Restaurant Tipping and Bill Splitting Calculator

Yes. Drinks and alcohol are standard restaurant services and should be tipped at the same 18% to 20% rate as food. Bartenders and servers must mix, pour, and deliver your drinks, which requires similar effort. If you are sitting only at the bar, tipping $1 to $2 per drink is acceptable, but for a full bar tab at a table, tip on the total subtotal.

A corkage fee is charged by a restaurant to open and serve a bottle of wine that you brought yourself. A cakeage fee is charged to cut and serve a cake brought from an outside bakery. Since these fees cover the physical service of opening, pouring, or plating by the staff, you should include these charges in your bill subtotal when calculating the tip.

Not necessarily. Legally, a 'service charge' belongs to the restaurant owner, who may choose to distribute it to the staff or use it to cover operational costs. A 'tip' belongs entirely to the server. If a bill includes an automatic service charge, check if it goes to the staff. If it does not, you should tip your server as normal, though you can ask the manager to clarify.

Alcohol can rapidly inflate a restaurant bill. Diners who did not drink should not have to pay for the wine or cocktails ordered by others. The fairest solution is to calculate a subtotal for the food and non-alcoholic drinks first, and split that evenly or itemize it. The cost of alcohol, along with its specific tax and tip, should then be paid exclusively by the people who drank.