In The Netherlands a restaurant owner want's to get rid of it's three stars because he feel it lays too much preasure on him.
Unfortunately Michelin doesn't want to drop them.
Unfortunately Michelin doesn't want to drop them.
But this does remind me of a restaurant in Palo Alto (chef trained in a 3-star restaurant in Burgundy) whose owner asks people to leave bad yelp reviews. Basically the customer base is almost entirely regulars and that's enough to make it a good business. They don't want so much business that the regulars couldn't get a table.
I promise I will keep the secret, and if needed, happy to leave a bad Yelp review :)
More likely this is an urban myth. Or a shrewd marketing ploy.
To that end, it's 3.5 stars on Yelp (137 reviews), but Google reviews shows it as 4.5 (52 reviews). That difference alone seems that Yelp could be specifically targeted.
IN BE's case (and that of several other restauranteurs I've spoken with) she is unhappy with the general behavior of "yelpers" (obviously the nice ones she'd never notice :-))...I won't go into that. If the restaurant is always full you don't need new customers. This restaurant doesn't have the room for it, but I've seen yelper gatherings at larger restaurants and asked the waitstaff and they never seem happy with it.
I've used Yelp successfully when passing through an unfamiliar place (on the west coast of the US...less success elsewhere). It's a shame because the idea of Yelp/Tripadvisor/etc seems like it ought to be a useful one, but human nature seems to $^* it up.
https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/10/raos-new-york-exc...