Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@kyleforrester87 Same, really (the no cash thing). These days the card terminals often have a feature that allows to add a tip but that whole process is somewhat awkward to me tbh.

@Th3solution I've got Mr Pink from Reservoir Dogs vibes from your question!

As others have said, service charge is often on the bill here in the UK. I don't really like it but I also live up to the awkward British stereotype so I never say anything. One girl at one of my old birthday parties did ask staff to remove the service charge at Pizza Express once because they forgot someone's meal and other meals weren't perfect. I just wanted everyone to have a good time so I didn't say anything but I secretly cheered her on in my head 😃😅

That being said, I do tip if I've had a really good time. I went for a Chinese/Karaoke in East London for another old birthday party and they really went the whole hog for us so I covered the tip because it was well worth it.

Most nights eating out are usually done on the cheap. A Meerkat meals code (2for1) and a jug of tap water. I don't think any waiter would expect a tip having seen that level of cheapness in their customer 😅. I probably would still tip 10% in most cases anyway but it's literally a couple of quid because I round it up to the nearest pound. 2for1 meals normally come to around £14 for both of us.

Another thing that's become quite common here is paying before you eat which is another thing I don't like. They do it in Nando's and a lot of pubs. Have an issue with your meal? Queue up for ages to get a refund or partial refund so it would put most customers off even bothering. Not in every instance but it encourages restaurants, particularly chain restaurants to offer a poorer level of service. I'm not sure if they see it in their lack of repeat custom but there are enough suckers in this country (and huge marketing budgets) for it to probably never become an issue. This also discourages tipping though because the end of meal bill portion is completely averted.

I always tip the barber 10% rounded up (so £2) and an extra fiver at Xmas (so £7 tip). She is really good and I have a good chat with her so it's like cheap therapy/counselling so it's worth the tip!

I would tip the postman £20 at Xmas too if I manage to catch him when he delivers post.

I honestly wouldn't eat out that much if I had to pay any more for it. I can have better food at home most days so I only really go to Pizza Express or IKEA (meatballs) and I still don't think it's worth more than £7-8 a head.

So to summarise, I actually do tip most of the time (10% rounded up to the nearest pound) but I resent it if it's expected or if there is a service charge as well. But I won't tip if I don't have change or the meal was substandard or the waiter was rude or inattentive.

@Voltan yeah, I drink in Brew Dog quite a bit as I can’t get enough of the Peach and Guava Hazy’s and the machines they hand you make you select a tip amount before using your contactless. So you basically have to press “£0.00” before you can pay. It’s annoying but I’m not giving them another £1 on top of every one of my £7 pints.

@LN78 haha Mr. Pink really does speak for every British person 😂

@kyleforrester87 £7 pints? That's madness. Not a big fan of Brew Dog but some of their stuff Is alright.

@MightyDemon82 yeah whatever you think of the company they do some really tasty beers. Pricy as hell though.

@kyleforrester87 gotta get on the tinnies me thinks. Much cheaper at like £13/14 for a case of 12. On the Punk IPAs at least

Though I suppose you will meet less people. Unless you drink them in a park. But you'd be the poshest chav in the park drinking your brewdogs!

@kyleforrester87 I'm in Aberdeen we have 3 of their bars in the city and it's only half an hour drive to Ellon where the distillery is. My Brother-in-law did the tour and enjoyed himself.

I generally leave a tip if I've had good service, and don't if I haven't. The latter has rarely happened for me. Not sure if this is still a thing in the UK, but some places it was a bit of a grey area if the serving staff actually recieved any of the tips if was automatically added to the bill.

I'll have to pack away the PS5 soon as we have got ourselves a house. Moving date is the 26th of August so that's exciting, Have boxes all over the flat ready to start packing.

@MightyDemon82 Very nice! I should be finally moving around that time too. Early September at worst. The wait's been killing me.

@Voltan maybe by then we can have more matches, even though you kicked the crap out of me I still had fun.

