Recently, the owners of a Sydney, Australia, restaurant sued a food critic who had given it a poor grade (nine points out of 20, overall).
Arguing the review hurt business so much they were forced to close the restaurant, the owners succeeded in their legal suit. The judge declared the critic had defamed the restaurant, and the critic's newspaper is now appealing the decision.
It's an interesting case. Food critics review restaurants to help consumers make choices, much as auto critics review new cars and point out their advantages and disadvantages. In fact, consumer media review everything from financial services to toasters. Theatre critics review plays, and who's to say that poor reviews don't lead to empty seats and curtailed runs?
It's possible the Sydney critic attracted legal action because he provided not only a critique of the restaurant's food, but an entertaining one. He described the roast chicken as "outstandingly dull."
And, noting that the restaurant described itself as "Sydney's most glamorous," the critic commented, "If glamour peaked at about 1985, then perhaps they're right."
The case raises all kinds of issues, and not only about restaurants. Look at most wine media and you'll see that very few give poor marks to wine. In this column, for example, I review only wines I would give at least three stars out of five, and I certainly wouldn't bother putting in a review of a poor wine.
Do consumers want to know what I think they should avoid buying as well as what I think is good? Or only what I think is good quality and value?
There's a lot of wine available that really isn't very good. Not long ago, my colleague Vic Harradine and I were tasting hundreds of wines from the LCBO General List, and doing them by country.
One morning we were tasting through one batch, and we both gave thumbs-down to bottle
after bottle. After a more than a dozen in a row, I suggested there might be something wrong with our palates that morning, so we tried a wine we both knew very well. Thumbs-up.
Then we went back to our wines and ditched at least another dozen before we found one we thought was acceptable.
Should we publish these results, too, or just the wines that we thought were well made, good quality, and represented good value?