Tipping is the ideal way of paying for waitressing services. It would be awesome to have a way of directly tipping the cook as well. Unfortunately a lot of ideal systems get screwed up by people trying to “fix it.” So how well it works varies by location, but if you have a way of establishing the tipping culture for your specific restaurant it’s the way to go.

PS my mom was a waitress when I was in high school and despite bad customers and working a buffet it worked much better for her. Keeping the government out of the middle man position between the customer and the waitresses income is definitely better. They aren’t “being a cheap company not paying their employees enough.”