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Monday, November 08, 2010

RESTAURANT GETS A PASTING

It's not that often you read negative reviews about Bangkok restaurants in local newspapers or magazines. One of the reasons is that, in many cases, the restaurant also happens to be an advertising client and the review is "sold" as part of a package. They buy a page and get a favourable editorial review. I think most readers knows this and can see through what is basically paid-for editorial.
This week's BK Magazine stands out from the crowd because it's published a scathing review of Pattisserie Pommery in Sukhumvit Soi 26. It gets a 1 out of five. Some of the choice words in the review include: "... the cafe's staff is completely clueless ..." and "... this is a kitchen which has lost all direction and is scrambling to please by attempting to do everything under the sun, with neither talent nor soul."
A refreshing change, I am sure you will agree, although the publishers of BK can surely kiss any hopes of advertising revenues goodbye for a long, long time.

4 comments:

Unknown 9:22 AM  

If I were the owner of the restaurant, I would immediately contact advertising department of the magazine and make an offer for an ad. Seriously speaking! :) Think differently :)

Lamerton 2:01 PM  

This is highly unusual for BK magazine, which I stopped reading a while back because the restaurants reviews and even letters (saying how wonderful BK magazine is) all read like paid advertisements. In the past I went to restaurants on the back of these reviews - and they were all terrible!

Anonymous 8:16 PM  

To be fair magazines won't write the truth because they'll be sued.
How many defamation cases are there in politics.
Well I'll give you a clue the rewards in the printing business are nothing like the money politicians get.
Anyway restaurants can have bad days like any other businesses so it would be harsh to judge on just meal.

(c) 2016 Written by Andrew Batt 5:11 AM  

Thanks for these interesting and varied comments.

I vaguely remember something in the UK where a restaurant sued a publication for a bad review. I'll try to dig around and find the details and outcome.

But that said, there are many bloggers and Tweeters who write about their good and bad food experiences. These are generally fair and personal comments based on a single experience. I guess I could be theoretically sued by Thai Airways for tweeting how their last inflight offering was "bland and instantly forgettable". :-)

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