negative restaurant review essay

45+ Examples of Bad Restaurant Reviews

You are probably very annoyed in the moment from a bad food or bad service since you are here. We collected some honest examples of bad restaurant reviews from places where we had awful experience.

01 . I’m confident the food here poisoned me. It’s the only food I ate in the last 24 hours that I did not eat in the proceeding days. There was also a good amount of pork. It was also half of what came up.

03 . Would give it a zero if I could. Hostess stand was rude. Bartender was rude. Come here if you want attitude.

04 . Sleepy service, poor food quality, and when we asked why it was like this they stated that their kitchen was backed up, yet the restaurant was damn near empty.

05 . Took an hour to get food. Food was dry and not cooked well and my friend found hair in her food. It was a busy night I get it, but worst service I have ever experienced. Go ANYWHERE else.

08 . The food was not very good quality and was overpriced. On top of that, there was dirt on top of the cans of soda and when we went to pay, the owner was having a phone conversation the entire time while at the counter and we had to wait until another person who worked there noticed this in order for us to pay for the food. It was overall a very bad experience.

09 . The place is horrible. I ordered a Philly cheesesteak and the thing was not edible. I am giving the place a 1 star because I couldn’t give it a 0 (zero) star. Don’t spend your money there. Street vendors foods are much tastier. Their milkshake is not MILKSHAKE. It is milk with Hershey’s syrup. I am pretty sure they are not even using the Hershey’s brand but some much cheaper version: HORRIBLE PLACE. Avoid at all costs.

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Manage Your Subscription
• Give a Gift Subscription
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes

Before You Write That Negative Restaurant Review, Know This

It might feel cathartic in the moment to trash a place online, but what are you hoping will actually happen?

Darron Cardosa, also known as the Bitchy Waiter, is the voice of restaurant servers. His decades-long career in the restaurant industry and his very active social media presence have made him an expert on all things service related. He says out loud what other servers wish they could say.

Expertise: food service, restaurant industry, waiting tables.

Experience: Darron Cardosa is a food service professional with over 30 years of restaurant experience. He has waited tables in diners, pubs, chain restaurants, neighborhood bistros, clubs, and had a short stint in a celebrity-owned restaurant before he was fired for blogging about his experience.

Over the last 15 years, he has written more than 1,500 articles and blog posts, each and every one about the food service industry. He has written for Food & Wine, Plate, the Washington Post, and others. Darron has been seen on NBC's the Today show and CBS Sunday Morning discussing the service industry. His book, The Bitchy Waiter, was published in 2016, and his years as a professional actor eventually led to the creation of his one-man show, The Bitchy Waiter Show, which tours around the country.

People Images / Getty Images

In this day and age, the internet is practically an extension of our own bodies. Phones are pretty much permanently attached to our hands while our ears are stuffed with AirPods. Our first instinct is to go to Google for almost anything and once we’re there, we’re usually distracted by something else before we remember what we wanted to look up in the first place. We are quick to announce our feelings on almost any subject via social media because until it’s posted for others to see, does it even really matter? 

Online restaurant reviews are one way that people want to share their feelings with others, but too often, they do more harm than good. Before you write a bad review about a restaurant, think about these things.

Give the restaurant a chance to respond

If you’re unhappy with a restaurant experience, speak to a person before suiting up in your armor and turning into a keyboard warrior. A restaurant review that begins with “I’m sitting at my table right now and our food is taking too long.” means the reviewer hasn’t asked for help from someone in the restaurant. Posting a bad review on Yelp or a complaint on a Facebook page isn’t going to solve the problem at hand. Talk to someone who can make a difference.

If the restaurant responded to your issue, put that in the review

It’s unwarranted to complain about something once the restaurant has already solved the problem. If the steak was gristly, but you didn’t have to pay for it, say that in the review. If the service was lackluster and the restaurant acknowledged it by apologizing and offering free dessert, let others know that. It shows that the restaurant takes complaints seriously and omitting it from the review isn’t giving the full story.

People love to bend the truth if they think it will strengthen their argument, but restaurants will usually know when the facts aren’t accurate. Don’t say you sat at the table for 15 minutes before being acknowledged when the restaurant can easily look at video footage to see it was only six minutes. Don’t say your food took an hour when the restaurant can look at their computer to see what time you ordered and what time you were served. Exaggerating the details will only make the restaurant know your argument is weak.

Don’t name names

If you have a specific complaint about someone, it’s not helpful to publicly blast them online. Make the effort to call the restaurant or talk to a manager about that person. Even if what you’re saying is true, a server shouldn’t be outed by name. It’s hurtful and embarrassing and does nothing except affect that person. Besides that, a lot of restaurants have strict policies for their employees who receive a bad review that can result in a loss of shifts or even termination. If someone is specifically trying to get a server fired by announcing their name on the Internet, that says a lot more about the writer of the review than it does about the employee. 

For every bad review you write, write a good one

People are much more likely to complain about something than they are to praise something, so give yourself a challenge. The majority of times you go out to eat, you probably have a positive experience. In fact, you may have gone to the same restaurant five times before, but it was the sixth visit that was disappointing and compelled you to write a bad review. But did you ever write a good review for the other visits? 

The next time a restaurant experience is so bad you have to express your feelings digitally, think about a time you went somewhere you loved and write a good review. When I see a bad Yelp review about a restaurant, I look at the history of the person who wrote it. If all of their posts are one and two star reviews I know they either only complain or they might actually be more of the problem than the restaurant itself. 

For years, restaurant owners accepted their fate when it came to unjustified bad reviews, but more of them now are fighting back by responding with their side of the story. One bad review that goes viral can really affect the livelihood of a small business and it’s not fair if the review is unjustified or mean-spirited. Of course you should write a bad review if the restaurant deserves it, but think of it as a critique rather than a complaint. Restaurants want to be hospitable and a well-written review will help them learn and improve.

Related Articles

SEO & Content Copywriter

Social Media Content Writer

Copywriting Services

— SaaS & Tech Content Writer

— LinkedIn Profile Writer

— Email Content Writer

— Food Content Writer

— Ad Copywriter

— Travel Content Writer

Vera is a Senior Content Writer at a Singaporean lifestyle publication, ConfirmGood where she covers stories on all things food, lifestyle, and perspectives.

