A restaurant owner has hit back at a scathing review claiming the diner left an "empty plate" after eating a chicken tikka and believes she may have had an "ulterior motive" for her attack.
The Streetly Balti, in Sutton Coldfield, is the top rated restaurant in the town on TripAdvisor and receives regular rave reviews from diners.
It has even been awarded the Travellers' Choice 2021 award.
But one recent reviewer left a very negative review claiming there were dirty spoons and she was served "gristly chicken", reported BirminghamLive.
And the owner of the Streetly Balti decided to respond.
Streetly Balti has a five-star rating on the popular travel website, with 457 independent reviews - which more than 400 are excellent.
It was a reviewer named Leisha, who visited in January, that left a one-star rating, and claimed that there were dirty spoons left out near a hot plate and that some of the younger waiters were inexperienced.
And that she was served chicken tikka that was "gristly and not cooked correctly".
Her TripAdvisor review, titled "terrible place to go", said: "Very small place, as I walked in there was a young man heating something up on a hot plate with dirty spoons on the side.
"Once sat down the young waiters were polite but inexperienced, the older man came to take our order and seemed he had knowledge of his menu.
"But I ordered a chicken tikka main and when I received my meal presentation looked good but after trying the chicken it seemed very gristly and not cooked correctly as if it was cheap meat.
"I'm not one to complain as I feel bad in this current climate."
And the owner of Streetly Balti responded: "Hi Leisha, thank you so much for leaving a review. Considering you feel bad about complaining, its lovely to see that you took the time out of your busy schedule to actually write a review for us.
"Your first review ever in fact it seems. You really must have felt awful while writing it up.
"Let me help you a little and clarify a couple of things for you , as I know you wouldn’t want to misrepresent the restaurant in any way at all.
"Firstly, the point of dirty spoons. Ever since we opened 28 years ago, we have always bought all the Balti’s out from the kitchen and heated them up on our long serving trolling before serving to the table.
"If you had looked a little longer you would have noticed not one but two metal plates, one with fresh new spoons and one with spoons used to stir the Balti’s while heating.
"We always use a new spoon to heat up each individual curry and then once we have collected a few used ones, we then send them to the bar to be washed and ready to be used again.
"Secondly , you did indeed order a Chicken Tikka Main, in fact I dressed up your plate myself, so thank you for complimenting my presentation skills.
"Chicken Tikka is cooked using breast meat only, our chicken breasts come with no fat on them at all.
"So how you found that ‘gristly ‘ beggars belief. Especially as when I saw that your plates went back EMPTY to the kitchen after you finished.
"Yes I watch all plates as they go back to the kitchen, it gives me a sense of satisfaction seeing empty clean plates going back, and on the odd occasion they aren’t empty, it gives me reason to go engage the customer to find out why and if we did anything wrong and if we can fix it.
"So my conclusion on the basis of you being partially sighted to the used spoons only, on you and your husband eating all of your meal without complaint in the restaurant, and creating a new account to write this one and only review, is that you may have some kind of ulterior motive!!
"Good luck with that!
"We will carry on serving the best curries , the best Tikka’s and giving the best of service possible to the rest of our appreciative customers."
The restaurant has had some top reviews in the past - with one diner saying they "couldn't recommend highly enough" only three days ago.
Adam said: "The host was fantastic. Really knows his stuff.
"Wouldn’t eat anywhere else for a real Indian in Birmingham. As someone who eats out regularly I really couldn’t recommend highly enough.
"Fantastic service and food."
