No sharing pizzas! No free water! Obligatory tip!

There's often additional tension in the relationship between restaurateurs and their guests in recent times– for various reasons, as the list below shows.
 

The story of an action by a restaurateur in Germany recently caused a stir in Switzerland. His restaurant in Esslingen near Stuttgart – about 180 kilometres from the Swiss border – has banned separate payment of restaurant bills, as reported by the Bild newspaper. ‘It often happens that Swabians argue about who drank how many glasses from a bottle of red wine, and that this should also be split on the bill.’ And: he has also observed this ‘annoying quirk’ among Swiss guests.

But is it really only the guests who cause a fuss in restaurants – or is it also the owners themselves? CH Media asked customers for their opinions, and has compiled a list of five particularly annoying restaurant situations.

1. Individual payment not accepted
It was a lively evening, and the mood was good among the 30 or so members of a club who had gone for dinner at the Riithalle restaurant in Zurich. At least until it came time to pay. They all wanted to pay separately, but the restaurant refused. ‘It was really tedious,’ recalls the organiser, who was thereby forced to pay the total amount herself, and then had to collect the money from the other 29 people.

She could have at least been warned. When booking online, guests are informed that the restaurant ‘does not offer separate bills for groups of 12 or more’ and that everything will be charged to a single bill. ‘I hadn't seen that,’ says the CH Media reader.

Restaurateur Daniel Wiesner shows a certain understanding for his industry here. ‘Separate bills simply take a lot of time,’ he said when asked. ‘And it means that other guests have to wait.’ Personally, however, he does not impose such restrictions in his restaurant group, which operates 29 restaurants in this country. ‘Anyone who wants to pay separately can pay separately at our restaurants’ – either in the usual way, via the service staff, or digitally, and thereby without any outside help.

At Wiesner's Negishi, Nooch and Miss Miu restaurants, guests will find a QR code on their table that they can use to access the digital menu and make payments. This allows everyone at the table to pay their share. ‘At lunchtime, more than half of our guests already pay their bills this way,’ says Daniel Wiesner. ‘It's faster for everyone.’

The focus is on the well-being of the guest, says Patrik Hasler-Olbrych, who is acting as interim head of the industry association Gastrosuisse. Each restaurant operator must decide for themselves how best to serve their guests, for example, when it comes to payment methods. ‘That’s their entrepreneurial freedom.’

2. An additional fee for sharing food
A group of five adults and six small children stopped at the Casamia pizzeria in Zermatt on a July evening: they ordered their food, with five of the six children wanting to share three pizzas. The restaurant, whose motto is ‘Your satisfaction is our passion’, charged an additional CHF 6.00 per shared pizza. ‘That's a bit of a cheek when it comes to children,’ says a CH Media reader who was part of the group in question.

The Casamia pizzeria is not an isolated case. The Rotes Haus Trattoria in Brugg, Aargau, also charges a surcharge for sharing a pizza, albeit ‘only’ CHF 3.00. ‘The surcharge covers the cost of the table setting and service,’ the restaurant owner told the Aargauer Zeitung newspaper. However, he says he also makes exceptions: for example, large groups that order several drinks, or even rounds of drinks, and thereby generate profit for the restaurant are not charged the surcharge.

For Gastrosuisse interim boss Hasler-Olbrych, it is crucial that such surcharges for sharing food are communicated transparently. ‘The guest must know what to expect.’

Restaurant entrepreneur Adrian Iten, on the other hand, welcomes such measures in principle. ‘Margins in the catering industry are very thin, with more than half of restaurants operating at a loss,’ says the founder of the popular Bernese bar Adrianos and the coffee supplier of the same name. Many operators can only survive because they own the property or do not pay themselves a decent wage. He personally would therefore welcome the introduction of a ‘coperto’ in Switzerland (!!), based on the Italian model. In Switzerland's southern neighbour, guests pay a fixed amount per person for the table setting, bread, olive oil and, if necessary, water.

Introducing such a change in the system would require courage. ‘But we restaurateurs should basically become more courageous,’ says Adrian Iten. There may well be complaints and harsh criticism at first, and some people might decide to go elsewhere, or not to dine out at all. But if the product is right, i.e. the food, the atmosphere and the service, then guests will continue to come back.

