Negative Review Prompts Celebrity Chef To Issue A Ban On Vegans From His Restaurant

Jul 02, 2023

Running a restaurant, like any business, involves much planning and strategy. It takes many skills in people management, perseverance, grit, organization, and empathy to run a successful restaurant business. What's more, the to-do list is always ongoing, with managing inventory, catering to customer needs, perfecting the menu item, managing staff, and other recurring tasks. 

Restaurants are fast-paced environments, and like running a restaurant, working in one is also arduous. In peak hours, high speed is required of the entire team of chefs, cooks and waiters. In those periods, the team of cooks and chefs has to roll out different meals in record time, while waiters have to juggle multiple tables catering to the guests. 

At the end of the day, all the teams working in a restaurant exist to provide good food and excellent customer service to their clients. And more often than not, many restaurants meet this goal. However, even the best-ranked restaurants cannot fully satisfy every customer's needs. While some customers are satisfied with the bare minimum, others want the restaurant to go all the way for them, and even when the restaurant provides the best services, some customers may prove challenging to satisfy. 

In multiple cases, restaurant owners have had run-ins with people who berate their service, regardless of how much work is put into it. And although you can't choose your customers, you can show the door to the troublesome. On June 19, 2023, former "Great British Menu" chef John Mountain did precisely that when he banned vegans from his restaurant following their poor review of his services. Continue reading to get the details of this story.

Celebrity chef Mountain banned vegans from his restaurant. The chef, who owns the Frye restaurant in Perth, Western Australia, reached this decision after a vegan customer left a one-star review of his restaurant service. Mountain didn’t take the review lightly; he took to the restaurant’s social media pages on Facebook and Instagram to ward all vegans off his business.

“Sadly all vegans are now banned from Fyre for mental health reasons. We thank you for your understanding. Xx,” read the message.

To drive his point home, the chef added a caption asking them to go elsewhere.

“Yep. I’m done. 😊 #vegan #not #pleasegoelsewhere #veganfreezone #nomorevegan,” he wrote.

In an Interview with PerthNow, the restaurant owner gave the details of the situation that prompted the ban. A girl interested in visiting his restaurant had asked for vegan options before her visit, and he informed her of their options. 

However, Mountain forgot about the order after he went to a private event. On returning, his sous chef scolded him for leaving out that detail. However, that was only the beginning. The customer left a negative review of the business the next day.

“My only option was the vegetable dish… it was okay but not that filling… and I was shocked to see it was $32,” she wrote via a direct Facebook message to the restaurant.

The customer went on to say that restaurants should learn to accommodate everyone. Hence, Fyre’s inability to have an actual plant-based meal showed their shortcomings. The customer added: 

“If you don’t get with the times, I don’t hold out faith that your restaurant will be the one that does,” she added.

However, Mountain didn’t like the customer’s negative review and its ripple effects and banned her and other vegans from his restaurant.

What do you think of John Mountain banning all vegans from his restaurant? Do you think that he went overboard? Could both parties have handled the case differently? What would you have done differently in this case? Let us know — and be sure to pass this article on to friends and family members.