Another restaurant fails clue roll

The Internets and the fact that consumers have power these days still seems to escape some business owners. Mikko Eerola tested a local Latin American eatery called "Nuevo Latino", and wrote a review to eat.fi as well as to Jaiku. Unlike the other reviewers, he didn't much like the experience; just stated that he felt the food was good though overpriced and that the waiters were rude. So nothing very unusual in Helsinki. Could've been a bad day in the restaurant, too.

The story gets interesting when the restaurant owner sent an angry email (English) to Mr. Eerola, claiming that his bad review "sounded like defamation", and that his emails "will be reported as fraud" that they "will be in the obligation to take legal actions should this behaviour continue." Also, the restaurant contacted the Peruvian embassy, which in turn contacted Mr. Eerola's wife (who's from Peru and has nothing to do with the whole thing) "who should know better".

Fail.

Of course, he blogged about the letter (Finnish), and now the whole thing is blowing over the top. Newspapers are writing about it, bloggers are writing about it, and most people just simply condemn the behaviour of the restaurant, and consider them to be a bit silly and self-destructive.

Others, well... Suffice to say that at least one anonymous moron is now at Mikko Eerola's blog comment section spouting things that could very well be construed as death threats.

Obviously, I'm not going to go to that restaurant; and neither will I take any relatives, friends, or business associates to it. Bad food and service I can forgive. Threating people (with lawsuits or violence) who just simply voice their opinion I can't.

Update: Looks like the situation is resolved peacefully, the restaurant has apologized, blaming the individual efforts of two staff members.




Comments

The connection between Peruvian embassy and Mr. Eerola's wife was missing an important bit or information. Mr. Eerola's wife works in the embassy as an assistant, hence the restaurant owners whine to the embassy.

--Jussi, 24-Jun-2008


Ah, thanks for reminding.

--JanneJalkanen, 24-Jun-2008


I ate at Nuevo Latino and disagree completely on Mr. Eerola's comments. It is true that anyone nowadays have the right to express whatever they want but we do not need to forget that we need to do it with responsibility. It seems to me that Mr. Eerola tried to become a celebrity in the cheapest way by sending many comments to portals. Otherwise I do not find explanation why he were not satisfied by expressing his comment in only one media. Just by entering his page you can see a huge picture of himself showing his tremendous ego. I hope that Nuevo Latino and Mr. Eerola and also us learn a good lesson from this event.

Saludos, CC

--AnonymousCoward, 08-Jul-2008


Well, mr. Anonymous Coward - it seems to me that you are a coward who does not dare to use his own name when doing exactly to Mr. Eerola what he did to Nuevo Latino - criticizing.

At least Mr. Eerola had the guts to do it under his own name. You didn't.

(Hey, lookatthat - completely unrelated, found an interesting article in Wikipedia. Wow! Who knew!)

--JanneJalkanen, 08-Jul-2008


Well, I dunno about you guys, but I know I'm completely convinced that the Mr. Anonymous over there is a completely objective and unrelated party.

--Mikki, 20-Jul-2008


What a story.

--Anonymous(Charlie)Coward, 22-Jul-2008


More info...     Comments?   Back to weblog
"Main_blogentry_240608_1" last changed on 30-Jun-2008 18:15:04 EEST by JanneJalkanen.