Throughout my career as a content writer at various lifestyle publications in Singapore , many a time have I been tasked to write a review for a restaurant .

A review of a restaurant is incredibly important to the business. Given that 94% of diners refer to reviews before making a decision to eat somewhere, the power reviews have to sway the consumer’s decision is immense.

Having been in this profession for a while now, I can safely say that I’ve seen my fair share of good and bad examples of restaurant reviews. And boy, do I have something to say!

But before I go into the details, let’s start with the basics. How should you structure your restaurant review article?

Restaurant review format

1) lay the table.

Just as how you’d set up the table in preparation for every meal, you need to set up your article in preparation for your readers’ eyes.

Provide some background information about the restaurant, its owner(s), and what it specializes in. Check out the opening paragraph of our Carne Burgers Singapore Review : 

The reader is immediately hit with some key facts that establishes the restaurant as a reputable business. If a sustainability-focused restaurant run by a Michelin star chef doesn’t entice you, I don’t know what does.

A well-written introduction is essential as a hook to capture your reader’s attention right from the being and keep them engaged til the end of your review.

2) Start serving your mains

Now that you’ve invited your readers to the table, it’s time to show them what the restaurant has to offer.

A majority of the body of your restaurant review should showcase the best dishes the establishment has to offer. Check out what we showcased in our Seoul Garden a la carte menu review .

As a buffet restaurant, Seoul Garden has a wide selection of cooked and uncooked food items on its menu. But we only featured the most popular and best-looking items. And these are the Wagyu Picanha and Salmon slices.

You should always feature the best items that the owner wants to feature and take good pictures of them ot feature in your restaurant review. The first impression always counts 👀

Some things that should be in in this part of your review include what the dishes are, why you ordered them, and what makes them great. Describe the sight , smell , flavours , and texture of the dishes you’re reviewing. You’ll be surprised by how effective these descriptive paragraphs can be in selling the restaurant.

Quick tip 💡 Prepare an arsenal of words you can use to describe food so you can easily pull them out to use in your article.

3) Wrapping things up

End off by summarizing why you enjoyed (or did not enjoy) the food. I’d strongly recommend adding some quirky final thoughts to leave your readers with a cute aftertaste. 

You can look at what I wrote for my review on Restaurant Salt.

Tips on writing great restaurant reviews

1) learn from the best restaurant review sites.

As with learning any new skill, look at what others have already done. 

A great source of restaurant reviews are lifestyle publications. They are generally divided into different sections like travel, finance, and food. ConfirmGood’s food blog showcases some of the best places to it in Singapore.

Check out the various articles we’ve put out to learn how to write great restaurant reviews. Learn the vocabulary, structure, and writing style.

2) Look at Tripadvisor and Google restaurant reviews

This one may come as a surprise to some of you. Why would you want to refer to reviews left behind by random people? After all, these aren’t professional food writers . What’s there to learn from?

If you take a look at the list of reviews you see on such sites, you’ll notice that some of these reviews are exceptionally well written. You can pick up pretty useful vocabulary from them. I guess some people really take writing reviews on Google really seriously 🤣

Another reason why you should look at restaurant reviews is because you get to learn about what is important to a customer. Perhaps being led to the table properly is important to some. To others, it’s really just the quality of the food. See what pops up most often and take note of it.

If a restaurant hires you to write a review about them, you should include these factors in your article when promoting the business.

3) Take the best photos

Taking great pictures of the food you are reviewing is absolutely necessary. Words alone cannot do the job of convincing your readers to eat at a particular restaurant. 

Humans are visual creatures and well-taken shots of the restaurants’ best dishes can help sway your readers’ decision.

4) STOP USING “DELICIOUS”, “GREAT”, “GOOD”

Expand your food vocabulary.

If you want to write great restaurant reviews, you can’t describe that flaky pastry that oozes creamy custard fulling as delicious.

You aren’t doing the melt-in-your-mouth tender steak any justice by calling it amazing.

So just stop ❌

Again, refer to the article I listed above for some good examples of words and phrases you can use to describe food.

5) Include the restaurant’s story

A restaurant is more than its menu.

It’s also about its history, its owners’ histories, culture, and even purpose.

Establishing the restaurant’s story in the introduction of your review can help pique your readers’ interest in the place.

6) Pay attention to cultural nuances

To add to my previous point, you should always be mindful when writing about food.

Do not refer to dishes as ‘ethnic’, ‘exotic’, or worse, ‘oriental’.

Food carries with them the long history of struggle and achievements of the culture which they are from. You need to be respectful of that.

7) It’s ok to not like the food

You don’t have to lie when writing restaurant reviews.

This may even cause the restaurant to receive harsher negative reviews as they were overhyped by your article. So don’t be afraid to be honest about how you find their food. Just don’t trash them unnecessarily. 

You’re all set to start writing an awesome restaurant review !

Those are my top 7 restaurant review writing tips. I hope you’ve found them useful. Becoming a food writer is not going to be easy. But this article is a great start for you!

To get more writing tips to help improve your writing, check out Writing Wildly’s amazing writing blog !

More resources

How to write an awesome & engaging blog post for a business, top 21 finance & investment blogs in singapore, 10 reasons why content writing is important for business & marketing.

Freelance SEO blog content writing

— Freelance B2B SaaS and tech writer

— Freelance food writer

— Freelance travel writer

Freelance Social Media Content Writer

— Freelance LinkedIn profile writer

— Freelance email writer

— Freelance ad copywriting

© Writing Wildly

How to Respond Effectively to Negative Restaurant Reviews: Proven Strategies

Discover useful advice and real-life examples for effectively dealing with negative restaurant reviews while ensuring customer loyalty.

Maja Jankowska

Handling negative restaurant reviews effectively

We’re living in a digital era where a single click can either fill your tables or leave them empty. Think about it: one negative review can send potential diners running for the hills. But here’s the silver lining—handle that review like a pro, and you could turn a critic into your restaurant’s biggest advocate. So, are you ready to turn those frowns into repeat bookings?

