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| - I'm mad now.
We've been to Tverskaya three times now, and the food has been excellent each time. The prices are reasonable. On our most recent visit, my fiance and i treated our friends to dinner (see Crystal V.'s review). However, we used a restaurant.com gift certificate, and apparently this was a mistake.
Near the end of our meal, our waiter informed us that the mandatory 18% gratuity specified on the gift certificate went directly to restaurant.com instead of the waiter's pocket. In fact, he further explained that this was how restaurant.com was able to offer such steep discounts on their certificates. I conferred with my fiancee, and we both understood this statement to mean that the waiter would be receiving no gratuity unless we left extra. Naturally, we left extra - another $25 on top of the 18%. We received good service and had a lovely meal, so why not?
Everything was fine until we got home and my fiancee sent off an email to restaurant.com, who promptly informed us that the waiter receives every penny of the 18% mandatory gratuity.
In other words, we just left our waiter a 38% tip because he lied to us.
Frankly, I feel a little violated. We have never been shy about tipping, and we were already intending to leave a few extra bucks to make up the difference (we normally calculate 20% and then round up). It is a shame, because I truly enjoy their food and I had a wonderful evening dining with friends. But I can't shake the feeling of being lied to, of being scammed. If you do go to Tverskaya, don't bring a restaurant.com certificate. If you do bring a certificate, be aware that the 18% is going to the waiter, not the website.
After this, I'm not sure I'll be going back. There are plenty of other restaurants in town that value my business enough not to try and scam me.
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