I went to a Japanese restaurant in a tourist town last week and I ordered carry out sushi. (Please wait for details)?

I went to a Japanese restaurant in a tourist town last week and I ordered carry out sushi. (Please wait for details) I was charged $5.00 for gratuity and I carried out. I asked why the gratuity charge and the shift manager told me that this is how they pay the sushi chefs.

Come on, sushi is expensive enough. It cost me $32.00 for 12 pcs. Can they charge gratuity in this manner?

Is it legal? Asked by MorningDew 16 months ago Similar questions: Japanese restaurant tourist town week ordered carry sushi wait details Food & Drink > Restaurants.

Similar questions: Japanese restaurant tourist town week ordered carry sushi wait details.

It is legal; a lot of restaurants attach a mandatory gratuity, especially for large parties. (Large parties often tip badly, since a poor tipper can easily hide in the group, and anybody who decides to come up a little short comes out of the tip. )Itamaes (sushi chefs) are servers as well as food preparers, and are often paid largely in tips.

Take-out sushi often deprives the itamae of that income, so you can see a restaurant mandating that tap to make sure the chef is paid. $32 for a 12-piece sushi is a little on the pricey side, though it would depend on what you got. For your basic California roll + tuna, salmon, and haddock nigiri (a common platter), $15 isn't uncommon.

More obscure and interesting dishes (ebi, eel, more elaborate rolls like a dragon roll) $20-$25 is what I'd expect. It does go up from there, but frankly you don't get such things carry-out. So yes, I'd say you paid a fair bit more than was probably called for, but you did say it was a tourist town, and you pay the tourist trap premium.

Next time, find some locals and find out where they eat.

California roll, tuna, salmon, shrimp. But why are sushi chefs paid higher? I used to be a cook and we got nothing above our base pay.

We were always jealous of the servers. MorningDew 16 months ago .

Sushi chefs, like servers, appear in front of the customer. That means that they have to do a public-relations job as well as being skilled at their craft. A real itamae is doing some serious work crafting a meal to your liking, though the "chop up some fish and set it on a chunk of rice" isn't exactly what the Japanese had in mind.

If you get table service, rather than a sushi bar, you tip the waitress, but the waitress often has to tip out the itamae, as you would the bartender. This is all custom, mind you. In Europe, wait staff are paid on salary.

You can tip, but tips are generally small, often limited to the change. The US actually has exception in its minimum wage law allowing servers to get less base pay (though if their tips don't add up to the minimum wage the restaurant has to make up the difference). Dunno why; it's just custom.

Wait staff work pretty hard, and have to do it all with a smile. They can earn a pretty good wage for it, if they're in the right restaurant, but it's exhausting work. So, of course, is line cooking, and it's kind of interesting that bartenders and busboys get tipped out but the line cooks don't.

The reasons for that are historical; it's the way the custom evolved.

Yeah, but I did not see the sushi chef's out in the dining area. MorningDew 16 months ago .

Yes it is legal and it was probably posted on the menu. $5.00 would be about right. It normal to tip the sushi chef 5%, just because you had take out doesn't mean the sushi chef didn't give you service.

He still had to cut your sushi to order.

Danzee, I have always tipped the sushi chef. It is the same as tipping a bartender when going to a bar.

Yup. If it's posted either on the menu or someplace else around the register it's legal....

Thanks, sure wasn't noticeable. MorningDew 16 months ago .

Well, if I were you, I wouldn't go back to that place. As to your question, there's no laws regarding "gratuities," but I think you were fed a line. A gratuity or tip is left for the waiters and waitresses.

Sometimes they're shared among all the service people. But they're not shared with the chefs. And you certainly didn't receive any "service" since you ate out.It sounds like a way of fleecing you out of some extra bucks.

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