Impact of online reviews on restaurant reputation

Online reviews are often the first thing potential customers see when searching for a restaurant. According to studies, 94% of consumers read reviews before making a dining decision . Therefore, how you handle negative reviews is crucial for your restaurant’s success.

Understanding the impact of negative reviews

Negative reviews can significantly impact your restaurant’s reputation and revenue. A single one-star decrease in your rating can reduce your revenue by nearly 9% .

Common types of negative reviews and their implications

Negative reviews can range from complaints about food quality to poor customer service. Each type of review requires a different response strategy to effectively address the issue and protect your restaurant’s reputation.

How to respond to a bad restaurant review?

Best practices for responding to negative restaurant reviews:

• Respond immediately and show urgency in addressing the issue.
• Start by thanking the reviewer for their feedback and setting a professional tone.
• Acknowledge the negative experience and state it’s not the standard.
• Acknowledge the issues mentioned in the review.
• Offer a complimentary meal as a way to make amends.
• Invite the reviewer to discuss the issue further through private channels.

✅ Respond promptly and professionally

When you get hit with a negative review, the clock starts ticking. Quick and classy responses not only show you’re on top of your game, but they also send a clear message: you genuinely care about your customers, and you’re all in when it comes to fixing any hiccups. Trust us, a timely and professional reply can turn a critic into your next regular!

✅ Express gratitude and empathy

❌ Don’t ignore it, thank the customer for their feedback. A simple thank you and a dash of empathy can turn a negative into a positive and show you’re all about keeping your customers happy.

✅ Take responsibility and offer solutions

Own it! Admitting your mistakes is the first step to winning back a customer’s trust. But don’t stop there—offer a real fix. Whether it’s a refund, a comped meal, or a vow to do better, show you’re committed to making things right. Trust us, your customers will notice, and they’ll be more likely to give you a second chance.

✅ Encourage offline communication for resolution

Take the conversation offline. Invite the reviewer to hash it out over email or a phone call. It’s a game-changer. Not only does it show you’re dead serious about fixing the issue, but it also keeps the dirty laundry from airing out in public. A win-win for your reputation and customer relations!

Example of an effective response to a bad restaurant review

Analysis of what makes these responses effective

Effective responses are prompt, empathetic, and solution-oriented. They also invite the reviewer for further discussion offline, showing a commitment to resolving the issue.

💡 Tips for crafting personalized and impactful responses

For more 💡 tips on managing your restaurant, check our Restaurant Management article.

Strategies to turn negative reviews into opportunities

Learn from negative feedback to improve restaurant operations.

Negative reviews can be a goldmine of information for improving your restaurant. Use them to identify areas that need improvement and take action.

Address specific areas of improvement highlighted in reviews

Whether it’s slow service or a menu item that misses the mark, use negative reviews as a guide to make necessary changes.

Communicate implemented changes to customers

Once you’ve made improvements, let your customers know. This can turn a negative review into a positive update and show that you’re committed to customer satisfaction.

How to maintain a positive online reputation?

Take proactive steps to prevent negative reviews.

Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews. Monitor your online presence regularly and address issues before they escalate into negative reviews.

Encourage positive reviews from satisfied customers

Offer incentives for positive reviews, or simply ask satisfied customers to share their experiences online. This can help balance out any negative reviews and improve your overall rating.

Monitor and manage online review platforms

Use tools to monitor reviews across various platforms and respond promptly. This not only helps in damage control but also in building a positive online reputation.

Responding to negative restaurant reviews is an art that requires promptness, empathy, and a commitment to improvement. By implementing these effective strategies, you can turn negative reviews into opportunities for growth and increase customer satisfaction.

Latest from the blog

How to start a restaurant in London

Are you considering starting a restaurant but still have questions? Read these 10 tips on how to open a successful restaurant without any mistakes!

Restaurant Management Software — The Ultimate Guide

Restaurant management software: The ultimate guide for owners Running a restaurant is no easy task. Between juggling reservations, managing inventory, and keeping your staff on schedule, it can quickly become overwhelming. That’s where restaurant management...

Review trends and behaviours in the restaurant and hospitality industry

Stay ahead in the restaurant industry by mastering online reviews and customer behavior. Learn actionable strategies to improve your reputation and attract more diners

Death to the Negative Restaurant Review

What critics’ obsession with the vicious takedown says about the current state of food journalism.

Last February, I had the honor of being publicly snubbed by Jay Rayner, the fiery restaurant critic for The Guardian , who dismissed my essay about the “crisis” of the American restaurant review as “ staggeringly parochial .” Apparently, my essay did not say enough about the British restaurant review. Rayner sketched a broad distinction between the somber American critic driven by “civic duty” with a “respectful and solicitous” tone (not adjectives commonly associated with the Stars and Stripes) and the Brits, who are the “writerly equivalent of bare-knuckle fighters.” While tame Americans write descriptions such as “creamy slips of uni” or “a fragrant lake of oil,” the English understand the simple joy of comparing a rude waitstaff to an “ unlubricated colonoscopy .” Rayner ended his column with an appeal to un-seriousness: “Learn to relax a little. After all, we’re not war reporters. We’re only writing about lunch.”

Then the pandemic hit. As restaurants across the world were forced to close, the value of Rayner’s style of blitzkrieg criticism became a fraught question. While American reviewers reacted to the shutdown with broader assessments of the state of the restaurant industry and its future, the major British critics spent the lockdown taking “ trips down Memory Lane ” and “ becoming emotionally attached to frying pans .” Then in June, Rayner declared an indefinite hiatus from negative reviews, announcing , “If I can’t be broadly positive I simply won’t be writing anything,” even though the shift “risks making me less readable.”  

Here, Rayner echoes the universal dogma of restaurant criticism that bad food makes for better copy than good. As Eater expounds , “It’s those baffling, disappointing, and downright bad meals that often make for the most entertaining reads.” “I never send stuff back,” confesses Sam Sifton of The New York Times, “because there could be the delicious possibility of awfulness at the end of the dish that could make for great prose.” In fact, it is fair to say that the smackdown review may be the single most venerated literary genre in all of food journalism. Every December, Eater gleefully catalogs the year’s “most scathing restaurant reviews,” enshrining the savage one-liners that show critics going “for the kill.” Roast chicken lived in a greasy no-man’s land—and no man I know would love it . Overwhelming notes of Robitussin and rubbing alcohol . Risotto with scallops is where hope goes to die . But there are no articles commemorating the year’s most scintillating culinary compliments. Why? Because entertainment comes from cruelty.

