Today I had the lovely experience of receiving a bill at a restaurant with a "Mandatory Gratuity" of 18%. It was a smallish pizza place near 42nd St and Broadway and the menu made no mention of their mandatory gratuity policy. I would also like to add that the mandatory gratuity was added on AFTER the tax was calculated (9% sales tax+ 18% gratuity). Ridiculous. The service was TERRIBLE. We ordered our food and drinks and received them after a bit of a bit of a wait, which wasn't too long. The server disappeared after dropping off our food, and was only seen again after Todd went to have my glass refilled with water. We did not pay the gratuity (well some of it) because there was no mention of this on the menu and the service was terrible! If they are going to make it mandatory, they need to be explicit about this ahead of time. When I hear that the tip is mandatory, it makes me want to run, because it usually means the service will be lousy.