An Element of Trust

In America, when you go out to a restaurant with a group of people and ask for seperate checks, you can see the waiter / waitress sigh out of irration. It's annoying for her to go back to her computer, print out 10 seperate checks, swipe 10 different credit cards, and collect a stack of bill envelopes. 

Vienna has a very nice system that works because they use cash. The waitress goes to each person, asks them what they had, and calculates the total with paper and pen on the spot. The customer then pays their amount with tip included via cash. The waitress goes around the table and everyone individually pays their share. It's refreshing that you can just ask people what they ordered and assume they won't lie.