Texas Roadhouse diners are gearing up for a potential tipping controversy that’s brewing at the popular steakhouse chain.
The beloved restaurant may find itself in hot water with patrons who are raising concerns about what they perceive as inflated tipping prompts on their bills.
Following the trend seen across many eateries, Texas Roadhouse prompts customers to select a tip amount after receiving their check, whether it’s presented digitally or on paper.
One customer recounted their experience, noting that the tipping screen offered options of 15, 18, 20, or 25 percent gratuity on their $80 meal.
While the percentage options themselves aren’t particularly surprising—given that diners have become accustomed to being asked for a 20 percent tip at restaurants, bars, and even coffee shops—the surprise came from the fine print.
Hidden in the details of the bill was a revelation: the tip percentage is calculated on the total after tax and before any discounts are applied.
A cardinal rule of tipping culture is that gratuity should be a percentage of the pre-tax total, not on taxes they never paid for.
‘Texas Roadhouse suggestions are out of control,’ the customer wrote on Reddit.
Like many other restaurants, Texas Roadhouse now asks customers to make a tip selection on the payment screen after they pay
The real surprise came from the message written in small print on the bill: ‘Tip is calculated after tax and before discounts’
The customers did the math themselves and found that the suggested tip amounts did not align clearly with either the pre-tax or post-tax total.
In fact, the 15 percent suggested tip was neither 15 percent of the total before or after tax. It was actually 16.67 percent of the total after tax.
Other Reddit users were equally horrified by the restaurant’s tipping system. One wrote: ‘Calculated after tax? F that!’
‘Yup. Almost all places are doing the tip calculations after tax now, which is completely wrong,’ another said.
‘On top of the math not mathing, the fact that their default suggested tip is calculated after tax is so unethical. You’re not receiving service on the meal taxes you’re paying,’ a different user wrote.
‘This has been a trend, some places are just randomly adding a dollar or two hoping people wouldn’t notice. Not sure how is this legal,’ said someone else.
Texas Roadhouse told the Daily Mail that ‘a free appetizer of $8.99’ was the cause of the confusion, but even still, the math did not add up. The restaurant also confirmed that its tip suggestions are indeed calculated after tax.
Texas Roadhouse is not the only restaurant to be in hot water over tipping recently.
The customer did the math themselves, and found that the total Texas Roadhouse had calculated made no sense
‘Texas Roadhouse suggestions are out of control,’ the customer ranted
The iconic steakhouse may be losing favor with Americans for its latest tipping scheme
Earlier this month, an Italian restaurant in Las Vegas was slammed for adding a tip onto the receipt before handing it to customers, and then requesting another tip on top of that.
Not long before that, customers at a casual seafood eatery in Maryland were outraged when they received their bill for a $260 meal with the 15 percent tip option scribbled out by the server.
The diners had been eating at G&M Restaurant in Linthicum Heights, near Baltimore, and said their waitress was friendly and service was ‘decent enough’, though ‘nothing excellent’.
But when the check was returned, the 15 percent gratuity – amounting to $36.75 – had been scratched out. It made it appear, the diners said, as though it ‘wouldn’t be good enough for her’.
The waitress had also written ‘Thank you’ on the receipt in advance — a move the diners described as ‘entitled’ and ‘infuriating’.
In another recent example, a Reddit user said they were shocked to be effectively forced to tip when ordering a pizza for pickup.
As they were paying, they were hit with a message saying ‘Don’t forget a tip!’ and given options of 15, 20 or 35 percent.
There was also a ‘custom’ box, but no option to leave nothing.
Just a decade ago, 15 percent was considered the standard tip for average service. Now, that number has spiked to 20 percent or often more
Customers at a casual seafood eatery in Maryland were outraged when they received their bill for a $260 meal with the 15 percent tip option scribbled out by the server
However, when the customer attempted to make the custom amount $0, the screen wouldn’t allow the order to move forward — displaying a bright red message: ‘Please enter a valid tip amount.’
‘How can it be a tip when I don’t have a choice,’ the customer asked on Reddit. ‘Well I did have a choice and went elsewhere,’ they wrote.
These incidents are all examples of so-called ‘tipflation’, the expanding expectation to tip more often, in more places, and at higher rates than ever before.
A survey last year found that three-quarters of Americans believed tipping culture has gone too far. The research also found that two in three Americans often ‘guilt tip’ – where they feel forced to add gratuity by prompts at check-out machines.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Texas Roadhouse for comment.
