A master at getting the bill:
On several visits to Shanghai a Chinese friend and I were treated to many very nice meals by his dear family friend -- an elderly gentleman who happened to be extremely wealthy. One trick was to tip the maitre'd upon entering the restaurant; informing them that the bill should come to him. And a variant of that was to even pre-pay the bill (all or most of it) by simply handing cash (or credit card) to the head waiter. He would simply tell us "its been taken care of".
It took us a while to figure out how he was doing this. He was very sly about it! But to be courteous to us, he would let us pay when we ate at normal restaurants :-)
From a practical point of view, it took away any and all discussion of the bill when at an expensive restaurant. But allowed us to properly respect and thank him.
Posted on: Fighting over the Bill
October 26, 2007, 06:44 AMA master at getting the bill: On several visits to Shanghai a Chinese friend and I were treated to many very nice meals by his dear family friend -- an elderly gentleman who happened to be extremely wealthy. One trick was to tip the maitre'd upon entering the restaurant; informing them that the bill should come to him. And a variant of that was to even pre-pay the bill (all or most of it) by simply handing cash (or credit card) to the head waiter. He would simply tell us "its been taken care of". It took us a while to figure out how he was doing this. He was very sly about it! But to be courteous to us, he would let us pay when we ate at normal restaurants :-) From a practical point of view, it took away any and all discussion of the bill when at an expensive restaurant. But allowed us to properly respect and thank him.