Latest news with #D'Sylva
The Guardian
16-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Mind your manners, diners, restaurants are turning the tables on grumpy reviewers
My new duvet cover is upset with me. This is not, I stress, due to offensive activities in the bedroom. My sin is that two months after purchasing this admirably functional, mid-market item of bed linen, I have yet to leave a review on the company website. Ever since my initial purchase – online, of course – I have been haunted by an increasingly plaintive sequence of requests, demands and, eventually, cajoling whimpers. Recently, these pleas moved firmly into the territory of emotional blackmail. As an 'independent, family business', my bed linen providers rely on positive reviews to keep a roof over their heads, I was told. I'm aware that the duvet cover itself isn't sentient but, with this level of pressure leveraged in its name, it's hard to catch sight of it in the laundry and not attribute to it a smidge of cotton-fibred resentment. Incessant demands for consumer feedback are the newest plague on our inboxes. It's not just the duvet cover: Tripadvisor is still badgering me to review a restaurant I didn't actually attend, after looking it up last month; my new exercise mat came with a questionnaire; and when I bought a splurge item through a luxury fashion marketplace, I was invited separately to review the web portal, the individual brand, and the delivery company, each in turn. It's enough to drive one back to shopping in person, with cash – anything that doesn't require an email address. So I was initially enthused to hear about Dorian, the Notting Hill restaurant that is tearing up the rulebook on customer feedback. Gone is the review-driven service and the abject apologies issued online to any grumpy sot who issues calumnies from behind a pseudonym. Any complaints left on Google or Tripadvisor will be roundly ignored; any customer who even mutters about leaving a review will be ejected on the spot. They certainly won't be emailing you to ask if there's room for improvement. Instead, it is the customers who get reviewed. Buckle up, diners of London W11, and get ready for your manners to be marked out of five. As the old joke used to go: 'In Soviet Russia, television watches you.' Nowadays, in Notting Hill, potato rösti reviews you. These reviews aren't published, so you won't be exposed to public shame, although you'll get a sense of where you rate, based on whether you're blocked from repeat bookings, or added to an elite WhatsApp group with access to last-minute reservations. But the in-house notes sound copious. Dorian's owner Chris D'Sylva told the Mail last week that he keeps a logbook of diners' behaviour. 'It's a tiered system whereby we rank how much we like the customer and the value of the customer, or the destructiveness of the customer.' Behaviours likely to get you marked as 'destructive'? Turn up with a ring-light and demand help filming your dinner for Instagram. (D'Sylva has a healthy scorn for Insta influencers, largely due to the number of freebies they request.) The worst crime, however, is to show any hint of offering your own feedback. The only critique that matters here is the one issued to the customer. The Dorian approach may seem aggressive to many, and no doubt has been publicised as a calculated strategy to cultivate a reputation for exclusiveness. The Mail's initial interview with D'Sylva included a blingy list of celebrities, or 'people of influence' to use his preferred phrase, who do merit a regular table. Yet, in 2025, there's surely something laudable about any business owner who refuses to be held hostage by any curmudgeon with a laptop and a Google account. Restaurant workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your Tripadvisor stars! We do all understand why businesses have been reduced to begging customers for online reviews. These now define how we spend our money. The result is a series of industries shouldering unjust levels of reputational vulnerability. No wonder criminals are monetising this weakness: last July, an acclaimed restaurant chain in the north-west revealed that it was being blackmailed by a gang who had begun to flood its online listings with fake one-star reviews, and threatened to continue if not paid off. Andrew Sheridan, the star chef targeted by the scammers, has joined a list of chefs backing Dorian's approach, although he doesn't ignore bad reviews by tricky customers: 'I respond to every unfair, bad online review, explaining why it's unreasonable.' It's not only negative reviews that can be faked. In 2023 the consumer champion Which? revealed that 10% of surveyed Amazon customers had been offered bribes by retailers to leave a five-star review, often compromising a gift card of greater value than the original amount spent. Whether in retail or hospitality, we find ourselves in a culture of uber-reviewing: a world in which we're all reviewing each other, all the time, and positive reviews are currency. The most obvious form of low-level irritation this provokes is that of the hassled customer: the part of me that resents when a retailer expects me to make payment by giving up my time, as well as my cash. Sign up to Observed Analysis and opinion on the week's news and culture brought to you by the best Observer writers after newsletter promotion More invidiously, however, it builds a world in which we're encouraged to complain after an encounter rather than adopt strategies to build trust with those who serve us. There is something avoidant about the post-dinner review. Too often, it seems to be an outlet for any minor dissatisfaction that a diner has never quite dared voice to a waiter. The same moral cheapness surely creeps in when customers themselves are reviewed. The old adage tells us to trust a new date by how he treats the waiter, but what if he's only mustering basic courtesy because he wants to