Funny thing is there pardner - if you compare menu prices in Sydney and here in the States, you'll find prices even higher without tipping, even if you take the tax and tipping here into account. Try it yourself. Go to the website of a restaurant chain that has locations here and the States. Say...Outback. Compare a menu from...say Nashville Tennessee and Sydney. Guess what you're going to find? Well, I won't tell you. I'll let you find out for yourself.

And, guess what, if you make the same comparison at Outback between...say Edmonton and nashville, you'll find that you Canadians are paying about 27% more for a 12 oz ribeye if you include the 5% GST that might or might not be included in the menu price (the menu doesn't make it clear so I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt). Of course, here in Nashville, you have a 9.25% tax, so the difference drops to a mere 22.75% higher price than in Music City. Plus, from what I understand, 10 - 15% (as opposed to 15 - 20% in the States) is still a custom in Canada from all that I've read, so you're still "on the hook" for that (obviously, it's just as "optional" as here in the States, so we have to include both 10% and 15% as a comparison). So now you're "only" paying an extra 15.75% more than here in the States once you take out the tax and tip issues. Guess why that is? Because Tennessee servers are paid $2.13 an hour while your servers are paid about $11 an hour. And yet, we both make about the same amount of moeny in general. so basically, you're happy with paying an extra 15% just to eliminate tipping? Gee, that's a principle that I really can't get behind.

Report back when you get the chance about the different prices if you want. And if you really want a shock, go to another "non-tipping society" (Japan) and find out that the 12 oz $21.79 (menu price including tax) ribeye at Outback in Nashville will "only" set you back $34 (including tax) *and* they're going to tack on a 10% "service charge" on top of that.

Just make sure you do all the requisite currency conversions before you do the comparisons. And take tax into account. On the Japanese menu, it's not ex-tax and it's 10% nservice charge.

Hey wait - you mentioned that difference in price yourself:

"I was able to get a satisfying meal for $10. In contrast, last weekend in Sydney, I paid that same amount for a mere tomato bruschetta in a cafe, located on Broadway".

Care to guess why? Yep, believe it or not, tipping is your friend. It keeps the total cost of your meal down.

I won't address the other subjective complaints about service. That's impossible for me to challenge. But ask yourself this - if you got that same "substandard service", would it be better if you had to pay a fixed amount and lost the option of tipping less if you had desired? My opinion? (and I'm biased as I'm a waiter, but I'm also a diner as well) Hell no.