No, that isn’t a sarcastic headline. After being lambasted by readers’ comments on his recently opened eatery, a Washington, D.C., restaurateur did what some of his foodie kin could not — issued a restrained, thoughtful and apologetic response. [More]
Restaurant Owner Posts Completely Reasonable Response To Negative Online Feedback
By December 13, 2012
Friendly’s Staff Fails To Live Up To Restaurant Name, Writes “100% Sh*t Show” On Receipt
By December 12, 2012
A New Hampshire family says that after a night out to eat at Friendly’s didn’t go so well, a restaurant staffer decided to express their inner feelings through the increasingly preferred medium of the restaurant’s billing system, dropping the phrase “100% sh*t show” at the bottom of the dinner bill. [More]
Guy Fieri’s Times Square Restaurant Is Apparently A Hit With Irony Lovers
By December 11, 2012
How can a flashy new celebrity chef-connected restaurant survive an overwhelmingly negative review? If it’s Guy Fieri’s Times Square restaurant — Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar — it can probably get by for a while just with customers who’re curious to see if it can possibly be as bad as it sounds. The ironic set has money to burn, after all. [More]
Are You A Small Business Or Restaurant Owner/Manager? We Want To Hear From You
By December 11, 2012
If you own or manage a small business or restaurant and feel like you might want to help out (even anonymously) on an upcoming Consumerist story, here is your chance. [More]
Restaurant Offers 50% Discount After Employee Labels Diners As “Fat Girls” On Bill
By December 10, 2012
To every restaurant manager in the entire world: Sit your employees down now and tell them that if they ever use the “customer name” field on the POS system for anything other than the customer’s name, they will be fired. Because yet again, some moron thought he was being hilarious by using that field to insult his customers. [More]
This Restaurant Really Wants You To Know Why It Can Now Require $10 Minimum For Credit Card Purchases
By December 7, 2012
Rather than your typical hand-drawn sign letting customers know that they must buy at least $10 worth of stuff in order to use their credit card, this restaurant goes a step further and (sort of) cites the law that gives it the right to require the $10 minimum. [More]
Restaurant Celebrates Bad Yelp Reviews By Broadcasting Them In The Restrooms
By December 6, 2012
While there are all the horror stories of businesses turning on negative Yelp reviews, there’s at least one restaurant that seems to be taking the bad and turning it into something amusing. When it comes down to it, some of those reviews are downright dramatic, and the gastropub’s owner figured he might as well have with that: His restaurant pipes in audio of voices reading those reviews in the bathrooms. [More]
As Economy Recovers, Americans Are Drinking More Alcohol
By December 4, 2012
It looks like Americans’ spirits are up — or at least the sales of spirits to Americans are up, as a new survey shows that people are buying more beer, wine and liquor when they go out to eat. [More]
State Says Restaurant’s Church Bulletin Discount On Sundays Isn’t Discriminatory, But Needs Work
By December 3, 2012
Is a promotion offering discounts to customers who bring in a “current church bulletin” discriminatory or unfair to people who aren’t religious? One Pennyslvania restaurant won’t remove or re-word their 10% off promotion for churchgoers, saying that it’s helped business on Sundays. It has, but it also got the attention of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. [More]
Travel Channel Host: Yelp Is A Forum For Uninformed Morons To Take Down Restaurants
By December 3, 2012
Since the first food critic bashed a prehistoric cook over the head with a rock, chefs have been trying to appease these evaluators, some of whom had the pull to sink an eatery with a few nasty words. So what happens when not only everyone becomes a critic, but when the place they post their criticism becomes a go-to source for finding grub? [More]
Chef Who Said Customer Must Enjoy Vomit Apologizes & The Two Are Now BFF
By November 29, 2012
As is so often the case with hastily posted outpourings of vitriol on Facebook, the chef at the Boston restaurant who called an unhappy customer “fat” and said she must enjoy vomit if she knows what it tastes like in order to compare his food to the substance, has apologized. Or rather, someone has apologized on the restaurant’s Facebook page. [More]
PETA Calls Cops, Files Suit Against L.A. Restaurant Serving Foie Gras
By November 29, 2012
The foodies among you may remember back in July, when California’s ban on the sale of Foie Gras kicked in, some restaurants were continuing to sell the duck/goose livers by “gifting” them to customers as part of a larger meal. But the folks at PETA think it’s against the law to give away foie gras, and are willing to prove their case in court. [More]
Restaurant Tells Off Displeased Customer On Facebook: “You Must Enjoy Vomit”
By November 28, 2012
If there’s one thing we know about running a restaurant (which is really not much), we know it’s probably not going to turn out well when you attack a displeased customer via social media, even if they hit first. A Boston restaurant dealt with a woman who posted on its Facebook page that part of her meal “literally tasted like vomit” with a tirade of its own, reportedly by the chef, accusing her of enjoying vomit since she knows what it tastes like. [More]
“Stop Eating” Is Not The Kind Of Tip You Should Leave Your Applebee’s Waitress
By November 21, 2012
Leaving a $0 tip on a $30 bill at Applebee’s is bad enough. But then taking the effort to write “Stop Eating B*tch!” as a “tip” is crossing the line from being a bad consumer into being a horrible human being. [More]
Waitress Gets Crafty, Creates Sippy Cup For Adult Who Spilled Drink
By November 16, 2012
Anyone who has ever spilled a large drink at a restaurant knows how humiliating it can be as everyone flees the spill and then dives in to mop up the mess. But is it a good or bad thing when the waitress brings you a replacement drink with a lid secured by tape? [More]
Is It Ever Acceptable For Waiters To Be Unpleasant?
By November 13, 2012
The “snooty waiter” who looks down his nose with disdain at his customers is a character that has been trotted out on film and TV too many times to count. But while we may not blink when we see this well-known caricature on screen, it’s a different story when that same snob is taking your lunch order. [More]
Sign At Denny’s Says It Won’t Honor Veterans Day Giveaway. Restaurant Says It Has No Idea How Sign Got There
By November 12, 2012
There’s scandal and mystery surrounding the Denny’s in North Pekin, IL, today after a sign appeared on the restaurant’s door saying it wouldn’t be honoring the previously advertised pancake giveaway for Veterans Day. But the restaurant says it has no idea who put that sign on the door. [More]
Hurricane-Damaged Restaurant Sells “Junk Bonds” To Pay For Rebuilding
By November 12, 2012
In the world of finance, junk bonds are high-yield, high-risk investments. But a restaurant in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, which was particularly hard-hit by Hurricane Sandy, is selling “junk bonds” that offer no return on your investment other than a decent meal and a good feeling that you’re helping a local business rebuild. [More]
