Editorial
Tipping is one of those topics that generates more anxiety than it deserves, mostly because the rules vary so dramatically from country to country that what counts as generous in one city can come across as condescending in another. A well-travelled drinker who tips 20% in Tokyo is not being generous. They are inadvertently suggesting the bar staff are not paid a fair wage, which in Japan they are.
We have put together this guide from direct experience across 72 cities, conversations with bartenders on four continents, and a firm belief that understanding local customs is part of being a good guest. Whether you are at a New York cocktail bar, a London craft beer pub, or a late-night bar in Tokyo, the norms are different and both under-tipping and over-tipping carry social weight.
The core explanation is wages. In the United States, tipped workers in many states earn as little as $2.13 per hour in base wages before tips. The tip is not a bonus. It is the wage. Withholding it at an American bar is not a sign of dissatisfaction. It is wage theft from someone who depends on those tips to pay rent.
In Japan, Australia, and most of Scandinavia, hospitality workers are paid a professional wage that does not depend on customer generosity. Tipping in those cultures can imply the opposite of what you intend: that the staff is not sufficiently compensated by their employer. In Japan specifically, tipping can be seen as a personal slight.
When in doubt, ask a local or research the specific city before you go. Our city guides for London, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Tokyo all include local etiquette notes.
Even within a single city, the norms shift by venue type. In London, tipping at a traditional pub where you order at the bar is uncommon. But at a dedicated London cocktail bar with full table service, a 10% tip for attentive service is entirely appropriate and increasingly expected as the city's bar standards continue to rise.
In New York, the 20% standard applies uniformly at cocktail bars and sports bars alike. Where it gets nuanced is at the beer-and-shot neighbourhood bar where you pay round by round: tipping $1 or $2 per round is appropriate here even if the tab is small.
Cash tips are almost universally preferred by bar staff because they are immediate and bypass any pooling arrangements that may reduce individual shares. In countries where tipping is customary, always carry small bills. A $5 or £5 note per visit to a cocktail bar is often more meaningful to a bartender than a 20% tip processed through the card machine that they see in their paycheck two weeks later, after pooling and accounting.
In Germany, France, and the Netherlands, card tipping is structurally awkward because the point-of-sale systems do not easily accommodate it. Adding a tip verbally before the charge is processed is standard. Do not expect a tip prompt on a card machine in these countries.
Wherever you are drinking, if someone has gone out of their way to give you excellent service, shown genuine knowledge of their product, remembered your preference, or made the evening better than it would have been without them, find a way to express appreciation within the local norm. That might be 20% in cash in Manhattan, a round number on the card machine in Berlin, or a sincere verbal acknowledgment in Tokyo. The cultures differ. The principle of recognising exceptional hospitality is universal.
For more on navigating bars abroad, read our guides to finding great bars in unfamiliar cities and bar etiquette rules that hold up worldwide.
Sofia covers London, Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Copenhagen for barsforKings. She has been writing about European bar culture for 9 years and splits her time between London and Amsterdam. She has an encyclopaedic knowledge of natural wine and classic bitter cocktails.
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