Restaurant Manager’s Extreme Reaction to 3-Star Yelp Review Backfires, Big Time

A simple delivery order from a local restaurant turned into a nightmare scenario for Yesha Callahan, the deputy managing editor of The Root, when the restaurant’s manager came to her house at 10 p.m. to talk to her about her less-than-favorable Yelp review.

Last Sunday, Callahan placed an order for a burger and zeppoles from La Porchetta, a pizzeria in Sterling, Virginia. At the suggestion of the delivery worker, Yesha hopped on Yelp after her meal to rate the food ordering experience. Her original review mentioned a “dry & unseasoned” burger and zeppoles that “barely had any powdered sugar on them.“ Callahan dropped a three-star rating, with the moderately friendly note, “Maybe next time I’ll try the pizza.” As far as Yelp reviews go, this one was pretty innocuous, but the manager of the restaurant didn’t see it that way.

Callahan says she heard a knock at her door several hours later — when she was in bed, almost asleep — and also received two calls from an unfamiliar number. She listened to the message only to find out that a manager from La Porchetta found her address and drove to her house to talk about the Yelp review. Callahan wisely called the police, who later came to collect an account of the incident and offered to patrol the area around her house for a bit.

After this bone-chilling incident, Yesha also decided to update her Yelp review to a one-star rating with an account of what happened that night. “I do not answer my door late at night for anyone,” Callahan explains in the review. “How dare you show up at my house! What kind of business are you running. And yes, the police have been notified.” A few days after the customer service experience from hell, Callahan also published a detailed report on The Root.

Later in the week, Yelp finally responded to the incident via Twitter with a note that the company was investigating the restaurant and had closed its contract with GrubHub, the review site’s delivery partner.

Since Callahan shared the details of this bizarre evening, the Yelp page for La Porchetta has been flooded with more negative reviews, riffing on the incident. Here’s are a few of the recent ratings:

Yelp

Yelp

Yelp

In a foolish attempt to dig himself out of a hole, La Porchetta’s owner has been responding to some of these Yelpers with tone-deaf messages like, “It is very Unfortunate that we sent the wrong message by attempting the second delivery to correct the first mistake. we have just started and we really wanted to impress our customers.” Some Yelp users are also taking issue with the fact that the restaurant’s owner allegedly changed his avatar to a young black woman last week (although it’s unclear what photo was previously being used as an avatar):

Yelp

Yelp

When a commenter on The Root pointed out the avatar change, Yesha Callahan responded: “Yep.. dude is a special kind of crazy.”

Hopefully, the owner and manager of La Porchetta will take some time to reflect on the events of the last week and ask themselves whether they should pursue careers outside of the hospitality industry — perhaps something that does not involve any sort of customer service.

• @yeshacallahan [Twitter]
• Here’s What Happened After I Left a 3-Star Yelp Review for a Pizza Parlor [The Root]
• Restaurant Manager Shows Up at Woman’s House at 10 PM After She Posts 3-Star Yelp • Review [Munchies]
• La Porchetta [Yelp]