Amateur French Food Critic Fined For Writing Bad Review Days Before Restaurant Opened

Restaurants live in fear of scathing reviews from influential critics. But a negative review from an amateur critic posted days before the restaurant even opened?That will be settled in court. A Michelin-starred restaurant in Dijon, France, Loiseau Des Ducs, has been awarded 2,500 Euro ($3,860 USD) after one amateur critic posted a negative review on France's Yellow Pages, Pages Jeunes, five days before the restaurant even opened its doors in July 2013.

The fraudulent wannabe critic attempted to take the unborn restaurant down a peg, calling it, "very over-rated, it was all show, there was very little on the plate, and the only thing that was well loaded was the bill."

The high court in Dijon fined the defendant because his review "could not correspond to the expression of an objective opinion based on real experiences."

Restaurant manager Ahlame Buisard told local newspaper Le Bien that they pursued the case out of principle, and they were not taking a jab at honest restaurant critics.

Seven months after the ill-fated review appeared, Loiseau Des Ducs was awarded a Michelin star.