So we visited our favorite Italian restaurant, the portions are huge and we either split an entree or each eat 1/3 to 1/2 an entree and take the rest home. This time we decided to split one as we were going somewhere else afterwards and didn't want to leave the left overs in the car for a few hours.

When the bill arrived there was a $3.50 "split fee" on the bill. They didn't even split the meal, the brought it on a single plate and didn't even bring an extra plate for me, I ended up eating off a bread plate.

We ordered a $13 entree, one beverage (the wife drinks water) and a dessert, the bill came to $23, which I think is about right for a mediocre family restaurant. I decided not to leave a tip as the $3.50 "split fee" would have to do.

Is this the new norm in the USA? Has anyone else experienced this? I doubt we will ever return, we've been going to this place since it opened and feel they are just getting unreasonable. So if I dine alone am I going to be charged a "singles fee"? Did it really make that much of a difference that another person was sitting there and we shared an entree? Am I being unreasonable?

I live in a country where tipping is not the norm. Our waitstaff have to be paid minimum wage($13.50) per hour so service is part of what we pay for when we pay the price of the meal. It certainly makes situations like this much simpler!

I think that you should have been advised that there was a split meal charge. Here, that would need to be listed on the menu, like corkage is. Also, they should have given you an additional plate. Both of these were the responsibility of your wait staff. And they did neither. Therefore I don't see that they "earned" the tip.

I would not go back. That is generally how my husband and I respond to poor service.

Split fees are pretty common in restaurants near me. Seems they look at every way they can to squeeze more $$ out of you.

I don't mind paying a split charge, but for that they should split it and make sure that the presentation is appetizing.

Tipping is discretionary. I am not concerned with how the waiter is taxed. If a waiter is taxed with the assumption of 10% tips, and isn't making 10% tips, that should tell him that he is not a very good waiter and perhaps he should find another line of work. I am not good at sales, so I am not going to pursue a career in sales, that would be crazy.

I am not trying to be mean, it is just reality. It is not right to tip for bad service and that people expect it these days is ridiculous.

Ok, I'm in the south and have never heard of a split fee. The wait staff should have informed you of the fee, and you should have been served accordingly, plates and utensils. The service didn't warrant a tip in my opinion. I was a waitress from the age of 17-21. That's how I paid my bills. People may not have always been happy with the food, or management, or new menu, but the service is what kept them returning!

Ask the manager to remove it. If they don't inform you of the fee ahead of time, don't pay it. What are they going to do, call the cops?

Many restaurant managers will cave on fees like that anyway. If they don't, write a Yelp review. Create a free blog and write a scathing review. Write a letter to the BBB. Write to the Attorney General. Copy the local newspapers and TV stations.

If more people put a couple of hours worth of effort into writing decent complaint letters and online reviews, the restaurants and other businesses wouldn't try and pull this **** all the time.

The last time I wrote complaint letters I got my money back and coupons for free stuff. It works, and it is more proactive and productive than just not going back or screwing the server out of a tip to compensate, which doesn't punish the business at all.

I refuse to ever return to Red Lobster because of a similar experience not long after surgery. My son (whose meal I was buying) wanted Red Lobster, so we went. The only thing on the menu that looked remotely good was the lobster mashed potatoes. It's a huge serving of mashed taters with 3 or 4 chunks of lobster and a little sauce on top. I ate mostly the lobster and a bite or two of the potato. On the menu, it was listed at $3.99, which I thought was high for a single side dish, but I was perfectly willing to pay it while my son ate his humongo meal. On the bill, that side dish cost me $6.50. Apparently, ordering it by itself rased the price over $2.50! I haven't been back, nor have I footed the bill for anyone else to eat there either.

Gee, that was not my experience at Red Lobster at all. We went there, and got one of their meals that had 2 things,(salmon and shrimp) and told the waitress we wanted to split it. She split all the food, and the salad, each on our own plate. She brought it to us that way. There was no split charge at all.

