Things always have the potential to get messy when a restaurateur decides to respond to a negative online review. It’s admittedly very difficult to offer a measured response when someone has taken the time to belittle your life’s work.
In most cases, taking some time before fashioning a response gives you the chance to cool down a bit. It’s like typing an email when you’re angry. If writing it makes you feel better, then go ahead. Just don’t press the “send” button before combing through it to sound more professional and civil.
Instead of just responding in-kind to an amateur food critic online, a restaurant owner in China decided to play Columbo and exact some revenge in the real world.
(For the record, we strongly recommend against this. At best, it can lead to an embarrassing situation with little resolution. At worst, it can lead to jail time.)
The restaurateur discovered where the reviewer lived and paid a visit to the guest’s home. While a fight didn’t occur, the operator took his vengeance out on the reviewer’s door.
He didn’t just dent the door. It looks like he tried to go full Nicholson in The Shining on it.
The pictures of the door with gouge marks, scratches, and a busted handle are easily worth a thousand words.
So what exactly did this reviewer write that set the operator off?
The taste was really bad! I ordered noodles, but I'll absolutely never order them a second time! What's more, this restaurant doesn't even have a physical store, do you have a hygiene permit? I doubt it. Also, the picture he took of his lobby clearly doesn't match up with the picture of the shop.
Pretty standard for a poor online review. Not that a flaming review would've warranted such a reaction either.
Next time you’re thinking about responding to a bad Yelp review remember this story. If anything, it illustrates that you’re not alone in getting angry over a critique your business. It also shows what can happen if you don’t get a handle on that anger.