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“That Lou’s yelp review looks promising,” deadpanned Frank Bonanno on his Facebook page, referencing a pre-review of Lou’s Food Bar, Bonanno’s newest restaurant, which will, uh, open in mid-December at 1851 West 38th Avenue, a good month and a half (at the minimum) AFTER the Yelp review — typed on October 21 — was posted.
At least that review, written by “Mitch B,” who describes himself as a chef and resident of the Sunnyside neighborhood, was positive, unlike a previous review of Pho 95 at the Streets at SouthGlenn that was shot into Yelpland by a disgruntled patron who had apparently walked by the joint, only to find that it hadn’t opened yet.
That review has since been removed from Yelp, but the Lou’s review, screen-captured below, continues to exist, despite the fact that it’s against Yelp’s TOS (that’s Terms of Service to the rest of us) to review a business, restaurant or otherwise, that you haven’t actually, you know, been to and experienced firsthand.
But Mitch, admittedly a Yelp newbie, was only doing what a lot of Yelpers before him have already done: granting a starred review — a whopping five, in this case — to an unopened restaurant, proving, yet again, the social-networking site’s blatant disregard for accountability.
