It's simple, if a restaurant adds something to the bill I did not agree to beforehand I'll never eat there again.

The service charge is not a tip or gratuity, and is an added fee controlled by the restaurant that helps subsidize the staff wages so that management doesn't have to while still seeming to have reasonable prices on the menu. Also, management takes a cut as it subsidizes their wages too.

Edit: I get why this upsets some people, but the downvote button is not a disagree button. I merely restated the restaurant's explanation in plain language. I'm not agreeing with it...

Paying for servers based off of the price of the food just doesn’t make sense to me. If I order a super expensive caviar and super expensive bottle of wine the staff would be paid more than another server with large party that only orders inexpensive drinks. The second server would be paid less for doing more work.

I think they should just be paid a decent wage for doing their job well despite what the customer decided to order.

On a side note if the server has to do something like prepare a salad table side or flambé a dessert they should get a bonus for doing that.

18% service charge and then still ask for tips? Fuck all of this, this is a scam and refuse to pay this shit.

Why have a service fee at all then?

Just raise the prices and use the extra income to pay the employees better if that's really your intention.

People won't get upset about the tip on top of it if you don't already have a "service charge" sectioned off in the receipt.

If the service charge is so they can pay the employees better, I guess they don't need a tip on top of that unless they went above and beyond their basic duties. Like what a tip should be for

Possibly illegal, depending on your local laws.

If it is legal, contact your congressman (local, state, national) because it sure as hell needs to be illegal.

Basically, they just raised their prices by 18% and blamed it on the greedy, useless employees. I don't know why businesses bother selflessly "creating jobs" if they are so much trouble. Shouldn't those be the first things to cut to make their business more efficient under capitalism? Stop doing charity work and run the business yourself.

I would simply not go to that restaurant anymore and very plainly let them know why. This is greed and I will not reward it.

Much like when I place a to go order and go pick up the order and the POS (point of sale not piece of shit if you’re wondering) system pops up that tip screen. You didn’t do anything worthy of a tip so I will not be tipping you. Now if for example when I get there they apply some discount I wasn’t aware of that makes my bill cheaper, I’ll tip for that. Throw in some extra cheese sauce, tip. Anything above and beyond, tip. Just ring me up and hand me my food, yeah no tip.

Oh boy, the unlawfulness of USA. This would be clearly illegal in EU, as misleading pricing.
Even if stated there's an 18% extra fee, I'm pretty sure it would be illegal to state prices exclusively without it.
I would simply refuse to pay that fee if it was here, and report them to authorities.

Increase the price of everything and pay a life supporting amount of money per hour of work. No tipping, no more service charge.

This service charge is literally the same but blaming the employees.

I don't return to restaurants that pull this bullshit. Raise your menu prices to provide a living wage or take a hit to your profits.

Are restaurants just poorly managed, or is there another reason why they can't pay their employees a living wage when their markup is like 400-1000%?

$16.25 for a kids size pasta dish?

Straight up fees like that should not be legal, if they even are in that location.

They should instead just add 18% to every menu item since it applies to everything anyways.

As it is right now advertising their cannoli for $11.00 is a straight up lie since it's really $12.98. They simply don't because they want to hide the actual cost and make their menu appear to be cheaper so you cant walk out until after you've ordered and eaten.

Also if got a bill with an 18% service charge I would definitely not tip, since tips are supposed to adjust for the low wages anyways.

I actually support phasing tips out for service fees, less dodgy and less influenced by cognitive biases from customers toward certain genders or ethnicities of staff.

These prices are crazy. Lemonade costs as much as a beer. Drip coffee for $5. One cookie for $4. Over $15 for a kid's plate. Geeze.

Kids shells are $16 each? Fuck this place.

Add to the fact all the food in the restaurant is much higher in caloric intake, sodium and sugar than any meal you could prepare at home. You get to have some wonderful heart disease with a side of stress. Hardly worth going out to restaurants anymore.

The real crime here is $125 for bread and pasta..

Ok where is this so we can avoid it?

$18.25 for a kids meal, $6 for lemonade is ridiculous. Don't walk, run away!

It does seem tipping is American culture? Never heard this accross SEA and China. Who in the world would put suggested tip in the bill?