We’ve seen some pretty interesting restaurant responses to bad Yelp Reviews in the past few months, one chef went as far as to make hilarious black and white movies of his negative reviews and another, an Italian restaurant in California, has decided to go a step further and reward customers for their one-star reviews.
The Bistro Botto restaurant is offering a 50% discount to any customer who speaks badly about them on the online review site and judging by the curet reviews, the campaign has certainly caught on.
One customer writes, “ I wish to visit California again but not here. It made my wife cry. Granted, she cries a lot but not at bistros. That was one of the few places she was happy. Now we only can eat at KFC. I hate KFC. Thanks A lot.”
The idea was started by chef and owner Davide Cerrentini who began a personal war against Yelp to prove that bad reviews do not have a negative impact on business.
To really encourage customers to get creative, Cerrentini is also offering a special prize for the funniest and most sarcastic posts. The idea seems to be gaining him a lot of publicity but we’re not sure about his huge rant in the restaurant’s newsletter where he calls out Yelpers and asks if they will find a girlfriend. It seems chefs really are fighting back when it comes to online reviews.