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A Trip Advisor reviewer has slammed a restaurant as 'terrible,' despite not having eaten there, prompting a furious response from the restaurant's owners.
A woman calling herself tinkerbell_pt from Lisbon posted the one star, ‘terrible’ review after she was turned away as a walk-in at Buoy and Oyster in Margate, England.
“We showed up at 12h30 and asked if they had a table for 2. The waiter gave us a "uh" attitude and whilst they checked their book we looked around and more than half of the restaurant was empty. We got turned away with a "sorry no tables available only one outside at 14h.. excuse". I can only assume they weren't in the mood to receive our money.”
Nadine and Simon Morriss, owners of the seafood restaurant, which is rated ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ by 312 out of 357 reviews, were incensed however and chose to respond directly.
“To receive a negative review for this is simply unfair, you are not ‘advising’ future diners about your experience of our restaurant you have simply vented your anger and tried to get revenge for us not having a table available for you immediately when you have strolled in on a busy, sunny weekend without a reservation.”
The pair go on to point out that the restaurant was in fact fully booked for lunch, something they say they were happy to prove if needs be:
“Our trained and experienced restaurant staff do not expect to have to explain what we mean by ‘sorry we do not have a table available until 2pm’ to customers who have not booked but would have happily shown you our reservations diary had you asked for clarification … Sorry that you felt the need to rate your experience as "terrible" and we hope that leaving this review made you feel better!”
Read the full exchange below. Was the restaurant right to respond in this way? Let us know over on our Facebook page.
