Seneca, the elegant rooftop Italian restaurant perched atop the InterContinental Hotel in downtown San Diego, is facing a wave of online backlash after a Reddit post describing a tense encounter over tipping went viral – prompting many users to flood the restaurant’s Google page with 1-star reviews.
The now widely shared post, published in the r/EndTipping subreddit, came from a man who says he was berated by staff at Seneca after choosing to leave a 10% tip during a dinner date. The post, titled “Tipping 10% got me into a discussion during a date,” alleges that after bypassing the preset 24%, 26%, and 28% tipping options on the restaurant’s card reader to enter a custom tip amount, the diner was publicly confronted by both a server and a cook.
According to the post, the server shouted, “Are you serious, dude?!” before bringing over a cook – described as “some buff Latino dude” – who reportedly told the man, “Listen buddy, we all have bills to pay. You’re in a high-end restaurant with your girl, tipping that low is very disrespectful.” The incident reportedly caused the diner’s date to go quiet, eventually ending the evening on an awkward and deflating note…