stay on the restaurant's list? (He'll need that gold rating if he's planning to bring a different date there next week.) Meanwhile, the services that already feature reviews of consumers have a nasty tendency to reward 'normal' social behaviour. One friend received a bad Airbnb review because he didn't choose to watch the football with his host. It's not clear what socially normative behaviour at Dorian involves, but I suspect it involves racking up heavy wine charges – or being David Beckham. There's no radicalism in finding new ways to perpetuate a culture in which we're all fair game for judgment. I'll probably pass on trying to get myself a reservation. In preparation for this article, I had a peek at some of the Google reviews that D'Sylva is so keen to ignore. There's a healthy 3.9 star average, but the one-star stinker that sticks in my head spoke of being treated with 'utter disdain' by the staff. Fancy that. Kate Maltby writes about theatre, politics and culture
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
London restaurants hit customers with £100 ‘minimum spend' charge
Diners are being hit with minimum spend requirements at top London restaurants after Labour's non-dom raid triggered an exodus of ultra-wealthy families. Charges of as much as £100 per reservation are on the rise in the city's fine dining scene. Britain's non-dom crackdown and internet bots were blamed for the measures that are intended to deter 'reservation squatting,' as first reported by the Financial Times. Gymkhana, a two-Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in Mayfair, currently requires customers to pay a £100 minimum spend upfront when making a reservation. Hutong, another high-end eatery in London's Shard skyscraper, charges £80 upfront per adult reservation on Fridays and Saturdays, while Chutney Mary in St James's says its dinner minimum spend is £60 per person. Gymkhana told the Financial Times it had introduced the policy in November 2024 'in part due to the number of cancellations and no-shows we were seeing per service'. It also said the booking requirements were necessary because of 'the large volumes of bots and reservation resale websites' directed at the restaurant after it won its second Michelin star. MW Eat, the company that owns Chutney Mary, an Indian restaurant, claimed to have introduced the measures to combat 'curry-house hangover experiences', where large groups order few main dishes but many cheaper sides. Rachel Reeves last month announced plans to water down her tax raid on ultra-wealthy non-doms after the number of millionaires leaving the UK doubled last year to hit 10,800. The Chancellor has prepared an amendment to the Finance Bill that will make it easier for non-doms to bring money instantly to the UK following growing fears that the super-rich will quit the UK en masse. Chris D'Sylva, owner of one-Michelin-starred, Dorian, in Notting Hill, said he had imposed 'a slightly punitive deposit' of £25 per head because too many people make multiple bookings at restaurants in London using online platforms before only turning up to one. He said this practice was 'reservation-squatting' because 'there's no penalty associated with making a reservation'. Mr D'Sylva said minimum spends for small parties were 'a very dangerous idea' because they sent a negative message, but he understood the reasons for restaurant bosses wanting the measures. 'It's something to drive away influencers that come and all they want to do is say that they were there and get the benefit of the social currency and post on their Instagram to the detriment of the business,' he said. Mr D'Sylva added that high-grade food ingredients from Japan now needed to be flown around Russia, which increased costs, and that some of his customers had left Britain because of non-dom tax changes. Martyn James, a consumer expert, said the recent exodus of wealthy non-doms from Britain could be partly to blame for restaurants imposing 'stringent' measures on clientele. 'I suspect quite a lot of the wealthier set may have moved on or may just not be engaging in displays of conspicuous wealth anymore, and it may factor in that some of them have left, but when you create a destination venue you effectively become a victim of success.' He said that some high-end restaurants now attract more tourists than locals, who can be less reliable than locals. 'What they have done is created tourist destinations to go on holiday. By making them tourist destinations that aren't restaurants they are experiences. 'They are a victim of their own success by creating demand for their seats and [people] will use bots to get their reservations but they might not end up going because they have booked through a third party. 'Ultimately, the service industry and the leisure industry have been hurt by people not turning up for bookings. Lots of restaurants have said since the pandemic lots of people won't turn up. We have seen more stringent policies but this is a big chunk of money and it's presumptuous that people will want to spend £100.' Wealthy non-doms living in the capital have fled the UK in record numbers in the year Labour came to power, after the previous Conservative government removed tax benefits enjoyed by foreigners that were kept by Ms Reeves. The number of high net-worth individuals – with liquid assets of more than $1m (£821,153) – leaving the country rose by 157pc in 2024, according to figures compiled by analytics firm, New World Wealth, for advisors Henley & Partners. They showed more than 10,000 millionaires left last year, a significant rise on the previous year's figures of just 4,300. No other country except for China saw greater capital flight than the UK between January 2024 and December of 2024, according to the figures. The restaurant industry has faced significant inflation in costs in recent years including for staff, rent and food prices. The rise in employers' National Insurance contributions has also alarmed restaurateurs amid a fall in the hospitality workforce. The number of people employed in accommodation and food services – broadly, the hospitality trade – fell by 58,000 between January 2024 and January 2025, according to the latest payroll data. The same pressures are hammering shops. Employment in retail, wholesale and car garages dropped by just over 36,000 over the same period, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
