Dear Miss Terry,
I almost cried into my breakfast gin and tonic, er black coffee, when I read (PM Friday July 5) that negative restaurant reviews would serve only to break their owners’ rice bowl. On that basis the newspapers would never print street-crime stories, lest they deter foreign tourists from coming here, nor report all those jumping incidents (usually accidents by the way) from hi-rise condos in case the Pattaya property market is hit. The underlying reason why Miss Terry – and she is not alone in the print media I fully recognise – give the impression they have never eaten a bad meal in 20 years is because they would create gastronomic enemies and even threaten advertising income. Everyone knows that. Why not be frank?
Important as Miss Terry is, she does not have a monopoly of having meals prepared for her. The internet is chock-a-block with detailed Pattaya restaurant reviews running into many, many thousands of observations by paying customers. Sometimes they can be unfair, for example malevolent critics claiming that ants are crawling all over the buffet or that the waiter forgot to button his flies after visiting the toilet. But usually they are pertinent and incisive. All I am saying is that just a little balance from Miss Terry would enhance her standing. Obviously I don’t want to see her go over the top and be chased down dark streets by infuriated restaurant owners, with carving knife in hand, because she dared to say the creme caramel tasted like cardboard. Even if it did.
Barry Kenyon
