A popular New York restaurant has been a ban on tips as part of a Japanese tradition.
Sushi Yasuda is known for its outstanding sushi and superb service but now the Manhattan sushi restaurant is making headlines for doing away with tipping, the Price Hike reports.
Picking up on Japanese tradition, the restaurant put servers on a salary pay rather than tipping. A message on the bottom of receipts now reads "Following the custom in Japan, Sushi Yasuda's service staff are fully compensated by their salary. Therefore gratuities are not accepted. Thank you."
Co-Founder Scott Rosenberg said the decision was made to enhance the restaurant experience for customers as they will no longer have to worry about doing math at the end of their meal.
"I've always dreamed...wouldn't it be great not to have to worry about tipping? Look at your bill, make sure that it's correct and sign the check if you're good, and you won't have think and calculate and do a math equation at the table," Rosenberg told the Price Hike.
While the restaurant has done away with tips, it has also raised its prices to pay the worker's salaries. The high-end restaurants, which only seats 45, can easily run beyond $100 and now the prices are slightly higher, but Rosenberg believes that customers won't notice much of a difference than if they were paying a regular bill with a tip.
"The risk is that your prices appear to be high on the menu. But if you have faith in what you're serving, and how you're serving it, you know that when your customers have a good meal and look at their final tally it's going to be around the same," Rosenberg said.
Many restaurants in Asian and European countries either don't accept tips or only accept low tips. Most New York waiters are hourly employees and their pay starts at the minimum of $2.25 and then servers split tips at the end of the night, so their pay can vary depending on the day of the week. Sushi Yasuda's policy will do away with this.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
