The Zomato Lemp Brewpub page and the blogpost that was pulled down
Accusations and counter-accusations make for great court drama. But increasingly the war seems to be spilling on social media. And this time it involves angry customers, alleged ill-treatment at a restobar and Haryana police. An anonymous blog post http://lempexperience.blogspot.in that was later pulled down in the day (you can read the original transcript we saved here), explained in detail about a bad customer experience at the Gurgaon-based Lemp Brewpub & Kitchen. The diners who put up the blogpost alleged cheating, police and management harassment and threat from the owners during a brunch service on Sunday, June 10.
To summarise the story, a group of eight people visited the Lemp Brewpub & Kitchen for their Hawaiian Sunday brunch that was advertised at the rate of Rs 999 per head on Zomato.com (scroll below for comments). The situation at the restaurant however was such that the chef was absent and hence the Hawaiian part of the food was missing as well as the cocktails. The food that did arrive at their table was stale and cold and despite complaints to the manager was returned in almost the same way. After asking for the bill the group was presented with a bill for Rs 12000. When the group argued and tried to leave, the senior manager intervened and reduced to the bill but insisted on a payment while not allowing them to speak to the owners directly. Soon enough though, the owners arrived at the restaurant accompanied by the Haryana police. The bill was further brought down to Rs 4,463 which the frustrated group paid so as to end the situation. However as they waited for a copy of the bill a further argument ensued between the restaurant management and the guests resulting in the guests being taken to the police station and released only after their parents came to the station.
We tried getting in touch with both the anonymous blogger and the management at Lempbrew, both our attempts went unattended. The bloggers didn’t respond to our messages and the management made their phones unavailable.
What is frightening about the whole situation is the assumed control the restaurant owners seem to have over the local police. Instead of solving the problem it seems that they allowed the restaurant owner to through his weight around and threaten the guests with imprisonment if they complained about the restaurant saying “Mera naam kisi se bhi Gurgaon mein check kar lena.” (“You can ask anyone my name in Gurgaon and they will know.”)
In a counter action, after spending the entire day yesterday silent on their social media links, today morning we were greeting with this new blog post. We can only guess it’s written by a social media agency representing the Lempbrew management. Besides making tall moral claims in their post, here is there version of the story:
“The Lemp CCTV footage shows clearly what went down. First they tried to flee without paying and when they were caught, they simply refused to pay the bill because the ‘food was not up to the mark’! Sure it’s a favorite excuse of many customers who are not willing to pay and most restaurants will testify to that. There is no where in the world can you go to a restaurant, consume food or drinks and then try to run and still expect the restaurant not to call the cops! It is the behavior of people like these that make it an unpleasant experience for regular customers. In truth I feel these people are just embarrassed for all the humiliation they had to face in front of the cops and their parents for their behavior. They might be educated but definitely look jobless for they have all the time in the world to vent, crib and cry all over the social sphere for something they were grossly wrong about in the first place!”
This is all reminding us of the infamous Mumbai-based Cool Chef Cafe social media bashing from 2012 when both the management and artists who had performed at the venue indulged in name-calling and what all online.
Here’s hoping that restobars, restaurants and bars alike go back to school to learn the basics of hospitality.
