An award-winning chef has slammed a customer who criticised his ‘smelly’ fish in a TripAdvisor review.
Gary Usher hit back at the reviewer who criticised the dish at his Sticky Walnut restaurant in Hoole, Chester, which was the AA Guide’s Restaurant of the Year in 2014.
The disgruntled customer claimed the sea bream they ordered had an ‘extremely strong odour and awful strong taste’ and suggested it wasn’t fresh.
The customer went on to say that the restaurant arranged for a replacement dish and it was ‘cooked nicely and quite enjoyable’ but was angry when they were charged for it as it was more expensive.
Gary Usher hit back at the reviewer who criticised the dish at his Sticky Walnut restaurant in Hoole, Chester, which was the AA Guide’s Restaurant of the Year in 2014
The reveiw added: ‘Time to settle the bill – oops! Was this an error? A little surprised that the restaurant charged for fish dish at all, but rather than charge for the original sea bream, they charged for the more expensive replacement dish!
‘Oh, but restaurant manager said we should be happy with that arrangement as she had given me a ‘free serving of chips!’ (I don’t eat chips!!).
‘Manageress was then content to argue extensively that her billing arrangement was reasonable (with ‘free chips’ a bigger bill, and a race to finish my replacement meal, what more could I ask for).’
The reviewer, kadam4433, went on to add that they will be back ‘when staffing reviewed’.
Restaurant owner and chef Gary Usher, who has several restaurants in the north west, recently broke crowdfunding records earlier this year by raising more than £200,000 from public donations to open Wreckfish in Liverpool.
The customer went on to say that the restaurant arranged for a replacement dish and it was ‘cooked nicely and quite enjoyable’ but was angry when they were charged for it as it was more expensive
He replied: ‘I don’t need to explain to you how fresh our produce is. We have based our whole business around it*
‘We sent out 16 ‘smelly’ bream that night. The other 15 were apparently surprisingly odourless – and fresh.
‘We cooked your second choice in record time and sent it with complimentary truffle chips and sticky walnuts.
‘The manager politely explained that you were being charged as normal for the £24 halibut that you had said was cooked nicely and quite enjoyable…
‘The £18 bream that was not to your liking went in the bin with no charge to you. You then proceeded to argue in front of our other guests and refused to pay for your main course. The one that you said you enjoyed. You then left without paying for it.
‘I have reviewed the staffing and as a result I bought the general manager a lovely bottle of Riesling to compensate for having to deal with your lack of grace and good manners.
‘The way I see it you still owe us £24. It doesn’t look as if we’ll ever see it though as you’re no longer welcome in any of our bistros again. Pity!’
Several people tweeted in support of the restaurant.
Mat Simpson tweeted: ‘So what the person actually did was steal from your restaurant. Don’t let them get away with it. Massively out of order’
Natalie Brereton commented: ‘People can do such damage posting untrue accounts like this, it’s outrageous. Riesling was a great shout.’
Sarah Tweeted: ‘It angers me that people will sign up JUST to write a bad review. If they’d had a fabulous meal, would they have bothered to share or write a 4/5* review? I’m not sure*’