Tipping in Scotland
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A common question asked by those who are visiting Scotland is whether it is customary to tip for service in Scotland.
The answer is usually yes, it is standard to leave a service tip when dining at a restaurant if the table service has been good, as this is normally not added automatically to your bill.
Some restaurants may choose to add it to your bill if you are dining with a larger group and it will often be around 10-15% of the total bill.
If there is no service charge added to the bill, then we would advise leaving around 10-15% tip of the total charge.
It is recommended that you leave this as cash as many places that use chip and pin devices will not allow you to choose to leave a tip when paying. This can quite often lead to an embarrassing scurry out of the restaurant should you be one of those who doesn’t carry cash these days.
Most of the time, if you ask whether you can add a tip on top of the charge when paying by card, they will do this for you, so it’s always worth asking.
Hopefully, that clears things up and saves you any embarrassment when dining out in Scotland.
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