There's a restaurant here and they will not split your ticket if it's a party of 7 or more. I was very upset by this and I know they have lost out on business because they will not accommodate to this anymore. They say the reason for it is that people short out on their bill cause they think someone else will pay. So please just pay for what you're going to pay for.

i thin kthat it can be a challenge if you're going to split a bill...but if you're organzied about it - then that's fine.

i was out to dinner with my brother/his wife, friend/her hubby and my fiance and me. we sat across from our couple and we split the bill by couple. it seemed to be pretty easy for the waitress since she was able to see who ate what.

(granted, my fiance and i have footed 100% of the bill with this crew before so it was a bit upsetting to us that we had to pay but oh well...you can't reinvent the wheel can you?)

If you have never worked as a waiter before you might not know what a nightmare it can be to split the check especially with a big party. There is alot that goes into it. I worked as a server for 5 years in a fine dining restaurant and I was always extremely grateful when a party told me upon arrival that they wished for separate checks. It makes it SO much easier!!!!!!! Believe me, although a server might remember who ate what, it gets difficult when you see twenty beers on the tab and have to (in a hurry) figure out who had which beers or glasses of wine and how many. Also, unfortunately, I always found that when I split checks, my tip always turned out to be less than if one person paid.

Zone system, people! You split into billing zones up front, 2-4 ppl per zone, inform the waiter, and order in that fashion. Who wants to split appetizers or french fries more than 4 ways anyhow?

I always thought splitting it even across the group was the easiest way to go. In those situations usually your gonna have gratuity and it's even so no worries that someone won't pay what they said like with split checks by meal/person.

I used to work at a restaurant/bar for years, and the most important thing is to tell the waiter that you'd like separate tabs BEFORE you order. It makes it WAAAYYY easier for us. Also important, if you do make different bills, don't expect all the food to come all at the same time. It's almost impossible for the kitchen to know that those 3 separate orders are the same table. And please, if it's a big group (over 10 people), never ask for more than 4 tabs. If you do, everything will take longer- especially the billing at the end of the meal. It takes time to make change and run through all those shiny cards, so you MUST be patient.

if i'm going to want a separate bill - i always ask tell the waitress/waiter up front - i did this one time and was with a large group and the rest of the group didn't listen.. needless to say when their bill came - all of a sudden they wanted it split... it caused so much headaches... it's always better to just say it from the beggining

As a mostly vegetarian health-nut, I always ask for a separate bill. I always make it clear to the wait-person before we order that my husband and I will be ordering separately on a separate bill. I tell the rest of my group that I will order separately so they dont have to feel guilty about ordering enough non-meat food for me and just choose what they want. And then if I ever order more food or drinks, I always politely remind the wait-person I am ordering on our separate tab so they can easily keep track of everything.

I HATE group bills though because so many of my friends order lots of appetizers so they can "taste" everything even though they dont eat much, and because there are usually a lot of meat dishes ordered. Its frustrating when I know I only ate/drank $30 worth but splitting the bill leaves me with a $50 check.

I always say "this is going to be seperated on the bill" at the beginning, who says something when they get the bill at the end?

I agree SillyGirl -- my friends always want to split everything down the middle, but we go out and they'll have 3 or 4 drinks a piece, and split lots of appetizers, but I rarely drink and since I don't eat meat, what I eat winds up costing a good $20-$30 less than what what they have each had, and I'm supposed to contribute as much? It particularly irks me, since I'm the one in grad school, so they're all making at least three times what I currently do.

This reminds me of that episode of Friends where Pheobe, Racheal and Joey are upset because they make less money than the others but have to go to expensive restaurants with them...

in a big group, which is usually family, one usually pays the bill, and the one good with math figures out who owes the one whos pays. but when we go out with friends,(which is no more then 4 of us) we take turns paying. one time we pay, the other they pay.

Ugh, I went out this past weekend with 5 friends and we completely forgot to split the bill 3 ways...needless to say the servers were NOT pleased. Normally we remember but we really failed in that instance.

All this talk about drinks and appetizers is making me hungry. I hate sharing one big bill because I always eat less than everybody else and I rarely drink. Seperate check for me, please.

