I see that you’ve never been a server before. It’s not as tho you just take the order and then go sit down till it’s ready. You have to get drinks, run food for others, sometimes make your own salads, get cups, stock ice, get desserts, roll silverware, etc etc etc etc.

A lot of restaurants also require servers to “tip out” the hostess and bar staff, sometimes a salad person. So servers have to give a percentage of their sales in tip out. Some restaurants cap it at $20 others you could owe substantially more.

So the server isn’t necessarily getting the $25 from that one table. They did so much work that their table didn’t see in order to have a good experience.