Tipping at restaurants question

When my husband and I go out to eat, I typically don't order a meal. I just share part of his. The question we always have is do you tip off the bill total? or do you consider if there were two people eating.  I believe it should be more than standard percentage on the bill since the staff cared for more people than what is reflected.

If I am at a restaurant and not eating or sharing a meal, I always double the tip for the reason you mentioned above.  The extra money doesn't mean that much to me, but means the world to the waiter or waitress that makes their living on tips.

I totally agree with this on tipping. If I am sharing she has to bring another plate also clean up after me. When my husband I go out to a bar he will have a few beers and I will bring my Crystal light and mix with water we always give extra to the bartender. 

They work really hard. 

We tip off the total bill

depends on the service... if it is good - we can leave extra,  not so good.. just bare minimum. 

I think it depends on what your typical tip % is. If you tip around 20% then I think you are fine. I always tipped on the higher side, and now that my eldest child works in the food industry I tip even more. Pre-surgery, when I would go out to eat by myself, I always tipped higher; especially if I lingered over my meal. My logic was that I was taking up a table in that server's section and yet my overall bill would not be as high as others. As long as the server took good care of me then I would take good care of them. 

I would tip extra in that situation. I always tip at least 20% though, and my state doesn't have a lower minimum wage for tipped workers, so it probably wouldn't be much, maybe an extra 5-10%.

Its not the servers issue you/we had gastric surgery. If I am taking room up in her station no matter what I eat, I am tipping. People come into my restaurant and sit and have meetings and drink coffee.  They tie up a station when the server could be making money. People usually leave substantially more than 20%. 

I tip substantially more than 20%

I think tipping extra is a great idea - since you're still taking up space and service.  So good for you for doing the right thing!

Thanks for this! I'm just recently post op and this might not have occurred to me when I do go to a restaurant in the future and I hate when people don't tip well.