In theory Yes. In practice, do that to a waiter and if they remember you next time, Good luck eating that food. Tipping is seen almost as an entitled benefit now but provided by the customers instead of employers. It is a lose-lose situation for the customer and employee because waiters get paid like shit by their employer while customer has to cough up the "tip" regardless of how they felt about the food and service.

Why would you return to a restaurant where the service was so poor you didn't feel like leaving a tip?

I've not left a tip a handful of times over some exceptionally bad service and food and never felt the desire to return to those restaurants.

I had thought the same, but a year a later that waiter was working at a different restaurant, I like. Needless say I have very distinctive hair. whether or not they remember me because my hair or not leaving tipping I don't know.

Still was interesting they remembered me a year later from a restaurant I only went to once.

A waiter sees hundreds of people every single night. Unless you were particularly rude or did something memorable, I don't think they'd remember. People always believe people are paying more attention to them than they really are.

Hell you probably weren't the only person not tipping that same night.

True, but you may not want to return and receive service from a waiter whom gets combative over how little you tip. As another person who has worked both front and back of house, I’ve seen and heard some pretty awful stuff.

This is particularly why I hate the new custom of tipping before even receiving service or food. You have to do some game theoretic dance to decide whether you’ll get bad service if you tip low up front vs get bad service anyways because they’ve already got your money.