> Welp, this causes a huge disparity because the bill comes in and either you need to go line by line to get the total, then impose a line by line tip
The alternative is to make the waiter go around and handle each guest individually. In scenarios where a single payer isn't available and just "collectively putting some cash on the table until it's OK" is not an option, this works quite well. Restaurant staff I think like it as well, because overall the tip will probably be larger.
Many places will refuse to do this, it's the reason that a lot of restaurants have a "X% gratuity for parties larger than Y"
It's annoying, but it's also really annoying to have to break up a bill after the fact, which is why this entire problem exists in the first place. It's definitely not the restaurant's fault that people can't agree on how to pay for things :)
The alternative is to make the waiter go around and handle each guest individually. In scenarios where a single payer isn't available and just "collectively putting some cash on the table until it's OK" is not an option, this works quite well. Restaurant staff I think like it as well, because overall the tip will probably be larger.