A new burger restaurant has called out a customer who left a one star review just days after it opened its doors. The Bun & Barrel in Harborne, Birmingham, only opened for the first time on January 20, but one disgruntled burger fan claimed they had been "kicked out" of the eatery.
A reveller called Ryan moaned he and his group had been "kicked out straight away" after telling the server they had "been drinking" and urged other customers not to bother because they were "pretentious", BirminghamLive reports. Rating them just one star out of five, he said staff were "aggressively rude" and urged burger fans to go to other restaurants instead.
Writing a Google review, Ryan said: "Wouldn't bother, walked in, informed the server we had been drinking, but would like a burger, kicked out straight away saying they don't allow people who have been drinking to enter, aggressively rude, if you want a good burger, use Burger Me Up or Herbert's Yard Longbridge, not these pretentious people."
But staff at The Bun & Barrel were quick to set the record straight, accusing Ryan of not quite telling the truth about their encounter in their response. "Oh Ryan, that's not quite what happened, is it?", they said.
"You said you were 'p*****'', not 'had been drinking', so we said 'maybe another night then'. Doesn't sound aggressive, does it? (It'd be illegal for us to serve someone who is 'p*****', by the way).
"Maybe you were more drunk than you remember if your memory of the conversation is that bad. Good thing we have the footage including sound if you'd like it?"
Mysteriously, Ryan's review now seems to have disappeared from Google after the savage response from the owners, which they shared on their Twitter page on January 22. "Can confirm that we don't serve 'p*****' people. A handy reminder from Ryan," they wrote.
The tweet has been seen more than 100,000 times, with customers sharing their amusement at the exchange. "Just when I thought I couldn't want to check you guys out any more," one wrote.
Tommy Dempsey, the former assistant manager of a Birmingham city centre pub wrote: "I do not envy you this. The amount of times I've told people it would be illegal to serve them because of how drunk they are, and their pointed anger when they say 'But this is a pub!' It's like bashing your head against a brick wall."
Another customer wrote: "Sat in here yesterday afternoon over 4 pints and I can say the staff were nothing but welcoming and friendly. And as we were sat by the entrance I got to witness them be like this with everyone who entered. Cool bar. Cool vibes. Cool staff. We will return for a burger."
The Bun & Barrel is run by co-founders Jamie Desogus and Rob Hennebry, serving burgers, beers and cocktails. It boasts that its burger is made from Himalayan Salt Aged Beef infused with bone marrow that comes in a demi-brioche bun made by nearby Harborne Kitchen.
Fortunately for them, Ryan's review didn't seem to discourage anyone from heading down, as they later tweeted they had sold out of buns and thanked everyone for making their opening weekend a huge success, adding: "We're blown away by your support."
