Restaurant libel hard to swallow for foodies

RESTAURANT owners may sometimes find reviews hard to digest, but industry bosses say most accept they have to swallow criticisms.

Newspapers and restaurant critics were yesterday mulling over the implications of a court case which resulted in a Belfast daily being ordered to pay £25,000 (€37,000) to a restaurateur who took offence at comments carried about his eaterie in a review six years ago.

The owner of the Goodfellas restaurant in Belfast city successfully claimed that criticisms by respected food writer and consultant, Co Cork-based Caroline Workman — in a review carried in the Irish News — were defamatory and damaging to his business.

Restaurants Association of Ireland chief executive Henry O’Neill, however, said the case should not be allowed to discourage the business of restaurant reviewing.

“From a restaurant owner’s point of view, there are two schools of thought on reviews. If you get a good review, they’re great and if you get a bad one, they’re hopeless. But from an industry perspective, I think they are important in as much as they give a spotlight to the industry and they give a credence to what people are trying to do within it.

“Ireland is still in its infancy in terms of developing cuisine. I think it’s important to have a commentary on the talent that’s out there and the ideas that people are developing.

“So, in general, I would welcome reviews and I think most restaurant owners, when they look at it objectively, feel the same way.

“In any case, very few of them could afford to go down the route of the Belfast restaurant.”

Objectivity is rarely on the menu, according to pioneering cook, restaurateur and reviewer, Myrtle Allen, who collaborated with Ms Workman on last year’s publication, Good Food in Cork.

“I have great sympathy for Caroline. She knows the food and restaurant business inside out. But reviewing is a very tricky business. I have left a restaurant listening to some people saying it was wonderful and others thinking it was dreadful. It’s very subjective,” she said.

“I do think that restaurants can suffer a lot from a bad review. There is probably no other profession that is criticised so openly and publicly. I often think that if a restaurant is so bad that it should not be recommended, then no review should be carried. I think it might be more constructive to raise the issues privately with the owner.”

Veteran reviewer, Helen Lucy Burke, said she does not believe restaurants suffered long-term damage from negative reviews. “In my experience, a critical review doesn’t do a blind bit of harm to a restaurant. All people remember in two weeks’ time is that it was written about — they don’t remember what was written about it.”

The National Union of Journalists is more concerned about the long-term damage to journalism as a result of the Belfast case, describing the outcome as “disturbing”.

Ms Workman said she was shocked at the verdict, which the Irish News is to appeal.

“It’s not just restaurant critics who need to worry about this — it’s any kind of reviewer or anyone with an opinion about anything.”