For restaurants, the customer is king

A restaurant recently got into trouble, with some microbloggers complaining about their services. On Thursday, the microbloggers, each having a million or more followers, dined at Lijia Restaurant, which claims to have recreated traditional royal dishes and got a single star rating in the 2019 Michelin Guide for Beijing.

At Lijia, consumers do not order food from the menu. Instead, they select a price that suits them and savor a set of preset dishes that comes at that price. The microbloggers settled for one that costs 3,000 yuan ($439.64), inclusive of service charge. However, they felt let down. The food wasn't particularly tasty or worth the price, they said.

The restaurant has also got low ratings and negative feedback on dianping.com, a public rating website.

Media reports quoted the restaurant as saying that the microbloggers, 10 in number, had ordered the lowest-priced set of dishes. A restaurant executive said they would look into the matter but added that "delicious" was a relative term.

It is difficult to comment on the taste, as one person's favorite dish could be like poison for another. However, Lijia is not the first restaurant whose services have drawn flak from consumers despite laying out an "imitation of royal dishes" or being rated well on professional rating sites. Despite being rated well by professionals, they have failed to win the common man's appreciation.

In this age of mobile internet and smartphones, everyone has a voice online and the common man's ratings can easily be shared from person to person till it is loud enough to turn potential diners away.

Especially, if some net-savvy consumers visit these restaurants with high expectations and return disappointed the comments they leave on social networking sites can prove disastrous for the restaurants. The least restaurants can do is to provide food and services that are worth the price.