@MightyDemon82 There are players out there that make my matches look like that, except I'm the one taking the beating
I'm curious how fast you'll see improvement after our little chat

@ThereThere I'm mainly a punk drinker but will drink most IPAs and also drink Proper Job IPA too.

I am a fan of Brewdogs Roaster Coaster as well. It's very strong and very expensive, even in a can. I think it's like £3.50 for a 400 and something ml can and like £6 for half a pint in the brewdog pubs

I really don't like the Punk IPA to be honest. Okay, that's a bit strong but there are always other better options in the pub, or better options in cans in the off-license in my opinion, either Hazy Jane or some other brand entirely. The Elvis Juice is okay, I went through a period of loving it, but it's too grapefruity for me to enjoy pint after pint. You can get Punk IPA for half the price on tap at Spoons if that's your thing, and they do the big bottles of Elvis Juice for cheap, too. Although I often end up going for something rotten like a Carling or Bud if I am in there. I was loving the Hazy Jane, but then tried the Guava variant and then the Peach variant and I'll always go for either of these 2 when they are on. Standard Hazy Jane's lack flavour after those two, but I'll go for it if Peach or Guava isn't available.

Tried a Schofferhofer in BD the other week, 2.5% as I was cycling. Just like a big glass of grapefruit juice really, not sure what I thought of it honestly.

Elsewhere, I love Siren IPA's - the Soundwave and Lumia are really good! And Neck Oil and Gamma Ray by Beavertown are my other favourites

Getting thirsty over here!!!!

Yeah there are deffo better IPAs than Punk but it's an easy one to go for that's on tap in a lot of places and cheap in supermarkets. I also go for the Neck Oil if that's available and I think that's very nice. I don't drink lager at all (unless I'm "forced" to by some combination lunch deal or lack of IPAs)

I'd say I mainly drink IPAs but I'm partial to stouts and porters. Roaster Coaster is actually a stout.

I'm not much into any fruit flavoured beers, just a bit too weird for me! It's not unpleasant but it's out of my comfort zone and I always feel like I'm drinking a gimmick.

I really Wana try Stone Cold's Broken Skull IPA but it seems like it's US only. I should think it's good because he seems to be a big fan of IPAs in general according to him on his podcast!

I had a few 4-packs of Camden Brewery's Off Menu IPA when it was on sale in Sainsbury's a few weeks back. That was pretty nice!

The alcohol free Punk IPA is the best one I’ve found so far.

Siren brewery are pretty good and Soundwave is a nice tipple. I’m sure me and @ralphdibny have mentioned the St Austell brewery before and I like Proper Job, Tribute, and Korev.

Skinner’s brewery in Cornwall have some nice ones too; Cornish Knocker, Betty Stoggs, and Lushington.

@Thrillho ahhh mate, I went to the st Austell Brewery Gift shop last time I went down there (didn't even go on the tour) to buy some Mena Dhu pint glasses (with the handles) and ended up spending like £120 😅

I got two Mena Dhu pint glasses, two proper Job half pint glasses, a st Austell Brewery apron, a proper job jute bag with dividers for 6 beers, 2 cases of mena dhu, 1 case of proper job, 2 bottles of big job and 3 or 4 different monastery themed beers. I can't remember exactly what they were called but they went up in strength and were called double, triple and quadruple something or other.

That Punk AF is actually quite nice for an alcohol free beer. It's good for the long car drives! Though I'm not sure about the legality of drinking AF beer while driving in the UK. Most people learn their law from American crime dramas but I don't think a lot of that stuff applies over here

@ThereThere I get that too sometimes! Its a good thing I get IPA'd out because I don't drink much else so it means I actually just don't drink which can only be a good thing 😅

I went through a couple months of drinking a lot of red wine at the beginning of the year. Mainly with meals but we would often finish the bottle together the same night. I like sweeter ones like Montepucciano Dabruzo and Chianti. Not so much a fan of the more acidic flavoured reds.

I'm glad I hate white wine though 😅 and also all the fizzy variants. I don't really like Champagne or Cava. I don't mind a bit of prosecco because it's a bit sweeter. I don't drink it much but if I had to do a toast then prosecco would be my choice of drink.