Restaurateur Calls Out Bad Influencer

With the re-opening of restaurants following one of the gloomiest trading periods in history, we'd hoped that the habit of food influencers holding restauranteurs and chefs to ransom for free food and discounted meals for publicity would have fizzled out. Seems not.

In yet another case of influencer foul play, a US restaurant owner has been forced to stand up and hold an influencer to account after they posted negative reviews when they failed to secure a $100 discount on dinner up-front, yet decided to dine there anyway.

Restaurateur Xin Wei, of Corner 17, a Chinese restaurant in St. Louis, politely turned down Instagram user @antonio_eats_la's proposed collaboration in good faith, unknowingly unleashing a backlash of negative reviews and, once again, calling into account the ethics of so-called influencers.

Foul play?

Having dined at the restaurant, Antonio Malik, aka @antonio_eats_la, initiated a social media storm.

Replying to a private message from Wei, saying he hoped he liked the food having seen that he'd visited, Malik wrote: “Honestly wasn’t good, though the service was 'great'. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. Sorry!”

Malik later decided to go public, tagging Corner 17 in an Instagram story, writing “Worst dumplings ever!” over an image of the restaurant's food, plus making derogatory comments about the flavour of the food in another.

Wei, who says he is open to criticism to improve the restaurant, told St.Louis Post Dispatch, this “is not criticism anymore. I realized this is more like (an) attack because … we did not give him, like, $100 off”.

In a post on the restaurant's Instagram account, Wei wrote: “An intentionally bad write-up from a large following influencer because of our refusal to accept their collaboration is unprofessional and a such hostile manner can simply ruin their businesses.”

“I want to step up because we felt threatened by this media influencer. I want to give a voice to my Asian community that is OK to say no and turn down any promotional offers, no fear to stand up and defend yourself.”

It's not the first time that unethical influencers have been called out by chefs and restaurateurs. Restaurant owner Gary Usher, among others, has been very vocal in shooting down brutal negative reviews in the past.