#Tipping at NYC restaurants surpasses 20 percent during COVID

New Yorkers, thrilled to have both indoor and outdoor dining again, are showing their love with full stomachs — and thinner wallets.

Affluent customers are tipping up to 50% more than they did pre-pandemic, nearly two-dozen owners, managers, waitstaff and customers told The Post. A flush handful of diners have even dropped C-notes like dinner mints on flabbergasted waiters, they added.

Chinatown furniture gallery owner Jan Lee tweeted in response to our survey: “100% of the time, we tip way more than we did b4. Even tip when we pick up food ourselves.” 

Many restaurant mavens who previously tipped 20% said they now tip between 30 and 40% — a range that came up repeatedly in our unscientific poll.

They cited euphoria over not having to eat at home every night as one reason for their super generous gratuity. But they also wanted to help employees who lost income during lockdowns, who are at risk of COVID-19 exposure on the job and who must now work harder due to reduced staffing.

Most agree that old advice to tip 15 to 20% is badly out of date. Amit Mehrotra, an assistant professor in City Tech‘s Department of Hospitality Management, advised adding 15 to 20% on takeout orders and, “20 to 25 to 30% for indoor dining should be a goal in the near term until we are somewhat out of this pandemic.”

Restaurant-lover Adam Richman, 30, the founder of production company Medium Rare, which created the Gronk Beach music festival starring Super Bowl hero Rob Gronkowski, said: “On average I’m tipping 30%. I used to tip 20%. In some of my regular places I find myself tipping 40 to 50%. I find myself giving more to coat-check staff and bathroom attendants, too.”

Richman eats out three or four nights a week at such diverse spots as Campagnola, 4 Charles Prime Rib and Yakiniku Futago.

“Halleljuah that indoor dining is open,” he said. “Plain and simple, these employees are the lifeblood of our city and our government destroyed them with no regard.”

Brooklyn comedian and writer Jessica Sager, 34, said she and her husband now tip at least “40% for takeout.”

“We feel like since, knock on wood, our jobs and income have been relatively secure, that it’s our responsibility to do what we can to help the community survive,” she said. “I always tip extra generously when ordering from Asian restaurants, because they’ve faced so much prejudice since the COVID-19 crisis began.”

Jeff Caliva, 34, a Gramercy resident who works in financial services, and his wife, Megan, 35, just celebrated her birthday at popular Misi in Brooklyn. He laughed that when outdoor dining first resumed last June, he was so excited, “I tipped like 50% on our first meal out.”

“I was generally at 20%, but now I’m closer to 25 or 30% tipping,” he said.

However, the gratuity groundswell isn’t everywhere.  An elitist-sounding essay on GrubStreet.com last summer urged everyone to tip 50 or even 100%. In response, a married, millennial web designer, who didn’t want to be identified, rolled her eyes.

“Good for them, but we’re counting pennies even though we both have jobs,” she said of her pandemic predicament.

In fact, customers may be as cash-strapped as employees at inexpensive pizza parlors, burger joints and taco spots, which vastly outnumber fine-dining locations. Guilt alert: Tips for the floor crew aren’t usually shared with low-paid cooks and dishwashers.

Tamarind Tribeca owner Avtar Walia said tipping at his elegant Indian eatery has been “absolutely normal” except for “once in a blue moon.”

The pattern can vary even at  the same place. Customers at giant Upper West Side trattoria Carmine’s tip “25% indoors and 30% outdoors,” owner Jeffrey Bank said.

Why more outside? “When you see the waiter coming to the table in a black winter jacket instead of a black vest, how in good conscience are you not leaving a bigger tip?” he said.

But those with means can make a waiter’s night — or week. Pastis general manager Susan Lee said “an overwhelming majority” of her guests “tip above and beyond” — and a few even more. Among the fortunate recipients was a Pastis waitress who scored tips of $1,000 and $500 from a woman who spent a mere $300 and $150 on different nights with her husband and friends.

“I’m the lucky one,” chuckled the waitress, who didn’t wish to be named. “They were very nice customers, but when they paid the check, I got surprised. I went back to them to make sure it wasn’t a mistake. She said to me, ‘You deserve it.’ “

And at uptown French institution La Goulue, a woman who lunched at an outdoor table “left a $500 tip on a check of under $100,” general manager Mohamed Daoud marveled. All she ordered, Daoud said, were tuna tartare — and “a few martinis.”