[piva00]

What I really dislike about the American model of tipping is exactly that: it's basically mandatory. If you don't tip (or tip below the "socially acceptable" for a good service) you are the asshole. Not only that, it's deceiving, I had to always do mental arithmetic to figure out how much things really cost in the end, or be side-eyed by service people when I didn't know better.

And I'm not even including the perverse incentives of constant bajulation of the customer, the fake happiness and cheery attitude ground me quite a bit after the third or fourth restaurant...

I don't need that, I need a menu, someone who can see when I want to order, bring my food and drinks and let me be and enjoy my meal. The constant pestering by waiters if I wanted something else, if I was ready for this or that, it just made me feel like part of some machine to extract as much revenue as possible in the least time.

I ate in quite a few places in the US, from street food vendors to high-end restaurants and I have to say I barely enjoyed most of the experiences, it's just too much.