Why a Bristol chef is criticising his own Michelin-starred restaurant on TripAdvisor

Head chef Zak Hitchman has criticised his own restaurant on Tripadvisor to highlight 'silly' reviews. Credit: Dominika Scheibinger

"Three stars only because it was very cloudy that day."

A Bristol head chef was so irritated by anonymous reviews his restaurant was getting on TripAdvisor that he and his staff decided to write their own.

Zak Hitchman, of Casamia in Redcliffe, says he added the quirky comments in response to some of the ‘silly’ reviews from people claiming to have eaten at his restaurant.

Zak took over as head chef of the £180-a-head restaurant in July 2020, transforming its formal service into something a lot more 'far out'. Linen table cloths have made way for street art on the walls, modern jazz, kitchen staff in T-shirts and Doc Martens and dishes garnished with Wallace and Gromit toys.

The self-styled 'Head of Fire and Music' says the Casamia experience is 'less of a restaurant, more of a weird gig with food'. The menu can run to 25 courses, with an emphasis on live fire cooking.

Although the change in style has been well received, there have been some negative reviews on TripAdvisor, which led to Zak and his team coming up with their own spoof versions.

One of the spoof reviews Zak put out in protest at anonymous critics. Credit: Tripadvisor

One post said: "Really loved the show, if anything the music should be louder, especially when Cardi B-WAP came on. Three stars only because it was very cloudy that day".Another four-star review from the Casamia chef read: "It was a spiritual journey. Brought me near to tears. However there was clearly a problem with the fuse box, lights were going on and off. Long live the donut king."

One praised the "amazing food, service and atmosphere" but went on to say "however I much prefer Chicken Run over Wallace and Gromit so for this reason I’ve reduced to three stars only".

Zak said: “I’ve always looked at TripAdvisor as a load of nonsense to be honest. I look at the reviews in much the same way that I look at Amazon reviews.

“I’m sure there are some honest people out there but there are also a few crazy people out there and there are reviews that are completely made up.

“We had some genuine ones like ‘we had a dreadful time, the music was too loud for me’ which is fair enough - if Casamia isn’t for you, that’s fine, there are hundreds of other restaurants you’ll enjoy more.

“But it got to a stage where we had some bad TripAdvisor reviews that were just silly. The one that sticks in the memory is a short one that said ‘the loud music reminded me of a youth club, I expected a burger and I’d give it lower than one star if I could’.

“Who bothers to write something like that after paying £180 a head?”

The head chef of Casamia in Bristol felt that some of the Tripadvisor reviews were completely made up so decided to do something about it. Credit: PA/BPM Media

Zak really wants to highlight the fact people can post anything they like, whether they’ve eaten somewhere or not.

“TripAdvisor is an open forum where anybody can write whatever they want. I don’t want to sound arrogant but we just don’t take the reviews seriously. We’d much rather talk to somebody face to face or via a private email.

“I don’t think you can take TripAdvisor seriously and we’ve proven the fact that you can post anything you want even if it’s a bad review of your own restaurant."