21-02-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
London restaurants hit customers with £100 ‘minimum spend' charge
Diners are being hit with minimum spend requirements at top London restaurants after Labour's non-dom raid triggered an exodus of ultra-wealthy families. Charges of as much as £100 per reservation are on the rise in the city's fine dining scene. Britain's non-dom crackdown and internet bots were blamed for the measures that are intended to deter 'reservation squatting,' as first reported by the Financial Times. Gymkhana, a two-Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in Mayfair, currently requires customers to pay a £100 minimum spend upfront when making a reservation. Hutong, another high-end eatery in London's Shard skyscraper, charges £80 upfront per adult reservation on Fridays and Saturdays, while Chutney Mary in St James's says its dinner minimum spend is £60 per person. Gymkhana told the Financial Times it had introduced the policy in November 2024 'in part due to the number of cancellations and no-shows we were seeing per service'. It also said the booking requirements were necessary because of 'the large volumes of bots and reservation resale websites' directed at the restaurant after it won its second Michelin star. MW Eat, the company that owns Chutney Mary, an Indian restaurant, claimed to have introduced the measures to combat 'curry-house hangover experiences', where large groups order few main dishes but many cheaper sides. Rachel Reeves last month announced plans to water down her tax raid on ultra-wealthy non-doms after the number of millionaires leaving the UK doubled last year to hit 10,800. The Chancellor has prepared an amendment to the Finance Bill that will make it easier for non-doms to bring money instantly to the UK following growing fears that the super-rich will quit the UK en masse. Chris D'Sylva, owner of one-Michelin-starred, Dorian, in Notting Hill, said he had imposed 'a slightly punitive deposit' of £25 per head because too many people make multiple bookings at restaurants in London using online platforms before only turning up to one. He said this practice was 'reservation-squatting' because 'there's no penalty associated with making a reservation'. Mr D'Sylva said minimum spends for small parties were 'a very dangerous idea' because they sent a negative message, but he understood the reasons for restaurant bosses wanting the measures. 'It's something to drive away influencers that come and all they want to do is say that they were there and get the benefit of the social currency and post on their Instagram to the detriment of the business,' he said. Mr D'Sylva added that high-grade food ingredients from Japan now needed to be flown around Russia, which increased costs, and that some of his customers had left Britain because of non-dom tax changes. Victims of their own success Martyn James, a consumer expert, said the recent exodus of wealthy non-doms from Britain could be partly to blame for restaurants imposing 'stringent' measures on clientele. 'I suspect quite a lot of the wealthier set may have moved on or may just not be engaging in displays of conspicuous wealth anymore, and it may factor in that some of them have left, but when you create a destination venue you effectively become a victim of success.' He said that some high-end restaurants now attract more tourists than locals, who can be less reliable than locals. 'What they have done is created tourist destinations to go on holiday. By making them tourist destinations that aren't restaurants they are experiences. 'They are a victim of their own success by creating demand for their seats and [people] will use bots to get their reservations but they might not end up going because they have booked through a third party. 'Ultimately, the service industry and the leisure industry have been hurt by people not turning up for bookings. Lots of restaurants have said since the pandemic lots of people won't turn up. We have seen more stringent policies but this is a big chunk of money and it's presumptuous that people will want to spend £100.' Wealthy non-doms living in the capital have fled the UK in record numbers in the year Labour came to power, after the previous Conservative government removed tax benefits enjoyed by foreigners that were kept by Ms Reeves. The number of high net-worth individuals – with liquid assets of more than $1m (£821,153) – leaving the country rose by 157pc in 2024, according to figures compiled by analytics firm, New World Wealth, for advisors Henley & Partners. They showed more than 10,000 millionaires left last year, a significant rise on the previous year's figures of just 4,300. No other country except for China saw greater capital flight than the UK between January 2024 and December of 2024, according to the figures. The restaurant industry has faced significant inflation in costs in recent years including for staff, rent and food prices. The rise in employers' National Insurance contributions has also alarmed restaurateurs amid a fall in the hospitality workforce. The number of people employed in accommodation and food services – broadly, the hospitality trade – fell by 58,000 between January 2024 and January 2025, according to the latest payroll data. The same pressures are hammering shops. Employment in retail, wholesale and car garages dropped by just over 36,000 over the same period, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
