New Reviews category added. I think its a fair one. If Andy tries to ban me for it, I urge everyone to rise up against the overlord.

Nothing to do with Stroud Green at all, but for any veggies out there (and I'm not one of them) I recommend Vanilla Black by chancery lane (bad name, and they need to increase their portion sizes a little). Good food though, and London needs more high-quality veggie places.

http://www.vanillablack.co.uk/

Liverpool Road - and is still really, really nice.

Space NK? Morgan M?

Blimey - aren't we all posh!

I hated my one and only visit to Morgan M.

Morgan M. Cost (2 courses and bottle wine)? Type of food? Ambience? Special selling points? Compulsory tip (10 or 12.5%)? Stickiness of tables? Poseur rating (1-5 stars)? Would you take your mum there?

I know I could look all this up somewhere else but I can't be arsed.

Cost: tasting menu is aboout £45 a head I think (not inc wine), a la carte is obviously cheaper. You're unlikely to get much change from a £80-100 though for a meal with wine for two.
Food: modern British? whatever that means.
Ambience: looking for a Michelin star, but it's on Liverpool rd so there's a limit to how stuffy it can be.
Special selling point: veggie tasting menu.
Compulsory tip: can't remember.
Stickiness of tables: thick tablecloths all the way.
Poseur rating: 3 (braying Islington idiots go there)
Would I take my mum there: she took me.

It does have a website.

"compulsory tip"??? tipping a waiter **is** compulsory (except for handbag-related food dropping and similar... sounds intriguing). plus if there's a "service charge" on a bill, it is "optional" - but only because it's a tax dodge and the staff are getting shafted. this is a moral issue.

It's compulsory in the same way as paying for any other type of service. If you go to get a haircut, you have to pay the hairdresser. If the hairdresser cuts off a part of your ear, you are fully justified in walking out without paying.

If the waiter does his job, you have to pay for it. We could spend hours arguing whether it should be a separate charge or included in the price of the food, but there's little point. I did not design the system, nor do I have the power to change it. It is what it is. Now if the waiter was to dump the soup in your lap, I'd say that you'd be fully justified in withholding the tip (the price of the meal, too).

Took my girlfriend to Morgan M's once, we both loved it. Food was amazing (we both picked the garden/veggie menu, even though she eats fish and I eat anything) and we added the wine so managed to get very merry at the same time.

I arrived in jeans, shirt and carhartt jacket, and was looked up and down by the guy on the door. I'd have not been surprised if he'd have tutted.

@ unaesthetic - try vanilla black (and no, I'm not related to them, or in business with them, or know anyone who has anything to do with them)

@ unaesthetic - sorry, but all employees over 21 in the UK should be on the minimum wage of £5.53 per hour. If they are not, then they should complain to HMRC; there are various helplines and confidential whistleblowing lines to shop people.

If you are worried about the company taking the pot or tronc (don't ask), they are allowed to as long as they declare it to HMRC.

You should always tip in cash if you don't trust the establishment, hopefully ensuring that the money goes to the waiters and waitresses.

I think you are living in the 80s when it was much more as you describe.

And the Mirror are all over this: http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/tag/minimum%20wage

Oh, and to bring the conversation back to the original topic, I am dying to try Morgan M's veggie tasting menu. I am happy to support any restaurant that acknowledges that vegetarian food is made of dirt-cheap vegetables and, therefore, charges less for it than for meat dishes. It's incredibly depressing to pay the same amount for pasta as the guy next to you is paying for his steak.

@ raincar - do you tip barstaff?

@ tosscat - I always tip bar staff, but not necessarily pub staff. Having worked behind several world-class bars, as well as in a pub, I can tell you that there is a huge difference in the level of service. Working in a pub is like driving a car. Working in a good cocktail bar is like flying a jet. An experience bartender can tell you the origin of every spirit behind the bar and give you an explanation as to why certain thing work together. They can recommend a bottle of wine from a list of 300. I've seen pub staff who couldn't even open the bottle.

I tend to draw the line at whether or not the job could be done by a vending machine. A vending machine can open a bottle of Budvar for me, but it couldn't make me a whiskey sour how I like it. The latter deserves a tip.

Speaking of driving cars, do you tip taxi drivers?

Surely a vending machine can serve your meal.

tosscat, are you talking to yourself again? First sign of madness...

Oy vey.