These gladiatorial takedowns are not really excellent writing about food—but rather about pain. Cuisine is merely the vessel of vitriol, the muse of literary malice. In this confusion between entertaining prose and good criticism, we find the germ of a larger malady that afflicts restaurant reviews. Conflating insult comedy with serious critique incubates a set of unhealthy rhetorical habits that powerfully distort how reviewers write and think about food. This swashbuckling literary style subconsciously shapes—and limits—the profession’s conception of quality criticism.

For instance, many British reviewers seem uncertain if high-caliber prose is even possible in the compliments-only era of Covid-19. Telegraph reviewer William Sitwell proclaimed the “sharp pen of the critic will return when the good times return.” Rayner began a recent column by listing the “writing opportunities missed” during the lockdown: the “clumsily made sauces” not compared to “bodily fluids” in “need of antibiotics” and the abandoned arson jokes about décor “crying out” for a “can of petrol.” To ask the obvious question: How did comparing clumsy sauces to urinary diseases become the apex of “good” restaurant writing? 

This pledge of blanket positivity comes at a moment of unprecedented hardship and uncertainty for the restaurant industry. Now is not the time for phony optimism or mandatory applause but righteous rage and indignation—yet redirected from problems in table décor toward problems in kitchen culture. Contemporary dining teems with contentious issues crying out for serious discussion: widespread unemployment among food workers,  sexual misconduct allegations in top kitchens, hazardous labor laws, a lack of diversity in food media, record food insecurity in the U.K. and the U.S. , to name a few. Any of these questions would benefit from a critic’s incisive intellect and informed reporting. Yet traditional reviewers remain trapped in the simplistic binary of barbaric putdowns or mindless praise.

This paralysis is a symptom of a larger generational debate over the proper role of the food critic. In the classical view, the reviewer is a gastronomic evaluator whose judgments exist outside any social context. For younger generations, the food critic is closer to a gastronomic ecologist responsible for exploring patterns of meaning in eating culture at large. The classical tradition draws a hard red line between plate and politics that prohibits the critic’s mind from leaving the dining room, but the pandemic is just one reason among many that the old divide between the food critic and the food journalist has started to blur.  

In the middle of a historic crisis, it is time to reassess food criticism’s dominant, machismo style that teaches reviewers to write sharply on minor culinary mistakes but blunt their pen when confronted with sweeping problems. Moreover, by studying how the pugilist style works, I believe we can diagnose what ails the larger tradition of food writing in the Anglosphere. To make this diagnosis, I read hundreds of negative restaurant reviews across two decades, including every piece mentioned in an Eater annual list since 2011. Overall, I compiled a 6,000-word compendium of critical insults from dozens of reviewers. Every quote cited below comes from a real review and critic. What I found is a prose pathology whose manic habits infiltrate and sabotage the public perception and social analysis of food in many subversive ways.

The data suggests that most restaurant critics suffer from a severe case of chronic prose inflation. This condition afflicts authors with an impulse to overstate and overdescribe, to enlarge each opinion or emotion. At the sentence level, the critic writes for the pull quote: “ One of the worst things anyone can eat outside of Rikers .” “ The Potemkin Village of lasagnas .” “ A crab restaurant for recently married couples who hope they’ll get divorced .” But no good essay is made of pull quotes alone. And the cumulative impact of constantly writing for the provocative headline rather than the intelligent reader is a tendency among critics to raise their rhetorical volume out of habit rather than necessity.

In unfavorable reviews, culinary diction escalates into a form of operatic invective. “Dry” turns to “dusty” or “desiccated.” “Oily” balloons to “oleaginous.” “Sour” curdles to “mouth-puckering.” Why simply call a soup “bitter” when you can hit a harsher note with “acrid” or “astringent”? Some takedown reviews read like a vindictive thesaurus entry: “ brown mucoid gloop ”; “ congealed, gelatinous cubes ”; “ sodden, sad sinkholes with a potato-like appearance .” Mistaking severity for honesty, critics pile on extra syllables and superlatives to embellish their abuse. “ Cooking so cack-handed, so foul, so astoundingly grim ” (emphasis mine); “ the rubberiest, chewiest, saddest excuse for a crustacean .” Metaphysical adverbs rain down to turn banal entrées into philosophical offenses: Dishes are “ mysteriously bland ” or “ unfathomably dry , ” as if the meat’s lack of moisture transcends the bounds of human comprehension.  

Word choice becomes a literary blood sport. A frenzied instinct pushes the author to reach for the overaggressive image: a “ wrist-slashingly ghastly ” meal, “ teeth-curlingly sweet ” onions, a “ condiment full of machismo and casual violence .” Critics pilfer the natural sciences for fresh terms to decorate their disdain and raid organic chemistry as a gold mine of nauseating verbiage: A steak tartare tingles with “ a fetid, ammonia-like tang ”; a cocktail resembles “ norovirus in a glass ”; and a beet salad stings as if “ refrigerated next to an uncovered vat of liquid aspirin .” Disease offers another arsenal of rhetorical ammunition ( purulent, pustular) , while A.A. Gill’s old columns read like a refresher course in urinary-digestive disorders, as one encounters a “vaguely proctological” stove, a “suppurating, renal brick” of veal, and “labially pink” linen that exudes “a colonic appeal.”  

The closest parallel for the restaurant critic’s mentality is the insult comic. Negative reviews often read like a standup act, with dozens of disconnected puns and laugh lines that entertain for the moment but rarely culminate in a larger argument. Even the basic structure of many sentences follows the grammar of a joke: a setup and a punch line. “Biting into the dish doesn’t so much evoke opening a gift,” Ryan Sutton drawls , “as it does finding coal in one’s stocking.” “If Villard Michel Richard doesn’t make it as a restaurant,” Pete Wells puns , “it could reopen as the Museum of Unappetizing Brown Sauces.” Decent lines, but there are no insights here, just overseasoned insults. Too often, these gotcha gags replace actual analysis of the flaws of the food, and one suspects that critics are crafting their prose to land laughs rather than ideas.

