Food/restaurant reviews and comments that annoy you the most
Discussion
When posting about Chinese food in China, the number of people who bang on about eating dogs. Contrary to popular belief, the Chinese do not regularly tuck into a dinner of Lab and Chips, Collyflower Cheese or a Mutt Mcmuffin, in fact in 23 years of visiting and living In China, the only time I’ve dinned on pooch was at my behest.
People who visit a country and pronounce all the food in said country is dire. Have those people considered how large and diverse the country is？ It’s like someone visiting Iceland and declaring European food, to be rubbish.
Reviews on sites, such as Trip Advisor in which a reviewer will post “The best pizza in Asia” or wherever, have you eaten at every pizza eatery in Asia? No, I though not! “How about “The best pizza I’ve eaten …”
What annoys when reading such narrative?
People who visit a country and pronounce all the food in said country is dire. Have those people considered how large and diverse the country is？ It’s like someone visiting Iceland and declaring European food, to be rubbish.
Reviews on sites, such as Trip Advisor in which a reviewer will post “The best pizza in Asia” or wherever, have you eaten at every pizza eatery in Asia? No, I though not! “How about “The best pizza I’ve eaten …”
What annoys when reading such narrative?
daqinggegg said:
When posting about Chinese food in China, the number of people who bang on about eating dogs. Contrary to popular belief, the Chinese do not regularly tuck into a dinner of Lab and Chips, Collyflower Cheese or a Mutt Mcmuffin, in fact in 23 years of visiting and living In China, the only time I’ve dinned on pooch was at my behest.
I understand its not a day to day thing but they do still eat dogs.Cotty said:
daqinggegg said:
When posting about Chinese food in China, the number of people who bang on about eating dogs. Contrary to popular belief, the Chinese do not regularly tuck into a dinner of Lab and Chips, Collyflower Cheese or a Mutt Mcmuffin, in fact in 23 years of visiting and living In China, the only time I’ve dinned on pooch was at my behest.
I understand its not a day to day thing but they do still eat dogs.Edited by Melman Giraffe on Thursday 3rd May 15:00
People who really have no idea how something is made and cooked, but decide to criticise it anyway. An example:
We had a pork belly dish on our menu that involved slow braising pork belly, compressing it overnight, and then reheating, and crackling the skin. It was very popular.
We had a trip advisor review from a woman who didn't like the dish (fair enough, no issue with that) but the reason she didn't like it was because she believed it had been reheated, and not cooked to order. The entire process of slow braise, compressing it overnight to remove excess fat and shape it nicely, cutting, cooking it and crisping it took 24 hours. You cannot cook a dish like this to order, but she still decided to give us a 1 star review.
We had a pork belly dish on our menu that involved slow braising pork belly, compressing it overnight, and then reheating, and crackling the skin. It was very popular.
We had a trip advisor review from a woman who didn't like the dish (fair enough, no issue with that) but the reason she didn't like it was because she believed it had been reheated, and not cooked to order. The entire process of slow braise, compressing it overnight to remove excess fat and shape it nicely, cutting, cooking it and crisping it took 24 hours. You cannot cook a dish like this to order, but she still decided to give us a 1 star review.
Cotty said:
I understand its not a day to day thing but they do still eat dogs.
Something that hadn't occurred to me before a friend mentioned it but what does now annoy me is people who are overly praising of every meal they have, and then who look for confirmation from the others they're eating with that they're not alone in this view.
Don't get me wrong, if you have a really good meal then comment as such but don't go to Las Iguanas and then bang on about how good their enchiladas are for the next 15 minutes.
Jer_1974 said:
Scotland the home of the deep fried Mars bar. Nope, never seen one being sold in a chippy, never eaten one and don't know anyone in Scotland that has.
Last chippy I went to in Scotland (Elgin, somewhere) had various deep fried items on offer. Mars bar, burgers, gammon, pie, black pudding...Jer_1974 said:
Scotland the home of the deep fried Mars bar. Nope, never seen one being sold in a chippy, never eaten one and don't know anyone in Scotland that has.
Not that common but definitely available. Also deep fried pizza, pies, king ribs etcDeep fried Mars Bars are quite rank IMHO, but I had to get one just for the experience
steve-5snwi said:
There is a restaurant in Alcudia that is nice we have been a few times and liked it. One review gave it 1 star because it was closed. How can you leave a review when its not even open ?
Because people are stupid. I used to get the occasional 1 star because we were full or fully booked and "they" couldn't get a table.Best comment was that (in a theatre kitchen) the chef was rude because he wasn't speaking English so they couldn't understand him. He was French, speaking in French to a French speaking waitress in a French restaurant.
I use review sites but you have to filter the reviews and make your own judgements.
Out of interest do you remember the name of the restaurant in Alcudia? I visit regularly.
Everybody these days, seem to think they’re a restaurant critic, just because they watched a season of Master Chef or some such rubbish, reality television has a lot to answer for. Most of these people have little understanding of how a commercial kitchen works or probably even how to cook. Armchair chefs.
Individuals, who leave a bad critique for an eatery, without taking into consideration their own behaviour. Recently in a small Vietnamese restaurant in Vietnam, one Aussie family got very vocal that the eatery did not accept credit cards, its Danang matey not Melbourne!
With regard to my OP, yes the Chinese do eat some rather intriguing dishes, but it’s far less prevalent than most people think. These sweeping generalisations just show ignorance, as is the case in Scotland, when the same kind of people bang on about deep fried Marr’s Bars, I’ve been to Scotland many times and eaten great food, never seen deep fried Marr’s Bar, maybe I’ve just been in the right place.
