Restaurant Critics. Tossers or what?
- Thread starter IsleOfMan
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T McGibney
Registered User
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Major PR fail.
I read the original review and it was very harmless.
I read the original review and it was very harmless.
Brilliant blog by Oliver Dunne - that's been a very long time coming.
This so-called restaurant critic is a trained writer and has no background in the food industry.
Restaurant critics who understand food, chefs and restaurants, such as Paulo Tulio, are fair and balanced reporters who do their homework on the restaurant they are about to visit and don't do reviews in the first few weeks of opening as there will always be teething problems in a new restaurant with equipment, supplies, staff etc.
I'd like to see Ms O'Sullivan in a professional kitchen setting for a week and let's see how she gets on.
This so-called restaurant critic is a trained writer and has no background in the food industry.
Restaurant critics who understand food, chefs and restaurants, such as Paulo Tulio, are fair and balanced reporters who do their homework on the restaurant they are about to visit and don't do reviews in the first few weeks of opening as there will always be teething problems in a new restaurant with equipment, supplies, staff etc.
I'd like to see Ms O'Sullivan in a professional kitchen setting for a week and let's see how she gets on.
It's not just about this review, she is well known in the industry for slating restaurants and chefs and is endangering people's livelyhoods, particularly newly opened businesses, with her caustic, ill-informed reviews.
On reviewing Rhodes Restaurant (Gary Rhodes) she opined 'it was essentially nice food Gary but why did you put your restaurant in such an awful location on the Northside?'
It was a stupid thing for the chef to do. It wasn't funny. However, she lost all sympathy with her pitiful article about how she went to the guards with a heavy heart and comparing to the recent stories about teenagers and online bullying and the link to suicides. She just came across as pathetic.
As an aside, I never rated her as a food critic. Up there with Tom Doorley with regard to arrogant writing.
As an aside, I never rated her as a food critic. Up there with Tom Doorley with regard to arrogant writing.
Mucker Man
Registered User
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- 232
Thanks.
I just read it. It was petty and more than a little nasty. I can understand why he was not happy about it.
Not sure I agree. It wasn't the worst. Haven't tried it but I am glad she mentioned the rudiculous 1hr 45 mins limit on a table when booking and then an empty restaurant and also the concept sounds like it was set for the chefs ego with the whole 'we are a tasting restaurant'. Maybe Oliver should spend more time in his malahide establishment and less time trying to become a celebrity chef after my last experience there. How that place has the same award as a place like chapter one is beyond me.
A
AgathaC
Guest
I understand that a photo of the chefs with the cleavers and with her head (replacing the pig's head in original picture) in one hand was tweeted. Hence the reference above to reporting to gardai etc.
I don't think that review was nasty at all - she's not ripping the restaurant apart or anything like that
"The décor is great: a central bar, cleaver lined walls, hanging wooden beams, and seating for 120"
"Dunne and Carville are talented chefs"
"Two good lobster dumplings (€11) came with oriental mushrooms and a vibrant lemongrass broth"
"Strawberry and cream Pannacotta (€6) was lovely with balsamic and honeycomb, as was Black Forrest Gateau (€6)"
She has criticisms of the restaurant too and she should certainly have waited a few weeks before reviewing it but overall it's not as bad as you would be led to believe from Oliver Dunne's blog post.
Her account of the credit card incident unsurprisingly differs significantly from Oliver Dunne's account on his blog and IMO he comes off as very petty to bring an incident like this up publicly.
I'm not a huge fan of Lucinda O Sullivan, but I can't see anything particularly nasty about that review. It was a mixture of praise and criticism.
I thought Oliver Barry's response was far more spiteful, childish and vitriolic than anything Lucinda wrote. In fact that, more than the review, would put me off visiting his restaurant.
I thought Oliver Barry's response was far more spiteful, childish and vitriolic than anything Lucinda wrote. In fact that, more than the review, would put me off visiting his restaurant.
Did you read the same review I did? There was nothing petty or nasty in it whatsoever. She has to be entertaining and informative. She told us the chef's were very talented, that's praise, the decor sounded nice, and they haven't yet sorted out their tasting menus and how it will work, but most of the food was good.
As to the references that she knows nothing about restaurants, you don't have to have worked in a kitchen to know about food. She's a critic, her job is to tell us her experience as a customer so that we might decide whether to go there. Nothing she wrote in that review would put me off.
Compared to the brillant AA Gill or the late Michael Winner her piece was tame.
A
AgathaC
Guest
from the blog ..
"Cleaver East has already after just four weeks got the nation talking positively about it "
The nation ? Oh dear
Oh dear again!
I really don't see why restaurant experience is necessary to be a reviewer. The market for the reviews isn't other chefs, but the dining public who, generally, don't care about the technicalities in the kitchen - they want tasty food, good service and comfortable surroundings.
As for Paulo Tulio - well this suggests that he may not be always "fair and balanced".