This malicious verbal inflation accelerates from a mild disorder into a raging mania when you move into metaphors. Images of mangled corpses, natural disasters, oozing sores, and lurid felonies flood the pages of negative restaurant reviews. “The crime that comes to mind first when I think of the Ciprianis,” Frank Bruni writes , “is highway robbery.” For Tina Nguyen, a poorly plated steak slumps “ like a dead body inside a T-boned minivan .” For Jeff Ruby, fried chicken left “a greasy feeling” that, “ like the demonic clown from It, could not be destroyed .” In the New York Post, Steve Cuozzo meets a fall vegetable soup that evokes a “ famine zone where ingredients are stretched ,” and in The New York Times, William Grimes stumbles on a tyrannical tomato that “ imposed totalitarian rule over a cowed population of clams, mussels, and squid .” One encounters a “ funeral pyre of French fries ,” a chocolate tuille flapping “ like something that’s fallen off a burns victim ,” and kidneys that “ could be the result of an accident involving rat babies in a nuclear reactor .” Not to be outdone, Matthew Norman deems one bistro’s secret sauce “a mustard-based crime against humanity.”

Why write this way? Why compare tomato soup to totalitarian dictators? It’s fun. And it’s easy. There are no real stakes for describing bad food. For these pugilist reviewers, the worst outcome is a bored reader, and thus the sheer unimportance of the subject sanctions a degree of exuberant cruelty unmatched in any other branch of criticism. That’s why the scorched-earth style perfected by columnists like Jay Rayner is so wildly entertaining: Negative reviews have the poetic license to pepper their prose with nuclear meltdowns and enlist figures from Mussolini to Marquis de Sade to guest star in any given sentence. Yet when a critic compares a sauce to a crime against humanity, it tells you something important. One senses the writer does not care about the food or even the crime, because it functions as a fill-in-the-blanks tragedy commandeered from the annals of human suffering to spice up a second-rate line of prose. Both items in the analogy—the real food and the imagined atrocity—just become props in the critic’s sideshow act for the reader’s vicarious entertainment.

In other words, mockery is the mission. Comedy outweighs insight as the primary ambition of these analogies. And this type of mock simile—comparing small culinary errors to eye-catching calamities—has become the restaurant review’s definitive literary device. Consider this short list of the misfortunes encountered through simile by the masters of the form, Jay Rayner and A.A. Gill:

• like King Midas has suffered psoriasis over your dinner
• like something that has spent its life chained to a radiator in the basement
• treated you like social scurvy with contagious halitosis
• smeared like a nappy accident around a pottery bowel—sorry, that should be bowl
• tasted as if your mouth had been used as the swab bin in an animal hospital
• like eating a condom that’s been left lying about in a dusty greengrocer’s

What, exactly, is the point of these similes? While a traditional simile highlights an unexpected connection between two items, the mock simile overpowers the object being described with the nuclear malevolence of its counterpart. When the goal is not imparting insight but amplifying malice, any rhetorical escalation is allowed.

Promiscuous hyperbole has consequences beyond provocation and imprecision. At the literary level, these grotesque metaphors and overcaffeinated insults are the linguistic equivalent of junk food. While there’s nothing wrong with a little bathroom humor in moderation, a steady diet of car-bomb and condom similes will ruin any author’s expressive palette. Left unchecked, food critics often develop an unhealthy craving for offensive, high-conflict imagery and start to seek out extreme comparisons over more balanced options. For instance, you find Rayner describing a mussel that “looks like the retracted scrotum of a hairless cat ,” a croquette “ the size and color of a cat’s turd, ” and a puree that makes him wince “ like a cat’s arse that’s brushed against nettles .” After getting hooked on such Red Bull rhetoric, reviewers gradually spoil their taste for subtler flavors of thought and feeling.

There is also a second consequence to such hyperbolic prose. I worry this junk-food style not only warps the critic’s relation to language but to society as well. Mock similes devolve from a literary to a moral hazard when issues such as epidemics, bankruptcy, and sexual abuse have become mainstream concerns in the restaurant world. Once a critic has compared a chocolate ganache to “ the Rohypnol of desserts ” (the brand name for a roofie), it is difficult to turn around and write intelligently about chefs facing real rape allegations. After habitually using grievous tragedies as the punch line for jokes, many critics struggle to find a literary voice that can analyze these same problems as complex social issues. It’s always easier to say: Not my job.

Now in the midst of the pandemic, an economic crisis that has decimated the restaurant industry, renewed calls for racial justice, and a wave of sexual assault allegations against top chefs, restaurants stand in the crossroads of contemporary moral, political, and economic dilemmas. Yet the consensus response among British reviewers is to meet the crisis with banal culinary compliments—imploring restaurant critics to put down their hatchets and “ accentuate the positives ” since, in Rayner’s words, to “ kick anyone in this business at the moment would be the act of an arsehole .”  

This is the heart of the case against bare-knuckle criticism: The problem is not the presence of negativity but the object of that negativity. The insult-comic style trains critics to channel their scorn toward minor errors rather than major iniquities, breeding a bipolar prose that lambasts rude hosts and greasy sauces with apocalyptic intensity yet says little to nothing about rapist chefs and unfair labor laws. In other words, pugilist prose offers an idiom of flamboyant irrelevance. This is a voice with strong words for small matters but polite silence for serious concerns—a voice that will not speak truth to power but only to cauliflower.  

In this context, the British critic’s vow to accentuate the positive is not a sign of taking responsibility but of shirking it, a refusal to address the real problems in the restaurant industry. Restaurant critics are the appointed arbiters of eating culture, leading public opinion on the key dining questions of the day, and pledging to “sheath” their pens until the “good times return” is akin to a general who will only step onto the battlefield during peacetime. Finding clever ways to insult soggy vegetables has never been a full realization of a critic’s talent and intelligence—and right now, the food world needs that intelligence and experience more than ever.  

