A restaurant reviewer has received her own damning assessment after she penned a brutal critique of what was clearly a lovely restaurant.
The unnamed commentator awarded the establishment a one-star rating, which she accompanied with a lengthy explanation of why she’d been so unimpressed.
She began her Yelp review by condemning the “cheap management and customer service” before, surprisingly, dedicating an entire paragraph to how fantastic it all was.
“I heard the food was very good so I went to try. Me and the [boyfriend] got the calamari, spaghetti alle vongole, and gnocchi. All were very delicious,” she wrote.
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“I was actually so impressed that when the manager came to ask us how everything tasted I told her it was some of the best Italian food I’ve had, and I told her I’m going to post about it on Instagram where I have over 11 thousand followers and a lot of them are in the area. She seemed very happy about it.”
Then, in a surprise turn of events, she continued: “I was wrong.
“I thought that she would be grateful for the free advertising but when the check came there was literally no discount at all.
“I thought at least one of the entrees (American for main course) would be taken off but they didn’t even take off the calamari or even the drinks!”
Wrapping up her rant, she concluded: “I won’t go back there because of this. Which is a shame because the food was very good.
“The manager needs to understand how to treat customers.”
Her post has been met with horror, incredulity and more than 4,700 comments on Reddit since it was shared on the forum r/mildlyinfuriating earlier this week.
“It’s literally the purpose of a restaurant,” one user pointed out. “They make good food. You eat it. You pay for it. Restaurant gets money. Serves the next table. Everyone is happy and moves on with their day.”
“The sense of entitlement for having 11k followers on some random account is unreal,” wrote another.
“I like the places that charge double to influencers,” remarked a third.
“It’s not ‘free advertising’ if you’re expecting compensation in the form of free food,” noted a fourth.
Meanwhile, scores of others agreed that her review had, in the end, worked in the restaurant’s favour.
“I'm more likely to read a 1 star review at a place that has mostly good reviews [...] I want to know if there's a specific reason I shouldn't eat there,” one wrote.
“This is effectively a 5 star review that more people are going to read than most other 5 star reviews.”
Elsewhere, sceptics suggested that the whole thing was an ingenious publicity stunt.
“This has got to be guerrilla marketing because the first thing I thought was ‘great food and they don't kowtow to influencers?? I want to go to there!’,” one said.
And another added: “Kinda disappointed that we don't get to see the name of the restaurant. It's probably nowhere near me, but it might be nice to have a dining recommendation in case I ever travel near it.”
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