Dublin Restaurant Owner Had The Perfect Response To A Bad Review On TripAdvisor

Darragh Berry

The owner of Klaw The Seafood Café on Fownes Street in Dublin 2 was surprised when he logged on to TripAdvisor only to see his restaurant had been given a one-star.

An anonymous diner told Niall Sabongi that his seafood restaurant was one-star all round in terms of value, service and food on TripAdvisor.

The customer claimed that the lobster she had ordered made for just “three bites of meat”.

In her one-star review, the customer claims that:

“We received our lobsters which turned out to contain literally three bites of meat. The price was 18 euro. This was accompanied by a small bowl of chips – 4 euro.

“While both were excellent in taste and flavour, neither represented value for money. So we complained. To be frank, we were brushed off, being told that it was explained that this was the price per portion. We were not satisfied with this response as we have specifically enquired if the portion was enough to feed us for dinner. It was not and we felt mislead.”

The woman went on to add that you wouldn’t find “customer service” or “respect” in the establishment.

Niall Sabongi responded three weeks later and after a thorough investigation involving all of his staff, he believed that there was a few missing links in the woman’s story.

“You were the rudest person any of the Team have ever encountered! Even the lady with you had to apologise for you being so disgracefully rude to the staff and for no reason,” the reply starts before revealing a shocking fact about the night in question.

“Then you had the nerve to leave without paying! Which is now a matter for the Garda.

“Now to your complaint! You’re giving out because of the price of Lobster in December, so lets break it down:

Local live Irish Lobster caught off the Dublin Coast –

1. The lobster is clearly marked on the Menu @€10 per 100g
2. You were shown the lobster
3. You were given the weight
4. You were given the price

“You proceeded to order it but being clearly out of your budget you decided to share a lobster and have 1/2 each!!

“You then go on to complain that it’s not enough to fill you! You’re a grown woman, If you don’t know how much you need to eat to fill your self how in gods name do you expect us to know what it takes to ‘FILL’ you?”

The reply ends: “Nobody has the right to be rude but karma will play its roll in all of this.”

TripAdvisor – when used properly – can be a great tool for finding out information about places but restaurants do have the right to reply and when a review like this is published, this owner has shown that this is exactly how you defend your staff, your company but most of all, your reputation.

You can find the review and reply here.