I want to offer one final analogy to explain how the extremities of pugilist prose deform the critical imagination. This example comes courtesy of William Sitwell. “It is appropriate,” Sitwell declared on BBC’s Newsnight at the start of the shutdown, “that we [critics] don’t sharpen our pen and use them as knives and twist them into chefs and restaurateurs, because the hospitality industry is on its knees.” What’s revealing about this quote is the instinct to view a knife as a weapon and not a tool. Despite the fact that blades are a key instrument in cooking, medicine, woodwork, and countless other activities, Sitwell only sees a means for violence. Think about Sitwell’s image: the bloodied restaurant industry on its knees as the critic brandishes a knife deciding between mercy and mutilation. This brutal simplification—picturing the sharp-minded reviewer not as a craftsman or surgeon but a murderer—is the ultimate outcome of long-term exposure to insult criticism.

Sitwell’s analogy offers a parable of missed potential: The critic holds an instrument of healing in his hand but only perceives its power for pain. The trouble is not the critic’s tool but the critic’s attitude. We must reclaim healthy negativity as a tool of incisive awareness and teach restaurant critics to wield their intellect like a scalpel rather than a cudgel. Because if medicine was the guiding metaphor for restaurant reviews, rather than murder, critics might begin to approach the dining industry less as a victim deserving pity than a patient deserving treatment. And when a patient in critical condition seeks surgery, no responsible doctor would sheath their scalpel and call it charity.

Theodore Gioia is a critic living in San Francisco. He is currently writing a book on California’s food culture wars.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

The Right Way To Respond To Bad Restaurant Reviews

• by Lightspeed

minute read

Everyone’s a critic.

This adage is especially resonant today as smartphones give diners the ability to publish their thoughts about a restaurant to dozens of reviews sites before settling the check. 

While positive reviews can encourage diners to visit a restaurant, bad restaurant reviews can deter customers and affect revenue. 

The bad news is that no restaurant is immune to angry customers and less-than-stellar reviews.

The good news? When you have a solid grasp on how to handle bad restaurant reviews, you can turn them into opportunities for growth. ReviewTrackers  found that 44.6% of consumers are more likely to visit a business if the owner responds to negative online reviews.

We’re here to teach you how to effectively respond to bad restaurant reviews.  In this guide you’ll learn:

• How customer reviews affect restaurants
• Why you shouldn’t ignore bad reviews
• The dos and don t’s of responding to bad reviews
• How to respond to bad restaurant reviews

Examples of how to respond to a bad restaurant review

• Restaurant review response templates

How to avoid bad restaurant reviews

Turn more customers into regulars.

It all starts with consistently great customer service. Discover how Lightspeed makes it happen

The impact of customer reviews on restaurants

From Yelp and TripAdvisor to Google and Foursquare, there is no shortage of platforms through which customers can share their opinion of a restaurant. 

Reviews aren’t just important for your restaurant’s image, they can also affect your bottom line. 94% of diners reference online reviews to help them decide where to eat. 

With so many restaurants to choose from, diners want to make sure that they’ll have a worthwhile experience before committing to one. Smartphones help potential customers to read reviews and make decisions about your restaurant even as they wait for a table. 

Ultimately, reviews help customers vet restaurants.

While positive restaurant reviews bring customers in, bad restaurant reviews keep customers away. According to Harvard Business School, a one-star increase in a restaurant’s Yelp rating can generate an extra 9% in revenue . 

The inverse can also be true. For an industry with slim profit margins, this revenue boost or loss could make or break a restaurant. For a $2 million per year restaurant, a one-star rating decrease can lead to a $180,000 decrease in revenue. 

Next time you’re wondering why you should spend time reviewing and responding to reviews, remember these numbers and the serious impact they can have on your business financials. 

Why you shouldn’t ignore bad restaurant reviews

Rule of thumb: N ever ignore a review, no matter how negative it is! Potential customers read reviews from past customers and will base their future dining decisions on this. 

If a customer leaves a bad restaurant review and a representative from the restaurant doesn’t respond, then the reviewer has the final say. Potential customers will assume that the problems addressed by the reviewer are ongoing, or that the restaurant doesn’t care. 

If instead, a manager addresses the concerns left in a review, then potential customers will see that management takes customer feedback seriously and is taking steps to ensure that the mistake or problem highlighted by the reviewer won’t happen again. 

Remember, customer service doesn’t stop at the door! 

Let’s say that you are hungry for pizza and want to try Pete’s Pizza Pit, the new pizza spot in your town. You read a review on their Google My Business profile that says, “there was a hair on my pizza…yuck!” The restaurant didn’t respond to the review. As a result, you assume that the staff is careless and doesn’t care much about food safety. As a result, you don’t visit Pete’s Pizza Pit.

However, imagine if you read that same review and it was followed by a good response from management that says, “We are so sorry to hear about this. Food hygiene is of utmost importance to us, which is why we wear hairnets and hats to prevent this from happening. While we will do everything possible to ensure that this never happens again, if it ever does, please alert staff and we’ll replace your pizza immediately!” Reading that response, you’re more inclined to try Pete’s Pizza Pit than if they hadn’t responded at all.

A public response to a restaurant review is the opportunity to share your side of the story and show potential customers how you would react if something went wrong during their dining experience. Public responses mean that you’re not only speaking to an angry reviewer, but you’re also giving people who discover your restaurant online a chance to see what went wrong, how you fixed it and why it won’t happen again.

The dos and don’ts of responding to bad restaurant reviews

Responding to bad restaurant reviews is an art form that takes practice to perfect. 

Keep these dos and don’ts in mind when writing your response in order to achieve the best possible outcome. 

❌ Don’t : Wait too long to respond to a review  

Check review and travel sites, your Facebook and Google My Business profile regularly for new reviews. Respond to reviews within two or three days so that you can recover angry customers before they write off your restaurant completely.

❌ Don’t : R espond to reviews when you feel angry

Reading a scathing review can hurt, especially when it’s about a business you worked hard to create. While you should respond to reviews in a timely manner, feel free to sleep on tricky responses or ask for a second opinion to ensure that they are professional instead of retaliatory. 

❌ Don’t : T ake bad restaurant reviews personally

Many restaurant owners find it difficult to read critiques of their business. If reviews rile you up, delegate responding to bad reviews to someone else on your team. Make sure that the person you choose can be objective and will pass along customer feedback to you.

