee at brunch moments ago. It happens.
only if you let it
Exactly. Some people have the misconception that the SF Mandate is for the whole Bay Area, or that it’s a living wage. It’s not, it’s just healthcare funds for SF service workers in restaurants of a particular size.
Isn’t it the exact opposite? Aren’t the once-visible itemized fees now just…uh…hidden in all the food prices now, lol? 😂
You don’t think they removed the fees do you?
Also, now you’re tipping on the hidden fees embedded into the food prices. When it was itemized, you could actually see the price of food and just tip on that.
But it’s clear up front and not a surprise. If the menu prices are too high you can go somewhere cheaper.
I 100% agree that the menu prices should include every fee. If I see Ribeye Steak: $57.00, I want that price to reflect SF Mandate, service fees, even tax. That way, as you said, I know what my cost is. ✅
What I don’t like is a bill that hides the fees. That’s a reduction of transparency. Not a reduction of fees. I like my bills itemized to show the food sales price separate from the other fees. This way, I’m tipping on the food price, not tipping city + county tax, or any restaurant service fees, corkage, etc.
Receipts can stay the same as they’ve been for all I care. That works just fine for me. This whole debate over transparency should be over the menu, not the receipt. It’s stupid.
These people gleefully posting receipts with all the fees now hidden completely lost the plot.
Food margins average are around 32% food 32% labor and 32% overhead (rent, electricity, water, waste, trash, internet, phone, tv, cc processing, point of sales, repairs, decor, landscaping, etc.) And 4% profit.
Steak is a loss leader and usually higher cost, sometimes close to 50% while your potatoes sell for 18%.
So $57 steak might be bought wholesale at $22 with $2 worth of sides and sauces and disposables and $15 pays the Butcher, the prep, the cooks, the host, the server, the busser, the disherwasher, the cleaner, the bookkeeper and the gm. Then $15 for the building day to day and $3 profit.
No one wants to see that unless it's your job.
See how easy it is to just charge up the ass instead of sneaking in fees.