A Michelin Star winning celebrity chef says a diner will not be welcome back at his restaurant after they left a critical review on TripAdvisor saying the venue was 'unfriendly'.
Aktar Islam, who has been seen on Great British Menu, MasterChef and Saturday Kitchen, has responded to a customer who was not happy with what was on offer for their meal.
The customer was upset was that the restaurant Opheem 'only offered chickpeas' as a substitute to a beef dish on the £115 tasting menu, reports BirminghamLive.
The TripAdvisor reviewer - posting as 2956jd - said she was disappointed at the lack of alternatives on the day of the meal and tried to cancel her booking but could not get her deposit back.
She wrote: “At booking, we made clear we had dietary restriction, however luckily on the day we happened to call them, and we were told they can't cater for Main Course "No beef" and will substitute it with chickpeas. We could not believe it."
Aktar Islam replied: "We will always try our best, but we cannot pull rabbits out of a hat.... or in this case lamb or chicken."
The chef told BirminghamLive: "My restaurant is not an episode of Ready Steady Cook. My team can't just knock something up. In most fine dining restaurants, we can't just rustle up whatever someone wants.
"On this occasion, the reviewer did tell us she could not eat beef on the booking - and we did our best to accommodate with an alternative that we already serve. It is incorrect to say we said we'd give her chickpeas instead as we don't serve chickpeas.
"My manager offered a dish from our vegetarian menu - a Chettinad dish with aubergine. The lady was sadly insistent that we should have “better” alternatives/menu options like chicken or lamb.
"My team had the equivalent of a couple of hours of phone time on the days previously speaking to this diner - they all had tried to explain our menu and why we don’t offer a huge variety.
"We cannot offer a bespoke menu to cater for a diner's needs. No restaurant can do that. We focus on what we can actually offer at that time.
"Fine dining restaurants have carefully curated and created set tasting menus. We do try to cater to dietary needs as much as possible by offering the best alternative we can.
Aktar appears as mentor and judge on Great British Menu 2022
"On the night I even ran to my other restaurant Pulperia in Brindleyplace, to get some monkfish and put together an alternative dish - but the diner still wasn't satisfied."
Aktar opened his restaurant Opheem in 2018, and it won a Michelin star a year later.
He added: "The diner also said we are very expensive and as we said in our response this again is incorrect if compared to another Michelin starred restaurants in the city,
"And there are restaurants in Birmingham that do not have a Michelin star but charge a lot more than Opheem for their tasting menus.
"Also, what I said in the response is something she forgot to mention in her criticism - that she took to verbally abusing me questioning my credentials for cooking Indian food. She had a problem with me not being Indian.
The negative review posted on TripAdvisor
"I found this to be unbelievably rude. She was close to getting thrown out but thought I wouldn't embarrass her in front of her family.
"The stupidity and ignorance some people have is shocking. Although I didn't chuck her out she will not be welcomed into my restaurant again. "
Aktar shot to fame when he and his old workplace - Lasan - became the first Indian restaurant to be selected as ‘Best Local Restaurant’ by Gordon Ramsey on Channel 4’s The F Word.
He then went on to win the fish course contest in the 2011 final of BBC Two show Great British Menu with his sea bass with battered soft-shell crab.
Aktar is now a judge on the show.
Opheem response on Trip Advisor from Aktar and General Manager Andrew Frost
Opheem offers 10-course tasting menu priced £115, a five-course tasting menu priced £95 as well as a two-course and three-course lunch menu proceed £45 and £55.
The Opheem TripAdvisor review
Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam
502111
Reviewed 26 November 2021
Customer Unfriendly
"Highly rated restaurant with a Michelin star, Pretty pretty expensive. Thus I was SURPRISED at the title of my review. At booking, we made clear we had dietary restriction however, luckily on the day we happened to call them and we were told they cant cater for Main Course "No beef" and will substitute it with Chick Peas. We could not believe it, normally a restaurant of this stature will offer other options, but they refused and also pointed out if we cancel, we will be charged the full monies.
I never ever had such an experience, really. Went reluctantly as it was too much money to waste.Good sense prevailed, and we were offered a main fish course.However, the prolonged telephonic conversation with Andrew, their Manager had taken the oomph out of the eveningOverall experience is above average but still, feel pretty expensive. I hope the establishment take these comments in a positive light to help improve customer relation."
The response from Opheem
Responded 29 November 2021
"I'd like to take the opportunity to respond to your comments about the restaurant being pretty expensive. It may come as a surprise to you that we are actually one of the best value Michelin starred restaurants in the city and throughout the country, in fact, Birmingham has restaurants that haven't achieved a star that charge more for a tasting menu so I hope this puts your comments into perspective. We pride ourselves on offering great value for money alongside a wonderful experience.
"Now on to your comments about us not catering for your dietary needs, firstly you have to understand as a restaurant that offers 2 tasting menus; when we have guests who cannot eat a particular course on a tasting menu we offer the alternative from our other tasting menu. I'm sorry you felt that we were being unreasonable because we couldn't just cook whatever you wanted to eat that night, I understand you wanted lamb or chicken. Restaurants have menus and that's what they do their ordering by and what they have to work with. They cannot rustle up whatever you fancy eating, it just doesn't work like that.
"You'll find this to be the case with every Michelin starred restaurant that operates a tasting menu and is not unique to us. Thankfully we have another restaurant close by where we were able to source the monkfish from in order to try and accommodate your needs. But do understand this was the restaurant team going over and beyond in order to satisfy you, in vain it seems.
"I'll also take this opportunity to ask that you also consider your conduct moving forwards and also ask that you leave your prejudices at home in future, questioning the chef's Brummie roots and digging in to his lineage and asking him to justify why he's cooking Indian food is frankly unacceptable and rude. I very much doubt you'd ask Marco/Gordon and others alike why they cook food based on classical French cuisine.
"Food is universal and we feel that no one should be questioned about what they are passionate about, Aktar has invested the last 30 years in the understanding of Indian culture and cuisine though he's not from India and from Birmingham doesn't stop chefs from India and all over the world contacting him for guidance, recipes and help with development. We and the British hospitality community feel immensely proud that he is the first British born chef to achieve a Michelin star for his very personal representation of Indian flavours.
"We hope you will take these comments positively and understand that as much as much as we want to please everyone and we will always try our best we cannot pull rabbits out of a hat.... or in this case lamb or chicken."
