‘Nick Nairn has ruined this restaurant. He’s poshed it right up.’ The celebrity chef recounts this one-star TripAdvisor review of his Bridge Of Allan restaurant from memory. ‘That’s one of the ones we can laugh off,’ says Nairn. ‘It doesn’t matter that out of thousands of reviews only four are negative. It’s the negative ones that keep me up at night.’

It’s 2024 and everyone has a tiny internet-enabled computer in their pocket. We are armed, ready to condemn the service, from the second the starter tips from pleasantly hot (but for the love of god, not too hot) to slightly lukewarm. There’s no time for consideration, context or rationality. In the Wild West of unregulated review sites like TripAdvisor and Google, all you need to take down a person’s livelihood is an internet connection. 

‘Negative reviews have a disproportionate effect on wellbeing,’ states Nairn. And the way he immediately recalls specific criticisms shows which reviews live at the front of his consciousness. It can’t be easy having your work openly criticised in a way that most restaurant customers will never experience: it’s hard, not just on Nairn, but on his staff too.

In Edinburgh, Stuart Muir’s The Tollhouse held TripAdvisor’s second spot for several weeks. Restaurant manager Kevin Singfield has worked there since it opened in 2022. ‘A lot of work goes into getting good reviews,’ he says. ‘We try to use our initiative to be aware of what each dining group wants from the experience.’ And it’s true, there’s something special in The Tollhouse service. ‘Feedback is valuable and we do use it to improve standards,’ he adds. ‘But when it’s so subjective and you have two reviewers contradicting each other, it’s hard to know what to do.’ 

Of course, consumer reviews should call out immoral business practices, genuinely poor service and warn of rip-offs. It’s equally true that hospitality should prioritise customer satisfaction. But when there’s so much vitriol to wade through, it’s hard to find those genuinely useful nuggets of feedback. 

You have to mine the depths to find negative reviews of The Tollhouse; the tiny number of one-stars are mind-numbingly detailed in their barrage of minor complaints. But they’re still there, published on the internet for all to see, and the damage they do to the algorithm can be ruinous. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking the Water of Leith are one of the restaurant’s selling points, but you’ll find reviews complaining of the brightness: as yet, the staff cannot control the sun.  ‘We were number two for weeks and dropped to number 15 or 16 overnight after a couple of negative reviews. It’s hard to climb back up after that,’ Singfield says. 

In the world of professional restaurant critics, Jay Rayner claimed to have stopped writing negative reviews back in 2020 (a policy The List Eat & Drink team follow too). There’s no doubt the industry has felt like it’s been on life support in recent years. ‘I’ve been in hospitality for 40 years, including two recessions, and this is by far the worst period I’ve seen,’ says Nairn. Towering energy prices, inflation and wage bills mean many places barely cover costs and, at a time when they are on a knife-edge, negative reviews feel unnecessarily pointed. But public review sites aren’t held to the same standards: contributors can choose an anonymous byline and with anonymity comes power. 

No one can put the genie back in the bottle but Nairn implores: ‘Before you take to the keyboard to vent your spleen, take a step back. Look at the context. Think, is this fair?’ It's right that consumers have power and many opinions do come in the form of genuine, well-thought-out feedback. But others completely miss the mark, focusing on petty gripes and tipping into unhelpful hyperbole. Read the review sites, by all means, but always take them with a nice big pinch of sweet cicely salt.