A restaurant owner has hit back at a two-star TripAdvisor review with a brutal takedown.
The reviewer, who went by the name Rob V, titled his review of the Sticky Walnut in Chester, England: "Excellent food let down by Ryanair style management" when he posted it to TripAdvisor last month.
Rob V started his two-star review with the "good news" that the food was "very, very tasty", but he then swiftly moved onto the "bad news."
He wrote: "The restaurant management doesn't give a toss about customer experience. I ate here on July 9 [and] had a complaint that was dealt with badly enough by the manager that I wrote to the owner.
"A restaurant that aspires to offer fine dining experience but has lost the ability to empathize with customers and ignores them when they complain? That really is a shame."
While a lot of restaurant owners chose to politely reply to negative reviews, apologizing, the owner of Elite Bistros, Gary Usher, decided to call this reviewer out on their alleged bad behavior.
He began his reply by pointing out that the reviewer in question had booked a table for one hour 45 minutes during a busy Friday night timeslot.
"After your dessert course the Manager, who you said 'doesn't give a toss', gently reminded you that we would need the table back shortly," he wrote. "You ignored the Manager and proceeded to order another round of drinks.
"Perhaps if your party had arrived on time for your reservation this could have been avoided. When the Manager came back a final time to politely let you know we needed to clear the table for our next guests you got up out of your seat, towering over the Manager, pointing in their face."
Gary continued by saying that the manager asked Rob V to "stop pointing in [their] face", but he went on "to tell the Manager that they didn't deserve to be a Manager and weren't qualified to be in the position."
"Your Mother then joined in by adding to the vitriol being directed towards the Manager. That's when both you and your Mother showed your true colors with the classic 'We've both worked in restaurants so we know how it works. We should be getting these drinks for free'."
The owner said that Rob V then "threatened the Manager by telling them that you would be contacting the owner because you know him."
He made a point of saying that he doesn't know Rob V.
"Every few months in a restaurant a rude guest will use the 'I know the owner!' line to try and intimidate team members and bully them into thinking that they will get into trouble because they didn't look after the owner's 'friends' well enough," he wrote.
Gary then revealed that he had also received an email from Rob V, and said "I did 'give a toss' but not about you Rob, but about the way you treated the team."
"So instead of replying to you we chose to block your number, and your Mom's, and put a note on our booking system to not accept any future bookings from you," he continued.
"With regards to the Manager who 'doesn't give a toss' they have managed Sticky Walnut for the last 8 years. Coincidentally the same length of time that Sticky Walnut has achieved a top 100 position in the National Restaurant Awards in the UK.
"I think that makes them both extremely deserving to be the Manager and absolutely qualified to hold that position."
The owner then concluded their scathing clapback by writing: "Not your mate, Gary."
According to TripAdvisor, Rob V has had an account on the reviewing website since 2010, but this is the first time that he has posted a review.
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