Roppongi Restaurant & Lounge is barely back in business in La Jolla and is already facing a very 2026 kind of backlash: a viral neighborhood thread questioning how suggested tips are calculated during the restaurant’s happy hour.
The discussion began with a post on Nextdoor.com by a Fashion Valley resident describing a friend who allegedly dined at Roppongi during happy hour, selected a 20 percent tip on a handheld payment device, and later believed the final charge on her credit card appeared higher than expected. According to the post, the diner later learned the suggested gratuity percentage had been calculated using the original menu price rather than the discounted happy hour total.
The thread quickly turned into a broader debate about tipping norms and transparency. Some commenters said they routinely tip based on a restaurant’s full menu price even when receiving discounts, while others argued that tip prompts should be clearly tied to the discounted total shown during checkout…