‘Something straight out of an anime’: A ramen shop has placed a bounty on negative reviewers after receiving one-star ratings
Normally, ramen shops are chill places for noodle lovers to get a good bowl of some of the best stuff on earth. However, one ramen shop in Kyoto, Japan lost its cool over negative one-star ratings and placed a bounty on the customers.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Rahmen TOYOJIRO (とよ二郎) of Kyoto usually enjoys positive reviews from most of its customers. A glance at its Google Reviews page shows seemingly tasty bowls of ramen and happy patrons—for the most part, at least. But even good restaurants will inevitably fall prey to the dreaded 1-star review.
According to Complex, the shop’s owner quickly resorted to violent language with two patrons who left a negative review of the restaurant. He posted a 100,000 yen ($662) bounty for information on the whereabouts of the dissatisfied customers on his Instagram account and wrote “We try not to treat people like you as customers, so it’s fine. But you should probably avoid eating out. Someday, someone like you will get screwed. I don’t care — just come directly, and I’ll deal with you.”
Users across social media were stunned and replied accordingly. X user @luciandavid33 commented, “This sounds like something straight out of an anime.” Yeah, basically.
The owner wrote more threatening words, too: “We run a planned business, so if you get in our way, we’ll get in the way of yours too […] The only thing he can do is come back, eat again, and write a good review with a photo. I told him I won’t forgive him otherwise — not even for the safety of his family. If he does that, he’ll be killed right away. This kid is so scared. He’ll really do it, so he’d better just come back and eat.”
Talk about yikes.
Why did the owner act like this? Protecting your reputation is no excuse. The restaurant has issued a follow-up post apologizing for the owner’s comments, and they promised to handle customer issues more gracefully in the future. Unfortunately, the owner’s behavior has probably damaged the restaurant’s reputation more thoroughly than those initial reviews ever would have. Grace and humility are things the owner of this restaurant apparently lacked.
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