Portland's service is terrible. In other places I have lived a server makes $2.15 an hour, in Portland they make $9 an hour. The higher minimum for servers here disincentivizes hustling to pay your rent. A good cook might make more then $10 an hour if they are lucky here, but $11-12 is pretty standard in the rest of the nation. Cooks starve so that servers can take home $20-30 an hour with the minimum subsidy. As someone who works service 15% is fine, even if I am giving top notch service to demanding people I don't mind a 15% tip. At the bar tip a dollar a drink or drink beer. Your pours will be shit if you tip any less. As a bartender the dollar a drink is fine but I don't really care all that much, it's the $20-$100 dollar tips that really line my pockets. Why people tip 100-500% is a mystery to me, but I will treat you like a fucking king if you are that guy or gal.
That's you, though. I regularly read or hear complaints from those who argue that 15% is insulting. Not only that, but now you're saying 15% is okay... when the base wage is 4x as high as it is elsewhere! Which is something that has never been made known to me in all the times I've dined in Portland. The system sucks. It's a terrible maladaptation of free market principles.As someone who works service 15% is fine, even if I am giving top notch service to demanding people I don't mind a 15% tip.