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Blogger Sued By Restaurant For Bad Review
Voulnet writes "A recently opened Benihana branch in Kuwait sued 248am.com, a well known Kuwaiti blog, for posting a bad restaurant review about its food, asking for the blog to be shut and more than $17,500 in damages (5000 KD). Kuwaiti bloggers everywhere have announced their support for the reviewing blogger; even though it is highly unlikely the restaurant will get anything from the court, since journalists are almost always favored in libel cases in Kuwaiti courts. It seems Benihana hasn't heard of Cooks source magazine."
Oh wait, I'm fairly certain it has already started. Too bad I'm not going to Kuwait so I can snub these people. Still, they have all the bad publicity they could ever wish to avoid.
but... those dudes have really large knives!
This comment does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the author.
Benihana isn't bad, but it is badly overpriced for what it is. Unless you're lucky to get the chef who really knows how to put on a show it's simply not worth the premium over all of the other Japanese steakhouse options. The food is alright, but unexceptional--you're paying mostly for the show. If the show isn't outstanding, the whole thing tends to be a waste of time.
This also means reviews for those Steakhouses can vary quite a lot, depending on who the reviewer got that evening.
I read the internet for the articles.
Bloggers article on being sued:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:DeHc7_jwEEQJ:www.248am.com/mark/kuwait/im-being-sued-by-benihana/+http://www.248am.com/mark/kuwait/im-being-sued-by-benihana/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com
Blogger's original review:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Q4qRyLrkfa4J:www.248am.com/mark/kuwait/my-benihana-experience/+http://www.248am.com/mark/kuwait/im-being-sued-by-benihana/&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com
My Benihana Experience
A few days back I posted about Benihana opening up at the Avenues and yesterday night I decided to pass by with Nat and try it out. The service wasn’t too bad for a restaurant that’s just been open for a few days and the staff were really friendly. The restaurant itself is made up of islands and bars with a grill in the middle of each one. You sit around the grill and the chef will come to your table and prepare the food right in front of you which makes things entertaining. It’s actually why I prefer sitting at the bar in Japanese restaurants in general, since you can talk to the chef and watch them put your dish together. The problem with my experience last night though was with the food, it was disappointing to say the least.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wllrtj-3rV4
We ordered beef negimayaki for starters followed by an Orange Blossom maki and a Hibachi Chicken. The negimaki arrived looking good and was probably the best thing we had there even though I prefer Maki’s negimaki which has a richer teriyaki sauce. The Orange Blossom was very ordinary, wouldn’t order it again. Now the Hibachi chicken which is basically grilled chicken, that was the worst. The chicken was very chewy (I could swear it was undercooked if not raw) and tasted terrible. Even after I had the chef add some more teriyaki sauce in hopes of improving the taste it didn’t work. I tried to dip it into the sauces that came with the chicken but it was hard to figure out if they were actually making things worse or not. Nat only ate one piece of chicken and left the rest while I needed my protein since I’m on a strict diet and forced myself to eat my whole plate (I can do that) but the after taste was really bad. Even the rice and the veggies that came with it tasted bad AND were under cooked. Once we left I considered picking up a frozen yogurt from Pinkberry even though I hate frozen yogurts but I just needed something to get rid of the aftertaste. A few moments later we ended up at Chocolate Bar ordering the gooey chocolate cake (bye bye diet).
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAyPBFxNQlw
I shot the two videos above of the chef preparing our meal. Benihana are known for the live shows they perform when preparing your dish so I was expecting to see [This] but ended up with the above . Would I go back to Benihana? No I wouldn’t. Their sashimi and maki’s are pretty cheap (KD1.5 for 5 pieces of Salmon sashimi for example) but there are two other Japanese restaurants at the Avenues, Wasabi and Maki, and I would prefer either one of those to Benihana.
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Wow, nothing screams "the reviewer must be right" like suing the reviewer. Its probably more likely the place was already having problems and the owner got the bright idea that suing someone would be an opportunity to recoup losses.
Charlie? You're already posting to Slashdot, right out of rehab?
As a teacher I reviewed a book that I tried for one semester in one of my classes. The review was quite mixed. It wasn't terrible; but I definitely had no intention of using the book again. You notice that I am not naming the book here. That was part of the final agreement.
This has definitely put a damper on my willingness to provide honest comments about the books used in my classes. It has also impacted my willingness to experiment with different materials. I pick a safe book used by other teachers and I never recommend experimentation. In a litigious society, the safe way really is the best way.