Include an amount for a tip.

If you intend to cover the entire thing a tip is appropriate.

Why not put the tip amount on the card?

er, gift certificate?

I would check the policy of the restaurant to see if the tip can be taken from the gift card balance. If so, then just bump up your gift card value. If not, then I think including cash in the card or whatever for a tip would be nice (with a note about what it's for). Nobody has done that for me, but I would certainly appreciate it if someone did.

Gah, yeah. For some reason I had it in my head that restaurants don't allow (or prefer you not) tip from a gift card, probably a holdover from the days before swipeable types. I asked the manager as I was purchasing it and he said it was totally acceptable there so I adjusted the amount accordingly. I'll just need to be sure to remember to tell the recipients that as I give it to them.

....and Christmas shopping is complete. Woot! Thanks all.

No, that seems weird. (I was a PT waitress for a total of 12 years). Just make the gift cert amount for an amount that would cover the dinner plus the tip, and leave it up to them to recognize it.

If you were feeling any hesitation,it may be from overhearing waitstaff horror stories about getting basically stiffer on gift-certificate funded dinners. A sad truth is that people would often spend out the gift card, PLUS additional spending, and then only tip on the additional amount, leaving the waiter unpaid for the service the gift card went toward. For instance, if you gave a %50 gift card, ad they spent $75, after I take it off the bill, their balance reads $25 and they might only tip on the $25, if they didn't know any beter. But people with restaurant etiquette know to tip on the full dollar amount that represented the service before deductions, not just the balance after a gift is deducted.

But if the gift card was for $75 and they only spend $60, say, that is perfectly acceptable. The balance becomes the server's tip. Even 20 years ago, most places could handle this sort of thing.
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I've always assumed the user would tip on the card; or go over the card and still tip, that the user would tip even more because the effectivly started with a gift and would continue the 'gifting' by tipping even larger.

I've never worked food service; I've never considered the concept of a person using a gift card to tip less. I'd think the gift card itself prompts for correct tipping behaviour so including a 'tip' in it is moot.

I've never considered the concept of a person using a gift card to tip less.

Unfortunately it's very common, but I don't think there's a fix for this. Usually people will use your gift card not as a strict limit, but as a way to splurge a bit more than usual - so often, $50 gift card becomes a $100 dinner for only $50! And then people think "Oh dinner was only $50 so the tip is only $10," which is well below 15% on the overall bill the server is getting charged for.