[Springs1]

Originally Posted by Dion

There's free stuff and there's people I would call pigs. Drink refills and extra bread etc are given out on the expectation that the customer won't abuse or take advantage of the offering. Asking for a coke to go and taking that bread home is being a pig about it and over the top.

No, it's not. It's being a *******SMART SHOPPER**********! If you want to let them take advantage of your tip money and money you are paying for the soft drinks or iced tea, go ahead, be my guest. I will get the MOST food and drinks for my money I am paying. Even if the bread is free, the service sure isn't and I count that in my tip. Same thing if I bring an extra ranch home, same thing. I am at most places(some places do charge, but it's not common), if I ask for a lot of condiments, I am tipping based on the extras(unless the service was bad). In a way, I am paying for it to my SERVER, not the restaurant.

Drink refills and extra bread etc are given out on the expectation that the customer won't abuse or take advantage of the offering.

No, if restaurants didn't want to give away items, they would be smart enough not to. Especially not bread. Applebee's doesn't have free bread for example. They are a smart business not giving away food for free. Now they have free refills of soft drinks and iced tea, but that's because of competition reasons most likely that 99.99999% of restaurants have free refills on those, therefore that's why, but not every restaurant serves free bread. Chili's doesn't serve free bread either for example.

If they expected that, they wouldn't offer it, plain and simple. Also, if a lot of people do this, they usually increase the prices, so unless you never go back in your lifetime, which most people do, you pay for it SOMEHOW, SOMEWAY in the higher prices. I mean really, you honestly think it's really free if you go back and the next time the prices are higher? That means they have increased the prices to give that free bread and loads of refills. It also cost for the to-go cup as well. Unless you never go back again to that restaurant, you are paying for it somehow in the price increases. Why not get what I am paying for? That's the way I feel. It makes no sense to miss out on a free whatever if that is something I want.

Asking for a coke to go and taking that bread home is being a pig about it and over the top.

No, as I said before, servers have *OFFERED* us soft drinks to go before. At a Ruby Tuesday which is out of town for us, we had maybe gone there maybe twice before ever and this third time, the waitress we had **OFFERED** us soft drinks to go. We left a couple of extra dollars for her for doing so in cash since we had already signed the credit card slip. WHY? Because most servers don't do that, because they are too lazy to do that. That was nice she did that. It made our experience happier and better. So in a *WAY* I PAID FOR IT THROUGH HER TIP, NOT THROUGH THE RESTAURANT.

We have had other servers offer us soft drinks to-go and I even had at Outback a waiter and a waitress 2 different times we dined there that they gave us a fresh new bread TO-GO as well as kept the half eaten bread we had. That waitress also gave me new fresh condiments rather than giving me containers to put the condiments in even. She got a good tip and so did he.

If restaurant managers didn't want this, WHY are servers OFFERING it to us, huh? I seriously doubt they got in trouble for it since there have been a number of servers doing it.

It's not being a "pig", it's being SMART to get all you can for your money, even if you aren't paying the restaurant for it like for the bread, you are paying for the service though.