Two for four: some restaurants charge a fee for sharing a pizza       Photo: Freepics
Zurich restaurateur Daniel Wiesner shows understanding for his competitors         Photo: Andrea Zahler
 

3. No free water
According to the latest survey by the industry association Gastrosuisse from 2021, 38% of all restaurants in Switzerland now charge for tap water (Hahnewasser). Most charge between 1 and 5 Swiss francs. The proportion of restaurants that sell tap water is likely to be higher in cities. In larger cities, at least, charging for tap water has become commonplace. Some restaurants do not offer tap water at all, and only sell mineral water. This usually costs a lot of money – and regularly causes debate.

One person who is bucking the trend is Daniel Wiesner. In a social media video he launched in the spring, he states: ‘Water is free in all our restaurants.’ When asked, he said he understood the position of other restaurateurs, as it is ultimately a service that involves work. Nevertheless, there are limits. ‘I think a flat rate of 3 to 5 Swiss francs per person is fine, but no more.’ If customers have already ordered a Coke or a glass of wine, however, they should not be charged for tap water as well.

4.  Tips: yes or no? And how much?
With the rise of digital payment methods, the way tips are handled, and the expectations associated with them, have also changed. In the past, guests would generally round up the amount owed more or less generously, and would sometimes leave an extra note, but today the machine puts pressure on them: how much should the tip be? 10%? 15%? Or even 20%? At least, that's what it says on many terminals when guests pay by card or Twint.

Many guests feel that this is coercion, that they are being forced to tip. ‘It's like in the USA,’ says one annoyed guest. ‘I'm being forced to tip.’ This is not quite true, however: restaurant, bar or sausage stand visitors can complete the payment process without tipping, but the usually available options ‘No tip’, “Skip” or ‘Manual entry’, which can then also be confirmed with zero, are admittedly often less obvious.

Adrian Iten, who switched to cashless payments at his Adriano’s Bar in Bern in October 2024, wants nothing to do with it. He does not ask for tips – partly because his cash register system does not allow it, but also because he does not think it is a good idea in principle. ‘This direct request for tips does not go down well with guests.’

Tipping is voluntary, as Hasler-Olbrych emphasises. ‘It’s a recognition of the employees' performance.’ It’s also clear, however, that this appreciation was better rewarded in cash times than when paying by card and Twint. The employees at Iten’s Adriano’s have also had to learn this the hard way: with the switch to a cashless bar, the average tip income per person per hour fell from CHF 4:00 to CHF 2.50. The amount has risen again since then, and Adrian Iten is convinced that it will return to its previous level. Up to then, the business will pay the difference.

5. Please vacate your table!
What is already common practice in cities such as London and New York is also becoming increasingly popular in Swiss restaurants: table reservations are only valid for a specific time slot. The industry refers to this as ‘double seatings’, i.e. using the same table twice during peak times. This allows restaurants to operate a kind of two-shift system during brunch, lunch and dinner periods.

This is becoming increasingly common in Zurich in particular (as reported by CH Media). Restaurants such as the Lebanese Simsim, the Vietnamese Co Chin Chin and the Italian Napulé are limiting the length of time guests can stay – usually to two hours. Guests at Jacks Brasserie in Bern's posh Schweizerhof will soon be subject to the same rule.

This may be stressful for guests, but restaurants hope it will increase profitability and planning security. According to spokeswoman Silvia Acerra, the Napulé pizza chain has implemented time limits on table reservations at all its restaurants at lunchtime and in the evening ‘to increase efficiency, minimise waiting times and ensure a smooth experience for customers’. However, a few tables per restaurant are deliberately left free every day to offer spontaneous guests the opportunity to visit the pizzeria without a reservation.

This should still be possible in our busy everyday lives.

Editor’s comment:
It’s clear that the Covid pandemic changed people’s habits regarding eating out.
Many restaurants reacted to this by increasing their charges, possibly to recover some of their Covid-period losses. The average cost of an evening meal thereby increased significantly, particularly with the increased charges on drinks (water often costing as much as wine). In my own case, this meant that, instead if going to a restaurant at least twice a week, I now go infrequently. So the restaurants have lost all my contribution to their profits. Their reaction to the fall in customer numbers seems to be to increase charges even more – they are now charging for shared dishes, charging for tap water, insisting on tips, etc.
Visiting a restaurant used to be a pleasant and affordable event, but the penny-pinching efforts by some restaurants can result in customer dissatisfaction, and I personally don’t visit these restaurants again. I feel sorry for those customers who have no choice but to eat at a restaurant!

Note: This comment represents the editor’s personal reaction, and not necessarily that of zug4you/the Zug Post!