Restaurant hits back at ‘intimidating’ customer following two-star TripAdvisor review

Diner has been banned from visiting the restaurant in future

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A customer at a restaurant in Cheshire has been banned after he allegedly intimidated staff and told them they were underqualified for their jobs.

The allegations came to light after the customer wrote a two-star review on TripAdvisor that criticised the establishment’s “Ryanair-style management”.

The Sticky Walnut restaurant in Chester is an award-winning bistro serving modern European food.

With more than 1,990 reviews on TripAdvisor to date, it currently boasts an average four-star rating.

However, one diner, who used the username “Rob V” left a scathing write-up that praised the restaurant’s food but took issue with its customer service.

Rob visited the restaurant in July (TripAdvisor)

The review was titled: “Excellent food let down by Ryanair style management” in reference to the airline of the same name.

“The good news is that the food here is very, very tasty and deserves a high rating,” it began.

“The bad news is that the restaurant management doesn’t give a t*** about customer experience.”

He added that he ate at The Sticky Walnut on 9 July and made “a complaint that was dealt with badly enough by the manager that I wrote to the owner”.

Rob continued: “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.”

The restaurant’s owner, Gary Usher, responded to the review and accused Rob and his table of being rude to staff.

“Rob you reserved a table on a Friday evening and agreed to a 1 hour 45-minute time slot,” he began.

“A standard practice, particularly on busy periods, that guests and restaurants worldwide agree to.

Gary Usher, who owns the restaurant, responded to the review (TripAdvisor)

“After your dessert course the manager, who you said ‘doesn’t give a t***’, 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.

“You proceeded to tell the manager that they didn’t deserve to be a manager and weren’t qualified to be in the position,” he wrote.

“You 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.”

Usher went on to compare Rob, who allegedly repeatedly insisted that he knew the owner of the restaurant, to previous diners who he said had attempted to “intimidate” staff.

“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,” he wrote.

Usher added that he did read Rob’s email but chose not to respond and instead to block his number and put a note on their system not to take any further bookings from him.

The Independent has contacted The Sticky Walnut for further comment.