Individuals, who leave a bad critique for an eatery, without taking into consideration their own behaviour. Recently in a small Vietnamese restaurant in Vietnam, one Aussie family got very vocal that the eatery did not accept credit cards, its Danang matey not Melbourne!
With regard to my OP, yes the Chinese do eat some rather intriguing dishes, but it’s far less prevalent than most people think. These sweeping generalisations just show ignorance, as is the case in Scotland, when the same kind of people bang on about deep fried Marr’s Bars, I’ve been to Scotland many times and eaten great food, never seen deep fried Marr’s Bar, maybe I’ve just been in the right place.
daqinggegg said:
Individuals, who leave a bad critique for an eatery, without taking into consideration their own behaviour. Recently in a small Vietnamese restaurant in Vietnam, one Aussie family got very vocal that the eatery did not accept credit cards, its Danang matey not Melbourne!
If they needed to put an average Vietnamese meal on a credit card, they've got a problem! One of the cheapest and best value places I've been to. Speaking of Vietnam, we had a traditional Christmas Eve Indian in Hanoi a few years ago. I ordered what was the hottest thing on the menu (not in a macho way, I just fancied the sound of it). It wasn't very spicy at all.
The table next to us later complained that their curry was too spicy and they'd never had that curry that spicy before. They couldn't have had anything hotter than I had, and that was pretty tame.
So my dislike is of people that order spicy food and then complain that it's spicy, especially overseas, resulting in the restaurants thinking that foreigners don't like spicy food so serve everything with no kick as soon as a whitey orders it.
The dog meat thing annoys me too. It seems to be everybody's first comment, but even though I wanted to try some I never saw it on sale anywhere, other than a stall in the street selling whole roast dogs. And I wasn't hungry enough for that. A border collie bap would have done me.
The table next to us later complained that their curry was too spicy and they'd never had that curry that spicy before. They couldn't have had anything hotter than I had, and that was pretty tame.
So my dislike is of people that order spicy food and then complain that it's spicy, especially overseas, resulting in the restaurants thinking that foreigners don't like spicy food so serve everything with no kick as soon as a whitey orders it.
The dog meat thing annoys me too. It seems to be everybody's first comment, but even though I wanted to try some I never saw it on sale anywhere, other than a stall in the street selling whole roast dogs. And I wasn't hungry enough for that. A border collie bap would have done me.
Edited by Philplop on Friday 4th May 20:41
daqinggegg said:
People who visit a country and pronounce all the food in said country is dire. Have those people considered how large and diverse the country is?
I broadly agree. However, the exception in my experience is Malta. OK, they have to ship most of the ingredients in given the scant resources on the island vs the number of visitors - but I have yet to be impressed. Which is odd given it's heritage and location, you would expect a fusion of North Africa meets Italy with a British influence.But sadly not (and I have gone looking)... Lovely people. Very average food.
OP said “People who visit a country and pronounce all the food in said country is dire. Have those people considered how large and diverse the country is?”
I broadly agree. However, the exception in my experience is Malta. OK, they have to ship most of the ingredients in given the scant resources on the island vs. the number of visitors - but I have yet to be impressed. Which is odd given its heritage and location, you would expect a fusion of North Africa meets Italy with a British influence.
The clue is in the word large country, I’ve been to Malta’ I agree the food was not great, I tried the national Maltese dish Stuffat tal-fenek (stewed rabbit) not great, I would even say somewhat mediocre. However, what would I have to measure it against, never having eaten Maltese before?
I broadly agree. However, the exception in my experience is Malta. OK, they have to ship most of the ingredients in given the scant resources on the island vs. the number of visitors - but I have yet to be impressed. Which is odd given its heritage and location, you would expect a fusion of North Africa meets Italy with a British influence.
The clue is in the word large country, I’ve been to Malta’ I agree the food was not great, I tried the national Maltese dish Stuffat tal-fenek (stewed rabbit) not great, I would even say somewhat mediocre. However, what would I have to measure it against, never having eaten Maltese before?
Philplop said:
The dog meat thing annoys me too. It seems to be everybody's first comment, but even though I wanted to try some I never saw it on sale anywhere, other than a stall in the street selling whole roast dogs. And I wasn't hungry enough for that. A border collie bap would have done me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I7oe3MKNF0&t=...
Cotty said:
I understand its not a day to day thing but they do still eat dogs.
This reminds me of one of the first times that I took the young woman who is now my wife to France, where I have a lot of family.She could manage oui and non, bon jour, merci, and s’il vous plait, but that was about it, anything more than that, and she was totally dependent on me.
We had dinner in a restaurant in Lille, and I was translating the menu for her, when she said, “Look, steak à cheval, I know that, I’d like that, it’s steak with a fried egg on top, but English people think that it’s horse, don’t they?”
She was correct in both things, but when the waiter took our order, I asked for steak de cheval, not à cheval for her, that IS horse, the waiter said, in French, “You do know that it’s horse, don’t you?” I said “yes, that’s fine.”
She said, “What was that about?” I said that he’d asked how she wanted it, and that they had run out of eggs, and I’d said medium, and no egg was okay.
She ate it all, said that she’d enjoyed it, but it tasted sweet.
We stayed with a cousin, in Arras, and his wife, who spoke reasonable English, told my girlfriend about the horse, as I’d told my cousin about it, and he told his wife.
She went bananas, if she’d spoken the language, I think that she’d have stormed off and gone home on her own, but she eventually married me, although she’ll still bring the horse thing up if we’re having a disagreement, to this day.
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