✅ Do : T ake bad restaurant reviews as a learning opportunity

It’s easy to be stubborn and want control over your business, but the business won’t exist without customers. View reviews as opportunities to collect feedback from customers and implement them to help your business grow.

If you’ve read several reviews complaining about server Tony, maybe you need to have a chat with him about his approach to customer service. If customers are complaining that dishes are too salty, consider revisiting your recipes.

✅ Do : Use proper grammar, punctuation and complete sentences

Just because reviews are written online doesn’t mean that you should be informal in your responses. Reviews are a PR opportunity and help you manage your restaurant’s reputation , so make sure that your responses reflect your restaurant well. 

How to respond to a bad restaurant review

There are six things that you should cover in each of your responses.

• Thank the customer (by name) for their business
• Highlight something good from the review
• Apologize for what went wrong
• Explain why the error or problem happened and what you’re doing to ensure that the error isn’t repeated
• Move the situation offline
• Invite them back

✅ Do : Thank reviewers for visiting your restaurant

Out of all of the restaurants in the area, this customer chose to spend their time and money at yours. Show gratitude with a simple, “thanks for dining with us!” Use the reviewer’s name to add a personal touch to your response.

✅ Do : Highlight something positive from the review

Even if the review contains more bad than good, bring attention to something positive the reviewer wrote. This practice reminds the customer that they liked something about their dining experience and flips the narrative for potential customers, who may read the review in a different light. 

✅ Do : Apologize for what went wrong

After the niceties, it’s time to get to the nitty-gritty of the problem. Everyone makes mistakes. When you apologize to customers, you come off as humble and receptive to feedback instead of arrogant or vengeful.

✅ Do : Explain why the mistake or problem highlighted in the review happened

Explain the changes that are being made to ensure the error won’t happen again. While the reviewer may not care why something went wrong because it already ruined their experience, this response can give potential customers some clarity. 

When you explain why the problem won’t happen again, you’re showing customers that you take their feedback seriously. The goal of this strategy is to reassure potential customers that they won’t encounter a similar problem during their visit because you learned your lesson. 

✅ Do : Move the situation offline 

Try to take the conversation offline. In your response, provide the disgruntled customer the contact information for a specific company representative. Doing this demonstrates that you are receptive to feedback and are approachable. It also shows that you take customer service seriously and really want to address the issues that customer mentioned in their comment.

✅ Do : Invite them back

Once you’ve addressed all of the above, it’s important to invite the customer to back to your establishment so that you can win back their business.  Oftentimes, this is followed by a commercial gesture like a discount on their next visit.

These response tactics will increase the chances of potential customers choosing your restaurant despite some poor reviews.

Now let’s find a real example of a bad restaurant review and put our response tips to practice. 

A personal and apologetic response

In the example above, we see a review for Recess in Chicago, where the customer, Anthony, provided a mixed review of his experience. While the reviewer appreciated the atmosphere for watching the game and celebrated a friend’s birthday, he felt the food and drinks were just average, with a specific note on the vodka cranberry being too diluted. 

A major issue highlighted in the review was with the handling of the trivia and raffle during the game day event, where Anthony’s group was seemingly penalized for winning too often, leading to a sense of unfairness and disappointment.

The Recess team handled the feedback well by:

• Starting with a personal touch: They kicked off with a personal address to Anthony, which adds a touch of care right from the get-go.
• Apologizing. Recess didn’t beat around the bush. They apologized straight up for any mix-up Anthony felt. This shows they’re not just about defending their side but also about acknowledging where things might have seemed off.
• Sharing their side of the story: Recess explained why they have certain trivia rules—to keep things fun and fair for everyone. They also dived into the details of the final raffle issue. They explained the specifics, like why certain names were pulled out or why they had to move on to the next name. It shows they’re not just addressing concerns but also taking time to explain the finer points.
• An olive branch: Ending on a positive note, they expressed hope that Anthony had a good time overall and invited him back. It’s like leaving the door open for a second chance, showing they value his patronage and would love to make things right.

Acknowledging different preferences

Here’s another example, featuring Table Rock Coffee Roasters. 

Valeria’s review presented a common dilemma in coffee shops: the balance between ice and coffee in iced drinks. Her review was positive about the coffee’s taste but critical of the amount of ice. The response from the coffee shop was a good mix of professionalism and friendliness.

• Personalized greeting: The response begins by addressing Valeria directly, which adds a personal touch to the interaction. This shows they value each customer’s feedback.
• Explanation of standards: They clarify why they use the specific ice-to-coffee ratio, emphasizing their goal to avoid a watered-down taste. This insight into their standards helps Valeria understand the rationale behind their serving method.
• Acknowledging individual preferences: The shop acknowledges that coffee preferences are subjective and vary from person to person. This shows they understand and respect individual tastes and habits.
• Offering customization: The key highlight of their response is the offer of customization. They invite Valeria to request her preferred amount of ice in future orders, demonstrating their flexibility and commitment to customer satisfaction.

Review response templates

Still need ideas for how to respond to bad restaurant reviews? We’ve put together a few review templates that you can draw inspiration from. Bear in mind though, the best responses are the ones that are personalized and tailored to the situation, so use these templates as a starting point but don’t copy them verbatim. 

Restaurant review response template for negative comments about food

Did someone complain about the quality of your restaurant’s food? Here’s a template that you can adapt to your business.

Dear [Customer Name],

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback about your recent visit to [Restaurant Name]. We are truly sorry to hear that our food did not meet your expectations. We pride ourselves on [mention any specific food quality standards or culinary values the restaurant holds], and it’s clear we fell short in your experience.

We take comments about our cuisine very seriously and have shared your remarks with our culinary team. Could you please provide more details about [specific dish or aspect of the meal that was criticized]? This information will be invaluable in helping us make necessary improvements.

We would love the opportunity to make things right. Please feel free to contact us at [contact information] so we can discuss how we can ensure a better experience for you next time.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to improve. We hope to welcome you back soon to [Restaurant Name] and show you the high-quality dining experience we are known for.

