TORONTO — A small taco restaurant in London, Ont., was flooded with one-star Google reviews after staff asked a large group to leave when they occupied the space without ordering and blocked paying customers over the August long weekend.
According to the restaurant’s Instagram account, a small group arrived on Aug. 1, ordered food and ate normally. Friends then joined, some bringing outside food and drinks. The gathering grew to about 35 people crowded around a table meant for six to eight, with no further orders placed.
Other customers turned away because the group blocked the entrance and path to the counter. Staff politely asked them to make room and later to leave. The apparent leader replied “two minutes” and later aggressively asked why the staff member was “repeating” himself. The group was then told to leave immediately.
Within hours the restaurant received a wave of one-star reviews. The owner initially suspected coordinated online activity linked to a previous post but later determined the reviews came from members of the group.
In a phone interview with the Western Standard, the owner of the restaurant said the individuals were not regulars and the gathering appeared spontaneous. He stressed the restaurant is happy to accommodate large groups provided they do not bring outside food and give advance notice for that size of party.
“It’s unacceptable to use the large number of people you have to bully small businesses,” the owner said. “Small businesses rely heavily on word of mouth and reviews to get people into the door and when somebody does something like this to tarnish our reputation, it’s not something we take lightly. We did nothing wrong and these people still decided to bully us.”
A member of the group called the owner on Wednesday to present their version of events, offered no apology, expressed displeasure over comments on a video of the incident and asked that the video be removed. When the owner declined, the caller hung up angrily.
The owner emphasized the restaurant is inclusive, active in the community and does not condone bullying or racism toward anyone. He said community support has been overwhelming, with many positive messages and five-star reviews offsetting the negative ones.
