It's been a while since I posted one of these:
It's amazing what people get upset about. One restaurants review group I'm in has many people who get upset when less-than-flattering reviews of restaurants are posted. But this one takes the cake:
"This Gabriel dude is an expert on every
cuisine known to man. He thinks he's a
not dead version of Anthony Bourdain.
Read his reviews. He hates everything.
He's the type of guy who probably
drinks warm urine rather than chilled."
Possible reasons I've come up with about why people (who do not have a vested interest by being affiliated with the restaurants) react so negatively to bad restaurant reviews:
They dont like their favourite places being criticised
They think negative reviews hurt "small businesses" (which are romanticised and fetishised)
They believe in "positivity"
Some people think (small) businesses are entitled to customers' business
An insight into the last point: My friend's ex was a chef. He said it was terrible and irresponsible to leave negative reviews because it hurt people's dreams. I asked how people would know which places were bad. He said you'd know if those places had no reviews.
Then again, I've also reviewed a fruit deal and gotten flamed for pointing out I didn't get the value I was supposed to get, so some people are just crazy and nasty.
Anyhow, what I've learnt from reading a lot of food reviews is that not just do many people have incredibly low standards for food (a lot of places people gush about turn out to be incredibly mediocre - sometimes even bad), but many have incredibly low standards for food reviews (not just do they leave incredibly vague reviews, sometimes it's even worse and there're no photos, or no photos from the start of the meal, and they claim it's because they were too hungry or it was too good so they didn't take photos).