Tips (and service charge) that go through payroll are taxed the same as any other form of payment. Cash tips are considered voluntary gifts. It's up to the recipient to declare them.

I tip cab drivers, unless I think they've purposely taken the scenic route. I've never had a problem with black cabs, but in other countries it's a real issue. In Bangkok, I had a cab driver turn what should have been a 10-minute ride into three-quarters of an hour. We had been staying in the area for a couple of days, and I had the map in front of me as we drove. Eventually I had to yell at him to stop the car and walked the last 100 yards. Otherwise I might still be in that cab now. I paid him the exact amount on the meter, not a penny more. He probably would've got more money had he taken me there directly, as Westerner guilt makes me way too generous in developing countries.

This is changing the topic slightly from the original discussion of Morgan M, but what do you do when you're in a cab in a strange city and the guy is taking the scenic route? Off the top of my head, I recall this happening in Prague, Budapest and, um, Buffalo. You know the guy is just driving in circles, but you're in a strange city in the middle of the night. You can't just get out in the middle of nowhere.

In Budapest, we drove through several industrial estates on the way to the airport in a cab that was ordered by the hotel. The journey took twice as long as on the way into the city and cost 3 times as much. I wrote a complaint to the hotel, who couldn't care less.

I'd love to find some sort of a solution to this problem. It's not so much about the money as the principle of it. When you have a flight to catch, you can't stand there arguing with someone who doesn't speak English. You just have to pay. And they know it. I thought that ordering a cab through the hotel was the solution, but obviously not.

Any ideas?

One thing I think needs pointing out again, the sparkling dessert wine is truly delicious.

@RC: though I agree with your tipping philosophy in general, I’m curious, how can a tip be both a gift and payment for a service received? Doesn’t it have to be one or the other?

I try to tip in cash whenever possible because as you say, it’s not always the case that the waitstaff receives the money when the service charge is included in the bill or added when paying by credit card

But I definitely don’t do as a favour to the server so s/he can avoid paying income taxes on money. There are plenty of low-paid workers out there who don’t have the option of being paid in cash. Yes, it’s up to the person to declare the income and my hope is that they’re not only a hardworking person but an honest person as well and do.

@JoeV - The 'gift' aspect of the tip is from the government's point of view. It means that it was given voluntarily. It's a tax loophole for employers. If it's not given voluntarily (e.i. it doesn't say 'optional' on the bill), then the employer has to take VAT out of it. No VAT is payable on gifts, but tax is.

Again, I have to stress that this is the way the system has worked for years. It doesn't matter that other types of low-paid workers don't have the option of getting paid in cash. It's all part of complex formal and informal salary negotiations. An experienced waiter will not work for the minimum wage. And why should he? Believe me, the skills required to do the work far exceed most minimum wage jobs. Cash tips are taken into account by both employers and employees. If waiters did not get cash tips, they would demand higher salaries. Your meal would cost more. Or, alternatively, you would be served people who are willing to work for £5.52/hr, but then you can't complain about the level of service.

I'm curious, but who on this board actually knows how much waiters make? Obviously it varies from restaurant to restaurant, but by putting them in the same category with other 'low-paid' workers, it makes me think that people have no idea.

I can tell you that when I used to work behind the bar, I made significantly more money than I ever have using my masters degree.

We just don't have that obsequious service mentality over here; shoddy service is all part of being British.

@ RC - I'm just mighty confused.

You tell me that the people who need tips do so because they are not paid the minimum wage.

You imply that you don't tip where a vending machine or robot could do the job.

You tell me that as a skilled waiter (i.e. one who deserves a tip) can earn a small fortune.

I glean from this that your seemingly initially fluffy argument is more a capitalist gripe rather than a moral issue.

You have almost inspired me to tip less in the future, in the hope that people will put their expensive educations to better use.

They yawn.

She was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, when she met you?

or a mixologist as I think they're called. BTW - does anyone else hate Polly 'stupid' Vernon? And Alex 'twatface' James as much as me?

Sorry - totally off the point, and wholly uncalled for I know.

I find the term 'mixologist' a tad pretentious. And I'm fairly pretentious myself, so that says a lot.

And yes, Alex James is a twat. Since when is he a food critic? I don't know anything about Polly Vernon, but I dislike her already. I googled her name and the first thing that came up was an article entitled 'Admit it. You hate me because I'm thin'. That pretty much says it all.