I don't think the slit fee was the reason for no tip here. His food was brought to him by someone different that who took the order. They were ignored, and had bad service. Who would he be tipping? The person who took his order, or the one who brought the food without an extra plate? I wouldn't go back there either, unless it was fabulous food that I would really miss.

If that were the case, I would have complained.

Ask the manager to remove it. If they don't inform you of the fee ahead of time, don't pay it. What are they going to do, call the cops?

Many restaurant managers will cave on fees like that anyway. If they don't, write a Yelp review. Create a free blog and write a scathing review. Write a letter to the BBB. Write to the Attorney General. Copy the local newspapers and TV stations.

If more people put a couple of hours worth of effort into writing decent complaint letters and online reviews, the restaurants and other businesses wouldn't try and pull this **** all the time.

The last time I wrote complaint letters I got my money back and coupons for free stuff. It works, and it is more proactive and productive than just not going back or screwing the server out of a tip to compensate, which doesn't punish the business at all.

I am a writer (and reader) of online reviews, but I would not rush home to write up a restaurant over the split plate charge. I would do so for the piss-poor service though. However, this was a restaurant that the OP previously enjoyed, so is this an isolated experience? I just wrote a negative review on Yelp for a service, and the company is definitely monitoring Yelp. I received a message through Yelp to contact them about the bad experience. I don't feel that I need to contact them, my experience already happened, and I shared it. I love online reviews!

I have seen the split plates charge on menus before. We don't know it wasn't on the menu in this case. It is often listed separately from the Entrees or in small print. I would pay it and move on rather than make a scene and get my blood pressure up.

Tipping is discretionary. If the server gave poor service, then the server was not screwed out of a tip. The tip was not earned. The server should have made sure the diners had everything they needed. This didn't happen. Unhappy diners should not leave tips.

As a side note, I don't have a problem with split charges if they are posted on the menu. We can also ask while ordering if there is a split charge if we are adamantly opposed to such things.

I am a writer (and reader) of online reviews, but I would not rush home to write up a restaurant over the split plate charge. I would do so for the piss-poor service though. However, this was a restaurant that the OP previously enjoyed, so is this an isolated experience? I just wrote a negative review on Yelp for a service, and the company is definitely monitoring Yelp. I received a message through Yelp to contact them about the bad experience. I don't feel that I need to contact them, my experience already happened, and I shared it. I love online reviews!

You wouldn't, I would. Isn't America great?

I went to a local Italian restaurant last week for my grandmas birthday and noticed on their menu that they had a split fee, I never heard of one before and figured it was just that place but I guess not!

I live in Texas, and this is the first I have ever heard of a "split fee". I don't blame you for being annoyed - it's rude and I agree with other posters that it's just another way of being greedy.

If I see a "split fee" I would expect that the meal portion be plated perfectly on 2 plates and served to us that way. Basically you're paying to have the same meal put nicely on 2 plates. However they didn't even do that. I would inform the manager how insulting it was and that you would never go back... because that would be my last visit to their establishment.

HEY JUST ATE AT BENJIS IN HOUSTON AND THEY HAVE THE $3.50 SPLIT FEE ON THE MENU!! I DID NOT ORDER AT ALL....JUST WATER AND A FEW BITES OFF OF MY SONS PLATES...THIS IS SO WRONG!!

Why is it so wrong? You are occupying space where a paying customer could be sitting using the waiters service, enjoying their decor & climate control. If the plate is split, they have to clean your dishes. I think it's wrong to expect a business to provide these things & not compensate them.

I have no issue with a split fee IF they split the meal in the kitchen, it's served with appropriate sides (split) and garnish, etc. That's totally fair as the dishes do need to be washed and they do use product.

I also LOVE restaurants that allow you to bring your own wine and always expect a corkage charge. We have a pretty large cellar and I don't expect a merchant to have the same taste in wine as me, nor do I expect that they can carry a large inventory of "special" wines unless they're a pretty high end wine restaurant. If I'm not buying wine from them, they do deserve some money against that loss.