Charles Campion has written about food and restaurants for the London Evening Standard for over a decade, he has appeared on various foodie television programmes and written a number of cook books. He also writes Charles Campion's Guide to London Restaurants - supported by Tio Pepe and published by Profile Books, £8.99.
In France they have a simple system - "tout compris" - all service charges are included in the prices, it's against the law to load the bill with extra percentages for "optional service charge". In Britain we are not so lucky and the bill may well include various extras. The worst muddle centres on the "service charge": an accountancy loophole means that if the restaurant charges an "optional service charge", (and if part of it goes towards the staff wages), both the restaurant and the waiters find themselves a couple of percent better off with the tax man. Here are the key considerations,
A restaurant may only make a cover charge if they provide you with a "cover" - a clean tablecloth!
An "optional service charge" is optional!
You should make an enormous fuss whenever a credit card slip includes the service charge but is still left open to con you into adding more money for service. Look at the maths, your dinner is £100, plus 15% £115, then you add another 10% to the blank slip total £126.50 - you've just given an involuntary 26.5% service. The best way to approach this thorny problem is to delete the service charge from every credit card slip and leave a 10-15% cash tip.