[shaniac]

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Shane,

what is correct tiping ettiqute for a buffet where the waitress say seats you and brings drinks but the food is self service?

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I don't eat at buffets very often, but I don't see why I wouldn't tip about 20% of the value of the meal if the server was helpful, useful and/or friendly. However, I could see an argument made for there being more room for discretion in terms of tipping buffet servers.

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perhaps b/c they do a whole lot less/table than they do at a 'normal' restaurant.

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Right, but so what? Every working person in this world is trying to make money, that's all. Many in this thread seem to embrace this concept that certain people in certain professions deserve to have the amount of money they make or be tipped capped at a certain level, and that therefore we, the customer, must police our tipping practices to ensure that cap doesn't get exceeded.

I just don't have the time or energy to figure out how much I feel like tipping relative to how much the percentage "should" be, relative to the standard of living I think my server should be enjoying, especially when it's for something standard and relatively inexpensive like a buffet meal, where even an extravagant tip wouldn't be a very large number. Rather, I just leave $10 or $20 and don't lose any sleep over it if that turns out to be a high-percentage tip.