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A Tampa, Florida restaurant sued a diner who left a negative review on Yelp. They apparently didn’t like it when she called their meat quality “subpar” and spare ribs “dry.”
The restaurant, Hales Blackbrick, which specializes in “innovative, inspired, seasonal New Asian” food, filed a lawsuit against Irene Eng after she left a one-star review following her visit there in December of 2023.
Eng and some friends reportedly had tiger shrimp, lamb chops, spare ribs, eggplant and mushrooms and chocolate cake during their visit to the eating establishment. After dining there, Eng, who is a blogger and frequent poster on Yelp, Google and Tripadvisor (she has written over 660 reviews), according to the New York Post, wrote a 795-word review on Yelp, which she copied on Google and Tripadvisor.
“Probably will return: one of better fusion restaurants I’ve been to in Florida. But the meat quality is subpar,” Irene Eng stated. She also added that while the eggplant and mushrooms were “wonderful” and the tiger shrimp were “tasty and succulent,” she also wrote that the coffee was lukewarm (a Cardinal sin!!), the spare ribs were “so so” and the Hawaiian prime ribs were “the worst: way too much fat.” Eng also noted that one of her friends who dined with her at Hales Blackbrick said the Yangzhou fried rice was “greasy.”
After posting her review on Yelp, the Tampa Bay Times reports that the restaurant responded and said her review was abusive, disrespectful and arrogant.
When the owner of the restaurant sent her a cease-and-desist letter and then filed a defamation lawsuit against her, Yelp added an alert to the restaurant’s page warning that the “business may have tried to abuse the legal system in an effort to stifle free speech.”
Despite claiming that the review and subsequent warning by Yelp caused Hales Blackbrick “significant revenue, goodwill, confidence, trust, and standing,” a judge dismissed the lawsuit. When dismissing the case, the judge said not only did the restaurant not substantiate their claims, Eng’s reviews did not intentionally target specific business relationships, but were directed at the public.
This is far from the first time that a restaurant has tried to bully someone who left a bad review online. In February of this year, the owner of a ramen shop made news when he placed a cash bounty on the heads of customers who left a negative review for his restaurant.
Content shared from brobible.com.