Woman Leaves Bad Review for Michigan Restaurant. She Finds Out They Deleted It. So She Pulls an Uno Reverse

When a person has a poor experience at a restaurant, there’s usually little they can do. Either they ignore the bad experience and move on, or leave a review of what exactly wasn’t up to par. But when one woman tried to do the latter and air out her working experience at a Michigan establishment, she ended up having a bigger impact than one could usually expect.

That’s because the Google review she posted described her own working conditions as a server.

Grace (@gardeninggirlgrace) is a content creator based out of Detroit, Michigan. She said she was employed at the Birmingham restaurant, Besos, for a day prior to posting a review of the business. After leaving her position, she posted her entire experience, wherein she said the restaurant was “ severely disorganized, understaffed, [and] poorly managed.”

Grace said her post was removed by the business. So she decided to read her entire Google review on TikTok. As of this writing, the post received more than 466,000 views. 

What did Grace’s original review say?

In Grace’s viral TikTok post, she discussed a number of issues she said she had while working at Besos.

Toward the beginning of her post, she said, “I genuinely do not think that I’ve ever had a worse experience at a job in my life. I was hired after what barely even qualified as an interview.”

The TikToker gave her perspective. She said she was hired by Besos after she reached out via Instagram direct message. She came in for an interview but said that it barely qualified as one. That’s because the staff member who was interviewing her allegedly had to continue bartending in the midst of the hiring process.

Grace said she was asked five questions during the interview process, and that it took “about an hour” because of the interruptions. She said she was hired immediately and told she would start on Monday.

Despite being given a set time to start, she said she received text messages later in the evening telling her she had to come in the very next day. She adjusted her schedule, agreed, and came in.

That’s when she found out she was the only server in the entire restaurant. Grace said she received little to no training or shadowing. 

“No walkthrough, no training, no explanation of the POS system, no explanation of where anything was located, no explanation of how the restaurant operates,” she said. “I was not shown the basement, storage, side work, table numbers, order flow, or literally anything else that a normal restaurant would show a new server.”

Grace continues her review

Grace referred to that first shift as being “baptized by fire.” She said she juggled multiple tables on her own, as her only other co-worker who could help was manning the bar.

“Obviously, people are asking you questions. Also, not to mention, this is a completely vegan restaurant that does not display that they are a completely vegan restaurant,” she said. “ I was trying my absolute best to keep up despite how disorganized everything was because I genuinely cared about giving good service to the customers, and then management showed up.” 

Grace said that instead of helping her understand the system, a manager started “barking orders” at her. She also said the manager interrupted her while she was actively speaking to tables to talk down to her. 

Despite struggling, she explained to all of her tables that it was her first day. She made $150+ in tips and was making it through her shift. But it still didn’t stop her from leaving later on.

What was the breaking point?

At one point, she said she was actively trying to problem-solve and get one of her tables something that’s normally not on the menu. The manager started “screaming” at her because food was sitting in the window.

Grace expressed frustration with the environment. “I explained that I was in the middle of fixing something for a table, and rather than acting like an actual manager and explaining the order of operations to somebody who had zero, mind you, zero training, he escalated the situation further and continued yelling,” Grace said. “[He] continued being obnoxious, continued being a complete [expletive] imbecile to me on my first day.”

Grace said that if the manager continued speaking to her the way he was, she was going to walk out. She said he told her to walk out, and she did—without any of her tips. 

A representative from Besos told The Mary Sue that the restaurant has offered to provide Grace with compensation for her shift.

“The individual referenced in the TikTok was employed by Besos for approximately four hours before leaving the restaurant,” they said. “As with all employees, she completed employment paperwork prior to beginning work and will be paid in full for all hours worked. We have tried to pay her in advance of her employee payment date, yet she profusely refuses to accept pay and instead continues to seek attention online.”

In her video, Grace said, “It’s not about the money. Like, I don’t need the money. I would rather not have the money and never have to go in that environment again. Like, what the [expletive] is wrong with you.”

@gardeninggirlgrace Left a review. It got removed. Reposted it. Removed again. So here we are. #BESOS #BESOSBirmingham #birminghamrestaurants #birminghammi #metrodetroiteats ♬ original sound – gardengirlgrace

How did Besos respond to Google reviews of the establishment?

After Grace made her post, commenters expressed both sympathy for her and outrage at the restaurant. A few individuals who watched the video posted Google reviews, presumably without dining at the brick-and-mortar establishment. A representative from Besos said the business received “more than 120 reviews” from individuals who had not dined there.

“Many comments referenced the viral video rather than any firsthand guest experience, and discussion associated with the post included advice on how to post reviews in ways less likely to be removed by platform moderation,” a representative from Besos said.

The restaurant has responded to Google reviews with the following statement: “We take guest feedback seriously, but we have no record of anyone under your name or profile dining with us. Our restaurant is currently experiencing a coordinated wave of fake reviews from non-guests stemming from a viral social media post. This matter has been reported to the platform’s fraud team for removal, and we are pursuing legal action for defamation against the coordinator.”

Grace clarified in a follow-up post that she had no intention of directing or making individuals review the establishment.

As of this writing, Besos has three stars on Yelp across 29 reviews and 4.3 stars across 41 Google reviews. Grace also clarified that she has not heard anything about the restaurant pursuing legal action against her. The restaurant has chosen not to discuss its legal proceedings at this time.

How did Besos respond to the post internally?

Regarding Grace not being trained for the position, a representative said, “Besos takes pride in maintaining high standards of hospitality and professionalism. While our normal onboarding process for new team members is thorough, we were in the process of rebuilding portions of our front-of-house team following recent staffing changes, and this employee’s initial orientation was abbreviated. She had represented that she had prepared extensively for the position, that she had run an entire restaurant as a sole server previously, and she was assigned to a modestly busy daytime service with support available from management and fellow staff.”

A representative said the restaurant conducted an internal review of the situation. They stated that multiple individuals’ accounts differed from Grace’s.

“According to multiple witnesses from both the dining room and kitchen, the employee was given routine direction during service to no avail, responded with profanity and personal attacks toward management, and voluntarily left the restaurant before completing even a partial shift,” they said. “Online, she mentioned that she made $150 after working for 2 hours. We believe this type of income in such a short period of time is what sparked the retaliatory, vindictive behavior after she realized what she had walked away from.”

The representative clarified that “We value genuine guest feedback and welcome reviews from actual diners, whether positive or negative. What we cannot accept is coordinated review activity from individuals with no firsthand experience at our restaurant, as it misrepresents our business and unfairly impacts our employees and guests.”

The Mary Sue reached out to Grace via TikTok direct message for more information.

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