For hungry Olympic tourists heading out to Vancouver restaurants to nosh as the Games wind to a close, here's a helpful tip: take a close look at your bill, or risk being charged a gratuitous gratuity.

Restaurants around Vancouver have been automatically adding tips -- ranging from 15-20 per cent, usually calculated after tax -- to diners' bills during the Olympics. Typically, the auto-gratuity is scrawled amid the easy-to-miss tax fees, so some diners wind up tipping twice.

When you consider that some restaurants have also unveiled a pricier Olympic menu, some locals are worried that visitors will consider these the gouging Games and head home with a negative perception of Vancouver.

"When you're visiting, and you're going out all the time, you start to have to really look at your budget -- it's actually a shame that people have to say, 'Maybe I'll go have breakfast at a supermarket and save money there,"' said Rick Green, a freelance Vancouver writer who focuses on cuisine and travel.

"I'm concerned about our reputation. Here we want to show how great the place where we live is, and yet, we're looking at charging them a lot more.

"The Olympics is our time to shine and I think this puts a blot on the sunlight."

So, Green did what every good, agitated 21st-century citizen does -- he took to the Internet.

Green has used his Twitter account to expose restaurants that have been adding auto-gratuities, so that diners know what to expect -- and which places to avoid.

One restaurant that has earned a spot on Green's "nice" list is Vij's, the reliably packed hotspot that the New York Times once placed "among the finest Indian restaurants in the world."

Vij's always does a brisk business, and owner Vikram Vij says sales have been even better during the Olympics, though his eatery hasn't been so crammed that it has become "unmanageable," he said.

Vij isn't slipping a gratuity automatically onto his bills, and his menu prices have not changed. He feels strongly about the reasons why, calling such policies "unfair."

"I have a lot of local regulars coming into the restaurant, and they expect to be treated as they're treated all year round," Vij said in a telephone interview. "The bottom line is we are here to showcase our food. We want to be the best host, we want a long-term relationship, not a one-time relationship.

"You should put your best foot forward all the time -- it's no different to me than say, on Valentine's Day, you show all the love you want, and wine and dine, and the rest of the year you're both bitching and complaining and fighting. What's the point? You don't need to show your love only on one day. It should be a long-term relationship."

Of course, it's also worth considering that Vancouver restaurants are already hauling in heaps of money during the Olympic Games.

Sales at restaurants in the Vancouver neighbourhood of Yaletown were up 128 per cent over the first week of the Olympics, according to restaurant and retail software company Vivonet. Downtown Vancouver posted an 89.4 per cent increase and Whistler saw a 44.2 per cent boost.

The primary reason cited by restaurants for the auto-gratuity practice is that the city is flush with foreign visitors, some of whom hail from countries where tips are included in the bill, or not provided at all.

But Green argued that most of the visitors in Vancouver are North Americans who are used to tipping and are far less accustomed to having gratuities automatically -- even subtly -- tacked onto their bills.

He also pointed out that many of the European tourists might have read up on local customs before travelling and that not all of the restaurants charging auto-gratuities are actually directing all of those funds to their serving staff.

Vij, for his part, said he hasn't heard any complaints from staff about not being tipped during these Games.

"It has never been an issue. It's not like these (tourists) are coming from small little villages. They travel. It's not the first time they've travelled.

"I believe that if service and quality of food is good, people will leave a good tip anyway. I don't think you need to add it automatically."

But Vancouver Tourism CEO Rick Antonson said he doesn't think adding in tips or increasing menu prices is unfair. He said the quality and diversity of the city's culinary options largely overrule such concerns, and that tourists might expect to pony up a little more cash amid the mobbed mania that is the Olympic Games.

"I think it's fair to suggest that when people travel to an Olympic city ... there could be an Olympic premium that's not unexpected," Antonson said in a telephone interview. "That shouldn't be an excuse, but it might be an explanation."

"I don't think anyone would pretend that anything in Vancouver from real estate to a glass of good B.C. wine is a bargain, but it's value for what you're paying."

But it's the stealth of the added-on gratuities that is bothering some disgruntled diners. Especially when eating with a large group, how many people examine the section of the bill that lists the tax charges?

Not Burlington, Ont., couple Martin and Debra Downey, who had indulged in several meals out since travelling to Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., to volunteer at the Games.

They were shocked when they realized that they might have unwittingly double-dipped on some of their tips.

"(Maybe) they just slipped it in, and I didn't know," Martin said. "Yeah, that's a little frustrating, because when you think about it, you're certainly spending enough money. They're generating enough profit. ... I've never seen Robson Street this busy, and it's a busy street typically, but this is overwhelmingly so.

"How can they be that greedy, if that's what it is? That's kind of nasty."

Even German 16-year-old Merlin Debeur was surprised. He hails from Cologne, where tips are typically included in bills and grateful diners will add between five and 10 per cent extra depending on the quality of service. But he thought that the practice was different in Canada, and didn't expect to have tips included in his bills.

"I don't think it's a good thing, because I (didn't realize) it's added, and so I give some more (money)," he said. "If you are not aware of it, if they hide it, I think that's not fair."

But Debeur doubted he had been charged an auto-gratuity because he said he hadn't been able to afford to eat out much.

"I've been to some (restaurants), yeah, but not too many. In Vancouver, it's kind of expensive."