It is entirely possible that the food is exactly the same, but this person's perception is entirely colored by the ethnicity of the staff.
But if all your reviews are negative, it's possible you are doing something wrong. Restaurants are one of those professions where you have to be good at more than one thing; you have to design great menus, you have to buy good food, and you have to hire and manage good staff. As a chef, you may consider your ability to make a great menu the only thing that matters. Unfortunately, your customers disagree, thus causing the restaurant to fail. Sorry, that's life. (Same goes for great doctors that hire incompetent staff. I've had to stop going to a doctor I liked for that reason.)
I suppose, but the opinion article included no such information and neither has anyone else. It is possible to read filtered comments. Generating some basic statistics shouldn't be a problem for anyone who wanted to make a genuine claim that Yelp games ratings for advertising dollars. Until then, this submission is sour grapes.
>It is entirely possible that the food is exactly the same, but this person's perception is entirely colored by the ethnicity of the staff
Yep! Could be the same exact run of the mill Italian food cooked exactly the same. Of course, a nice dining room, with food served by a native Italian speaker, and a fancy ambiance could very legitimately bump someone's opinion of a restaurant to the next level. Dining out isn't only about the flavor on the plate.
The comment should give the owner second thoughts of leaving his old staff behind. Maybe the owner doesn't think it important, but when a waiter can't pronounce an item on the menu or describe the ingredients knowledgeably it really breaks the experience of eating out.