Any Budapest expat who thinks foreigners are the only customers treated like vermin by restaurant wait staff should learn Hungarian and read blogs like ilovebp* (*if only it wasn’t the way it is). The short of a long post is that the blogger had a reasonable, but expensive, meal in downtown tourist trap Kárpátia. No surprises there, Kárpátia is after all a downtown tourist trap. What got his kecske was that after paying the 10% service charge indicated on the bill and no more (because Hungarians find this practice just as despicable as foreigners), he overheard the waiter in the kitchen exclaiming “szopjon le,” which roughly translates to “he can suck me.” Feeling better now?
the solution is easy, do not go to Tourist traps?
By the way, what is your opinion, when the card machine is accidentally not working, or when you say that they should put the tip on the card they say afterwards, ‘sorry, i accidentally put in the original (tipless amount)…’?
That you would know if you’ve ever worked in catering. Staff hardly ever gets tips charged to cards. So, if you think the service was good and want to leave a tip make sure you have some cash on you. This way you’re REALLY complimenting on the service not overpaying your bill.
As a tourist from the USA, I was caught in the Karpatia tourist trap. First, the waiter placed my husband and I in a “no smoking” area then half way thru the meal he sat 4 Germans next to us who all lit up cigarettes! Second, he gave us the wrong bill–of course it was the 4 Germans’ bill which was about over double more than our bill. My husband who is Hungarian and was in the restaurant business proceeded to ream this waiter out and we did not leave anything extra either!