Dear FloFab: No Dessert for Me Florence Fabricant gives advice on the fine points of entertaining at home and eating in restaurants. Have a dining dilemma? Ask FloFab. What should my companion and I have done or said when a restaurant owner approached us just as we finished our entrées and asked us to leave because there were so many people waiting for a table? This was a moderately priced fine-dining establishment and there was a special going on that attracted plenty of patrons. I felt very uncomfortable, like I was being kicked out, which I was! Have you ever heard of such a thing? I have seen restaurant managers ask whether people would be kind enough to have their coffee and desserts in the lounge in order to clear a table. And there are some restaurants that will tell you when you make the reservation that they will need the table back at a certain time. But to ask you frankly to leave as you finish your main course is outrageous. I would've stood my ground, insisted on having my dessert and let the restaurant approach somebody else to make a table available. The restaurateur has to know that with this kind of behavior, he or she is losing a customer, something they should never want to do. Recently, I had dinner with some old friends at a Midtown restaurant. We were a party of five, and we ordered several bottles of wine throughout the evening. The menu stated an 18 percent gratuity would be added to the check for parties of six or more. Near the end of the meal, just before dessert, my wife called me to say she had just finished dinner with her sister and would stop by so we could go home to Brooklyn together. She showed up about a half-hour later, as the desserts were being served. She had a glass of wine from one of the bottles that we had bought earlier, and declined any dessert. When the check came, though, the waiter had tacked on an 18 percent tip. Do you think the restaurant did the right thing with our party? To further complicate matters, it was a bit of a celebration for me, so my friends would not let me contribute to the check. They did not want to finish the evening by challenging the waiter's decision to impose the 18 percent tip, so none of us said anything. My friends would have left a larger tip had the waiter left it to their discretion. But it didn't really sit well with me, and I have pretty much decided not to return to that restaurant again. As a frequent business entertainer, I will regularly have large groups (eight or more) out for an evening. In most restaurants this puts us in the automatic tipping zone, 18 to 20 percent for the whole bill. Now as other readers have said, when dining on my own I will tip 20 percent on the meal and 10 percent on alcohol/wine. I have a problem with a restaurant just adding 20 percent on top of what can be a large bill already. Any suggestions? Restaurants add 18 to 20 percent for parties of six or more in part because a group of that size usually spends more time dining, and therefore arguably might reduce the opportunity for the servers to make their tips. It takes longer to place the food and drink orders when there is a larger group, longer to serve the individuals, longer to clear, and larger groups tend to linger. People should understand why restaurants do this. Not everyone is generous enough to leave 20 percent, which is why the restaurants insist on it. And it's entirely acceptable to leave more if you so desire. However if somebody shows up for just a glass of wine, the restaurant was being aggressive, and there would be nothing wrong with questioning it. At the end of the day, though, it probably involved the same amount of money for the gratuity.