Warm regards,

[Your Name]

[Your Position]

[Restaurant Name]

Restaurant review response template for poor customer service

If the negative restaurant review is regarding customer service, the following review response template is a good place to start.

Hello [Customer Name],

Thank you for bringing your experience at [Restaurant Name] to our attention. We apologize that our service did not meet the high standards we strive to uphold. Providing excellent customer service is at the heart of what we do, and it’s evident we missed the mark during your visit.

To help us address this correctly, could you please provide more details about the service issue you encountered? Any additional information about your visit (date, time, staff involved) would be greatly helpful for our internal review and training purposes.

We are committed to making things right and would appreciate the chance to discuss this further with you. Please reach out to us at [contact information] at your earliest convenience.

Your feedback is crucial in helping us improve, and we assure you that steps will be taken to prevent such occurrences in the future. We hope to have the opportunity to welcome you back to [Restaurant Name] and provide the exceptional service you rightfully expect.

Restaurant review response template for hygiene issues

Now let’s look at a review response template for addressing hygiene concerns at your restaurant.

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns regarding your recent visit to [Restaurant Name]. We take matters of hygiene and cleanliness very seriously, and we are truly sorry to hear that your experience did not meet the high standards we set for our establishment.

Your feedback is invaluable to us, and we have immediately initiated a thorough investigation into the issues you’ve raised. Rest assured, we are committed to upholding the highest standards of cleanliness and have [mention any specific steps or measures the restaurant is taking to address the issue].

We understand the importance of a clean and safe dining environment and would like to reassure you that what you experienced is not reflective of our usual practices. We would appreciate the opportunity to regain your trust and would be grateful if you could contact us at [contact information] to discuss this matter further.

We hope to have the chance to welcome you back to [Restaurant Name] and provide you with the quality experience you deserve.

Restaurant review response template for delayed service

If someone leaves a negative restaurant review about delayed service, consider replying with something along the lines of:

Thank you for bringing your experience at [Restaurant Name] to our attention. We sincerely apologize for the delay you experienced during your visit. We understand that your time is valuable, and it is always our goal to provide prompt and efficient service.

Please know that your feedback has been shared with our team, and we are taking immediate steps to address the service issues you encountered. [Optionally, mention any specific reasons for the delay or what the restaurant is doing to improve].

We value your patronage and would like to make things right. We would be grateful if you could reach out to us at [contact information] so we can ensure a more positive experience on your next visit.

Your satisfaction is important to us, and we hope to have the opportunity to serve you again soon, showing you the level of service we are known for.

Kind regards,

Unfortunately, you can’t get Yelp to delete a bad review, but you can prevent future bad reviews by making sure that your customer service and food are on top-notch. 

You can also diminish the effects of a negative review by encouraging happy customers to write good reviews .

How to get more positive reviews

• Offer customers a discount or free drink for reviewing your restaurant on Facebook, Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc.
• Instruct waiters to ask customers who seemed satisfied with their dining experience to write a review.

The only way to decrease the number of bad restaurant reviews is to offer a meal and the best customer service you can and to do it consistently.

It’s not just about making a good first impression, but by following it up with a great service every time a customer visits. That’s easier said than done, but there are a few ways to assure your service is consistently positive.

• Find the right manager.
• Provide proper staff training (Pro tip: check out our risk management checklist ). 
• Opt for a point of sale system that helps you provide a fast, reliable and personalized service.

By better preparing your staff to provide the best customer service, the more positive reviews you’ll receive. The more positive reviews you have, the less impact your negative reviews will have. 

Your guide to responding to bad restaurant reviews

Reviews can be critical to a restaurant’s success. It’s all about staying on top of both good and bad reviews to avoid losing current customers and to be able to attract new ones. Remember to not take reviews personally, and to see them as a learning opportunity. 

Everyone will have an opinion, but when your restaurant’s reputation is at stake, it’s important to rise above and remember to keep your customers happy and returning. 

Now it’s time to sit down and get started on reading and replying to your reviews.

How do you respond to bad restaurant reviews?

Responding to bad restaurant reviews involves acknowledging the customer’s experience, offering an apology, and addressing the specific issues raised. Be sure to keep the response professional, empathetic, and concise. Another idea? Offering to rectify the situation, such as inviting the customer for a complimentary meal, and suggesting taking the conversation offline for further resolution, can also be effective.

How do you get rid of bad restaurant reviews?

Eliminating bad restaurant reviews is generally not feasible, as they reflect genuine customer experiences. That said, you can mitigate their impact by responding professionally and encouraging satisfied customers to post positive reviews. If a review is inappropriate or violates the platform’s guidelines (like containing hate speech or spam), you can request its removal.

Depending on the platform, the customer may be able to edit their original review. So, if you reach out to them directly and resolve their concerns or offer a solution, they might choose to update their review to reflect the improved experience or the responsive customer service they received.

How many bad reviews can change a restaurant’s rating?

The impact of bad reviews on a restaurant’s overall rating depends on several factors, including the total number of reviews and the platform’s algorithm. While a few bad reviews might not significantly alter the rating in a large pool of feedback, a surge of negative reviews can have a more immediate and noticeable impact.

How can a restaurant owner prevent bad reviews?

Preventing bad reviews as a restaurant owner involves consistently providing high-quality service and food, training staff effectively, and addressing customer issues promptly. Encouraging direct feedback during the dining experience can help resolve issues before they result in negative online reviews. Creating a feedback-friendly atmosphere shows customers that their opinions are valued and considered for continuous improvement.

News you care about. Tips you can use.

Everything your business needs to grow, delivered straight to your inbox.

Sorry, there was an error with your submission.

Success! You are now signed up to our blog content updates.

Lightspeed is a cloud-based commerce platform powering small and medium-sized businesses in over 100 countries around the world. With smart, scalable and dependable point of sale systems, it's an all-in-one solution that helps restaurants and retailers sell across channels, manage operations, engage with consumers, accept payments and grow their business.

Related articles

How to Supercharge Your Restaurant's Online Reservations

• by Catherine Schwartz

How to Build an Equitable Restaurant Tip Out Structure

Table Talks | Elevating Restaurant Operations Through Strategic Partnerships

• by Jody Hewitt

Browse more topics