edawerd

I always seem to have this conversation with friends at the end of a meal at a restaurant. Is 18% excessive? Only in America (I believe) is the expected tip so high. I recently got back from Japan, where I left a 15% tip at a restaurant there. The waiter *chased* me down the street to return my tip to me. I told him that I left the money there on purpose as a tip. He was so grateful! Waiters in America, on the other hand, would scoff at a tip less than 15%. I can't help but to think that waiters in America are a bit, how do you say, spoiled when it comes to tipping. What do you guys think?

Thanks for the response! Hmm... judging from the traffic to my site, it doesn't seem that too many people are interested in an online journal about food. Eddie

Hi Everyone, I've noticed a proliferation of food websites in addition to eGullet, like chowhound, yelp, or citysearch, where people can write and talk about food. I'm curious, do any of you actually keep some sort of journal or record everytime to go out to eat at a restaurant? Heres the reason why I ask: I started working on this website, MyGrub.net, and I'm trying to get a feel of if there even would be interest in something like this. I'd appreciate your opinions!

Well I heard that the saying "Google 15" was made up because employees gain 15 pounds their first year at work. I totally would pig out!

Has anyone been fortunate enough to be eat at the Google Cafe. I ate there recently and I was really surprised at how good it was. Anytime you have to feed thousands of people in short periods of time, quality tends to suffer. But Google seems to be the exception. I ate at the No Name Cafe, which served a variety of gourmet foods. I had stuffed quail and scallops glazed with some really good sauce. Imagine that! It was completely free too! They also have this Cafe 151 or something, where all the food there is grown locally within 151 miles of the Google campus. I would really like to hear other peoples' Google stories!