Maddy's Tap Room Review

When is it right that waiting staff tell customers how much to tip, regardless of the quality of service. Yep you got it, when you go to Maddys' Tap room in Washington DC. I was there recently with a group of travelling companions from the UK, six of us in all, we told the waitress, as per instructions in the menu, that although there was 6(six) of us that we would be paying our bills in twosomes, i.e. 3 sets of bills, one per couple. I write this so specifically as this was how we presented it to the waitress so everybody was clear as the menu stated that parties of 6(six) or more would automatically incur a 20% tip added to the bill. So although we were all seated together we were in fact acting as paying couples, not as a group. This was acknowledged by the waitress so everybody was clear. We ordered drinks, and said we would be perusing the menu and would let the waitress know when we were ready to order. After a few minutes I tried to order another beer, the waitress said I would have to wait as a group of 12 had come in and she was busy looking after them. So I waited and eventually a different waiter brought my drink over, we were then ready to order and had to wait for the waitress to come to our table. Eventually the waitress took our order and it was brought to our table by another waiter, different from the last one and not the waitress who took our order, still with me ?. The time came for the bill and the original waitress brought them to our table and we noticed 20% of each bill had been added as a service charge. I asked the waitress why this was and she said we were a party of 6(six), I said we had cleared this from the start and we were 3 parties of couples. The waitress then became very abusive and insisted that we had to pay the 20% charge. I disagreed and asked for the menu to show her the written instruction on the bottom regarding service charge, she stormed off, came back almost in tears and accused us of making her pay for her service to us.