Michelin-starred chef Glynn Purnell fights back against negative review ‘littered with lies’

[Glynn Purnell’s restaurant, Purnell’s, is seen in Birmingham, U.K. /JimmyGuano]

Customer reviews are just a part of owning a business. Usually, a bad review is just something to take notes from and then brush off.

But for Michelin-starred chef Glynn Purnell, who owns a restaurant named after him in Birmingham, U.K., thought one TripAdvisor review was so unfair and unfounded that he had to respond, reports Metro.

A user, who goes by 714missy, gave the restaurant a one out of five rating after she and three other diners went to Purnell’s to redeem a gift voucher.

In her long list of complaints, 714missy cites that she was overcharged for the six-course dinner for four, upset by a food substitution made to accommodate a guest’s fish allergy and that the portion sizes were so small they were “immoral.”

“We also flew over from Ireland to go to Purnells,” the reviewer wrote. “In hind sight we would have been better off to have thrown the voucher away.”

But Purnell took the review to heart and decided to respond to 714missy’s concerns, something he had only done a few times before, The Birmingham Mail reports.

Purnell wrote that at no point during the meal or immediately after, was there a complaint made to kitchen, wait staff or management.

It wasn’t until receiving a phone call from an unhappy customer days later that the restaurant was made aware of her “horrible” dinner experience. The chef offered a complimentary meal to make up for it.

“This was declined and the lady stated that she would use this site [TripAdvisor] as a tool for being detrimental to our business and 30 members of staff,” he wrote in his response.

“If all 4 diners were embarrassed and it was in fact the worst food, I am embarrassed for them not having enough courage to express themselves on the evening,” he wrote. “These are 4 adults all upset by their dining experience who ate all 6 courses without once alerting us to the fact that they were not enjoying it.”

“When feedback is false and littered with lies it is not welcomed and as an independent restaurant we will fiercely dispute any attempts to blacken our name,” Purnell wrote.

Although the original review seems to have been removed from the TripAdvisor website, you can read the full exchange here.