The owner of an award-winning restaurant has hit back at a complaining customer who left a TripAdvisor review slamming its “Ryanair-style management.”
Gary Usher who runs the Sticky Walnut in Hoole, Chester didn’t hold back when a dissatisfied diner accused his staff of “not giving a toss about customer experience.”
In a review entitled: “Excellent food let down by Ryanair-style management,” critic, ‘Rob V,’ who appears to have only written this one review since 2010, scores the establishment two out of five.
READ MORE: Inside the ‘eerie and rotted’ North Wales care home that closed down after being ravaged by fire
He wrote: “The good news is that the food here is very, very tasty and deserves a high rating.
“The bad news is that the restaurant management doesn’t give a toss about customer experience. I ate here on July 9 had a complaint that was dealt with badly enough by the manager that I wrote to the owner.
“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.”
But Gary, whose bistro scores an overall ranking of four-and-a-half out of five on TripAdvisor and has 1,987 reviews, was quick to defend its good reputation.
He replied: “For goodness sake Robert. I’m supposed to be in TwitAdvisor retirement so let’s not waste any time. After all, you’ve waited 11 years since joining Twitadvisor to write your first review.
“Rob, you reserved a table on a Friday evening and agreed to a 1 hour 45 minute time slot. A standard practice, particularly on busy periods, that guests and restaurants worldwide agree to.
“After your dessert course, the manager, who you said ‘doesn’t give a toss’, 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.
“When the manager came back a final time to politely let you know we needed to clear the table for our next guests you got up out of your seat, towering over the manager, pointing in their face.
“The manager’s response was: ‘Sir, please can you stop pointing in my face?’
Gary added: “You proceeded to tell the manager that they didn’t deserve to be a manager and weren’t qualified to be in the position.
“Your mother then joined in by adding to the vitriol being directed towards the manager.