My friends and I always just split the bill ourselves and write out who owes what on the back of the check like put this much on credit card A and this much on credit card B...

that way the server doesn't need to keep track of who had what since each person is figuring out for themselves what they should owe. It's fairing than just splitting the bill evenly and easier on the server since they just input the charge amounts into the system

If I want to have a seperate bill, I follow the guidelines listed above.
I can't stand for someone to want to split after the fact or pull out their check/credit card as if I have a portable machine waiting in my purse... if and when that happens I just foot the bill and make them pay for mine the next time.

i hate this as well.
I go and have 1 drink and a small meal, everyone else boozes her up and eats alot. So my drink and fajitas just cost me $65.00
Not fair.

I prefer my own check in a large setting but if it's 2-4 diners we will just split it equally.

I just make other people pay for me. Duh.

i either tell them ahead or do what one person said below and we split it ourselves and then just write down put so much $$ on the blue card and so much $$ on the black one, etc.

I never though about doing this before till now and To know that to do this is not frowned upon or bad manners is a relif to me.

What we usually do is just get one tab, but everyone pays for what they ate. The people I eat with never usually get appetizers, so it works pretty well. Then we just usually all chip in on the tip (which is usually pretty generous if there's a lot of us).

I was a waitress, and it always seemed like common sense to me that if 6 adults are out to eat together, they probably would like to be split up. I mean, what's hard about at least asking before you ring it all up on one check anyways?

Thanks for the tip, Party. It's brills!

i HATE HATE HATE when people want to split the bill at the end of a meal. It leaves the worst taste in the air after what (hopefully) was a good meal. With my friends one of us throws downs a card and then we just give the money to that person instead of messing with the waiter.

I've been screwed over by people so many times (the infamous, "Oh I'll get it next time.") I just politely say "This will be separate tabs." when we begin ordering. Simple enough. I hate when paying for meals turns into a huge ordeal, it takes the fun out of going out...

Those are good tips, it's awkward sometime to request separate bills. But I work hard for money and spend it the way I want to, others just have to deal with it.

I know a lot of restaurants don't like doing lots of separate checks for a big group because a lot of the time people will not leave a sufficient tip. You'll probably get better service anyhow if you're straightforward with your server.

When we go out in large groups one or two people normally pay the bill, or we get cash in advance and just put in our amount.

Ooh excellent tips, thanks!

Yeah a couple of weeks ago I went to a friend's leaving do in a restaurant that was already expensive. And at the end they decided to split the bill - I'd ordered a $20 dish (the least expensive I could find) and ended up having to pay $40 because people had ordered side dishes + desserts as well! I was livid!

I don't understand this splitting the bill nonsense... pay for what you ordered and tip accordingly. I refuse to pay for someone else's side dish or dessert or drinks; it's ridiculous and unfair. And it definitely makes it easier on everyone to tell the waitstaff at the beginning that you want separate bills.

I hate asking for a separate bill. It makes me feel bad. I've never been a server so I have no idea how hard or easy it is. I just end up overpaying for everyone. I hate math.

We have 2 restaurants, Dolce and Kethcup, that have a 3 credit card limit per table. You better remember your cash and group your check together.
Most other restaurants, we split the tab for individuals/couples unless someone has declared "I'm treating".

what's with the tip "make sure you talk to everyone not just the person you're sharing the bill with"?? isn't this pretty self-explanatory? you don't hate the other people just because you don't want to have sushi with them!

i Completely agree about telling the wait staff at the beginning of the meal. But then after that drop it. Nothing makes a meal more uncomfortable than someone explaining to you about way they need the bill split. Wouldn't you rather spend your time catching with people, than explaining that you'd love to split the check but you can't afford it.

I used to wait tables, and it was never a big deal to do separate bills, esp. if they told me at the beginning. It's just like having a separate table, what's the big deal. There is no big deal.

Most of my girlfriends & I normally get separate checks, esp. if it's three of us or more.

But: this one gf & I usually do one check for the both of us since we generally eat the same amount together - which is: A LOT! lol We do love us some sushi!