Dodgy Chefs get the community treatment

September 14th, 2005

Charles Astwood is the kitchen nightmare that Gordon Ramsay can’t fix. More horrifying to many restaurateurs than AA Gill, Fay Maschler and the man from Michelin all coming to dinner at once, Astwood spends at least part of each day listening to London’s top chefs scream at him. And why? Because Charles Astwood has transformed ordinary punters into critics.

reports the Guardian in Reviews on a Plate

London Eating is a site dedicated to restaurant reviews by us ordinary Joes in the street.

The Guardian says

Since its launch in 2000, the site has grown to become the largest online restaurant guide in the UK, with more than 650,000 unique users visiting the site each month and more than 100,000 reviews, all submitted by ordinary diners

Who says communities don’t dominate brands!

Even Jamie Oliver has gotten the treatment – Jamie in inimitable fashion did respond.

Is this the death of the restaurant reviewer? Probably not, further more Astwood believes that his site also provides a service to restauranteurs. “I know for a fact that the Ivy checks our site to see what is being said about them, and they are not the only ones,” he says. “It’s a much more effective customer-interaction tool than trying to persuade people to fill in a comment card.”

There are strong arguments from The River Cafe amongst others that London Eating is not good for restaurants for a whole variety of reasons. But the evidence does seem to suggest that our opinions do matter.

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