He’s at it again: Gary Usher, the famously forthright, crowdfunding chef is ripping into a negative Trip Advisor reviewer, and this time he’s gone straight for the gullet.
A reviewer called Helen E recently wrote a one star review of Usher’s Manchester restaurant Hispi, just one of several the chef has in North West England, including Sticky Walnut in Chester.
Apparently she was unhappy that the restaurant team would not go to the local shop to get lemonade, so one of her friends could make a kind of tinto de verano using a £120 bottle of red wine (they only stock cloudy lemonade), or let her go either.
In fact they didn’t end up eating and left shortly afterwards. Read the review below.
We were happy to go to the shop for your mates dreadful red wine spritzer & 20 B&H?
We just didn’t like you.
Keep it up hispi?
Love Gary X pic.twitter.com/o7lp4aCHSZ— STICKY (@StickyWalnut) May 8, 2018
Uh oh … if you know anything about Usher, you know that he loves to shoot down bad reviews, like the time he absolutely demolished this ‘chicken liver pâté’ expert, so you could guess what was coming.
But his response on Twitter was his shortest and most brutal yet: “We were happy to go to the shop for your mates dreadful red wine spritzer & 20 B&H. We just didn’t like you.” Adding: “We often nip out for people’s requests. It’s part of great hospitality. We just don’t do it if you’re a rude ****”
Ouch. Though Usher has received plenty of praise for his response, there have been those who have criticised his decision to publicly call out the reviewer (they obviously don’t know Gary Usher!).
Two sides to every story and right or wrong it feels disingenuous and not especially nice to be rude about customers. I’ve seen a few if these now and it makes me shy away from booking.
— AmandaGregson (@AmandaGregson) May 9, 2018
Is it possible to win an argument using intelligence rather than emotion? Does it take the class out of a restaurant if their staff use the 'C' word to its customers? Could this have been handled much better? Me thinks so! ?
— Steve Collins (@prostevecollins) May 10, 2018
What do you think, did this chef go too far? Let us know over on our Facebook page.
Below, watch Usher himself squirm, as his negative Trip Advisor reviews are read back to him, face to face.
