Not many would pass up on the opportunity to sample delicious food and detail about it in their blog. After all, we Malaysians are foodies through and through and at the mention of food, most would sign up for it. But it’s different when it comes to food bloggers, seeing as it is after all their job to sample food and write reviews about their experience.
There’s a lot that goes behind a food review and not all experiences are a great one. In fact, it really isn’t as easy as we would expect—food bloggers don’t just sit there and stuff their face with food non-stop. 12 Malaysian food bloggers share with Vulcan Post about some of their pet peeves and bad experiences with food reviews at restaurants.
1. KY
“I was at a chain restaurant many years ago and was served chicken that actually still had blood in it. Made a complain and they just microwaved it for a bit and handed me the same chicken, now with slightly coagulated blood, it was bad.” – KYSpeaks
2. Lilly Kan
“High expectation from owners, thinking that 1 blog post can bring loads of customers to their shop.” – FollowMeToEatLa
3. Sharon Loh
“Punctuality. To have the review start on time.” – Spicy Sharon
4. Goh Soo Yin
“Bad customer service and being disrespectful.” – Foodeverywhere
5. Pancake Chin
“Owners who ask for feedback but refuses to listen, claiming that their method is absolute and perfect. They will also say things like ‘Are you teaching me how to cook?’ or ‘Who are you to tell me how I should run my restaurant?’. Stuff like that. If you’re not interested in our opinions and feedback, please do just let us know.” – Finding Fats
6. Wilson Ng and Rachel Ting
“The restaurant didn’t prepare the food properly and the food is cold after taking pictures of it.” – Places and Foods
7. Pamela Yeoh
“Expectation from merchants that we will definitely give a good review for the food even the food is bad.” – Malaysian Foodie
8. Miriam Goh
“Sometimes the owner of the restaurant tries to direct how the review is written. I believe in writing honest reviews even though it is an invited review and I do hope that restaurants or cafés will learn to take it as positive criticism instead of taking it negatively.” – Miriam MerryGoRound
9. Lum Voon Keong
“I was invited to a Chinese New Year food review which many other members of the media and bloggers also attended. The menu that day was dim sum and steamboat. They prepared dozens of baskets of dim sum a few hours ahead, and laid them on a table for photography purpose.
Little did I know we were asked to eat those dim sum, which were already cold and far from being fresh. As for the steamboat, they set up a small table with 1 pot and expected everyone (close to 20 pax) to walk back and forth to cook and eat their food, instead of setting up a hot pot at each table (there were 3 big tables).
Then came the last straw, the à la carte dishes that day were portioned onto dishes (the small round plate) meant for soya sauce—can you imagine how pathetic is that? I was furious, walked up to the person in charge, told her it’s unacceptable to treat the media like this and walked away without eating anything.
Perhaps what surprised me the most was that despite the treatment we got, the other people still carried on eating. That’s the moment I realised the difference between me and other bloggers.” – VKeong
10. Mr. Lim
“They took away the dishes too quickly even though we haven’t finished it.” – Reload Food
11. Tany Leia Harris
“Arriving at the restaurant and none of the staff knows about the review and the person who invited me is not available and also didn’t inform them or forgot about our appointment.” – Sinfully Delicious Malaysia
12. Lai Kuan Ju
“I don’t have much pet peeves when I go for arranged food reviews. Since most of my food reviews are anonymous, my pet peeves would be pretty much the same as any diner—slow service and not-so-fresh ingredients.” – Always Travelicious Travel & Food Blog