Manchester restaurateur Gary Usher responds perfectly to negative TripAdvisor reviewer

Manchester chef and restaurateur Gary Usher wrote a scathing reply to a negative reviewer on TripAdvisor.

Usher – who owns Elite Bistros which operates a number of restaurants across the North West such as the city centre’s Kala, Didsbury’s Hispi and Liverpool’s Wreckfish – replied to the review, which was written by a disgruntled diner from his Chester establishment, Sticky Walnut last month.

The review, which described the experience as ‘Excellent food let down by Ryanair style management,’ read: “The good news is that the food here is very, very tasty and deserves a high rating. The bad news is that the restaurant management doesn’t give a toss about customer experience.

“I ate here on July 9th, 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 empathise with customers and ignores them when they complain? That really is a shame.”

@phil4104 / TripAdvisor

Well, this scathing review didn’t sit too well with Usher, who wasted no time in replying and pointing out a few information errors. 

Clearly not in the mood for whining customers, Usher wrote: “For goodness sake Robert. I’m supposed to be in TwitAdvisor retirement so let’s not waste any time. After all, you’ve waited 11 years since joining Twitadvisor to write your first review. Rob you reserved a table on a Friday evening and agreed to a 1 hour 45 minute time slot. A standard practice, particularly on busy periods, that guests and restaurants worldwide agree to.

“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. 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.”

Usher went on to detail that when the manager ‘politely’ informed him that the table needed to be cleared, the customer got out of his seat and ‘towered over the manager’ before pointing a finger in his face.

“The Manager’s response was ‘Sir, please can you stop pointing in my face.’ You proceeded 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 colours with the classic ‘We’ve both worked in restaurants so we know how it works. We should be getting these drinks for free.’

“You, Rob, then threatened the Manager by telling them that you would be contacting the owner because you know him and that Gary (me) would be appalled to know how you, ‘my friend,’ had been treated. The Manager politely pleaded with your whole table to just listen whilst they explained. No one did.”

And, in a shock twist of events, it turns out that the customer wasn’t actually friends with Usher after all – in fact, he doesn’t even know him.

Natural Selection Design

“In a strange turn of events you emailed me, your ‘friend’, at Sticky Walnut’s email address. You must have lost my number Rob! Not surprisingly, to either me or the Manager, you and I don’t know each other Rob. 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.

“I did read your email. 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 Mum’s, and put a note on our booking system to not accept any future bookings from you.

“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.

“Regards. Not your mate. Gary.”

That customer won’t be venting on TripAdvisor in a hurry, will he?