For a local takeaway, a single customer review can make it or break it in the restaurant game. And Alice Cheung, the owner of Chinese eatery Oriental Express in Pudsey, Leeds, is making sure that the latter doesn’t happen. 50-year-old Alice has a zero-nonsense policy when it comes to every single bad review a customer leaves for her takeaway.
Oriental Express has 149 reviews on Just Eat where Alice posts her blunt responses. It has a rating of five out of six stars, which is honestly quite good, but Alice wants to make sure if anyone’s leaving a bad review, they are doing so reasonably.
“[Negative] reviews tend to put business owners down and demotivate them, I want to be realistic,” Alice told Leeds Live, referring to her savage replies, and added: “I think reviews should be honest and not corporate responses.”
So let’s see what the whole buzz is all about since the internet is all in for Alice’s unusual way of handling unsatisfied customers.
Someone pointed out that the Oriental Express takeaway in Pudsey, Leeds pens hilarious responses to bad reviews and it blew up on social media
Image credits: mpwoodhead
Image credits: Oriental Express
The owner of the Oriental Express eatery in Pudsey, Leeds isn’t afraid of telling diners to eat elsewhere if they are not happy with the food. Her savage review responses like “We are good, but mind reading the stupid is not one of our skills” and “Let me guess, too much food, too tasty, delivered too quickly” started circulating on social media.
And here are some of the funniest responses to negative reviews left for the Oriental Express takeaway on Just Eat
Image credits: Oriental Express
Image credits: Oriental Express
Bored Panda reached out to a representative from Oriental Express Chinese takeaway to find out what they had to say about their blunt review responses going viral. “I had no idea they would go viral! It really just blew up overnight, we did think some of the responses were cheeky but within right reason,” the spokesperson said.
Image credits: Oriental Express
Image credits: Oriental Express
They also said that the big platforms like JustEat monitor and remove any review or response they deem malicious. “So it seems they're fine with our responses…”
“Obviously best practice would be 'customer is always right' and I believe this is true when the restaurant or shop is at fault... But if you're leaving bad reviews as a form of blackmail for free meals or to try get refunds, it's absolutely ridiculous!”
Image credits: Oriental Express
Image credits: Oriental Express
The spokesperson from Oriental Express added that they “feel like the online apps may even benefit from news like this too and again, if you're a good restaurant or takeaway, you'll get majority good reviews anyway.”
Image credits: Oriental Express
Image credits: Oriental Express
When it comes to telling apart genuinely unsatisfied and plain mean reviews, the restaurant says that they’ve seen a lot of people talk about the 'grey area' between knowing what's genuine and mean. "The clear answer is if it's genuine feedback, the restaurant will know they've physically dealt with the customer and have it on record so they know the truth.”
Image credits: Oriental Express
Image credits: Oriental Express
“For example, if you order 2 portions of chips and it's on the receipt but you ring, complain, and leave a bad review that you accidentally ordered 2 and not 1 then it's stupid, you're at fault!”
Image credits: Oriental Express
Image credits: Oriental Express
But sometimes at Oriental Express, just like any other restaurant, things don’t go according to the plan. “There are times when things like delivery times can be longer than expected, especially due to lockdown and increased delivery orders. These are normally genuine, but you can expect food to take over an hour during busy periods. If you want it quicker, come pick up, it's simple.”
Image credits: Oriental Express
Image credits: Oriental Express
The restaurant’s representative believes that some people feel like “they need to post something mean because most of the time they feel entitled, it's really that simple. If you've got genuine feedback, do you need to throw abuse?”
Image credits: Oriental Express
Image credits: Oriental Express
“There's people that read the horrible reviews and a human behind the phone call when you throw abuse, not just the name, so there shouldn't be a reason to throw abuse over a £10 meal. If you have something to say... just be polite!”
The person behind the blunt review responses is the owner Alice Cheung, who feels it's just fair to let others know if the negative review was unreasonable
Image credits: Oriental Express
The owner Alice said that the restaurant feels pressure to adjust to the new kind of customer service, where Just Eat has changed the ways people order food. “Just Eat and everything has become a big thing so we have had to adjust from the old days of taking calls and writing everything down on a piece of paper.”
Moreover, these new food order apps have “given people more of a voice and a platform to say what they think.”
And while “the majority of our reviews are pretty good, and we have a lot of return customers,” Alice believes it’s just fair to respond to an unreasonable bad review. “Sometimes we have reviews where people are just plain rude or will say something that is not true.”
Many people found them hilarious but some pointed out that it could as well be just genuine reviews of bad food
