A chef’s war on vegans has reignited after his restaurant was bombarded with one-star reviews again more than ten months after the feud began.
It’s ‘deja vu’ for bar Fyre and British-born restaurateur John Mountain after a fake online review led to an avalanche of trolls about his Perth restaurant.
Mr Mountain made headlines last year when he banned vegan dinners from his restaurant after a series of negative reviews from customers who complained about the lack of plant-based options.
Now Fyre is the victim of fake reviews from a group of vegans in Germany who gave the restaurant negative one-star reviews online.
It happened around the same time that a series of bad reviews were posted on a Facebook page from people who had never been to his restaurant.
Fyre bar and restaurant owner John Mountain is once again bombarded with one-star reviews by angry vegans – this time from Germany
Mr. Mountain was harassed by an individual who left negative reviews about his restaurant, despite never having dined there
Mr Mountain said he is happy to accept customer criticism and feedback if it is genuine, but that it is unfair to target companies with online negative comments that are false.
“It’s slander and it’s worse than that because you can’t take it off,” he said.
‘All restaurants are rated on Google with Google reviews. Anyone can be a keyboard warrior, anyone can say whatever he or she wants.
‘On Perth Foodies there were 200 reviews within an hour and they were all negative.
‘A little bit of revenge from one person who caused a bit of a stir. Luckily for me this has changed after the amazing support we have had and I can’t thank the people of WA enough.”
The restaurant gets about one positive review a week from people who have eaten there, but Mr Mountain noticed one person who always had something negative to say, even though he had never been there.
In his ‘stupid British dry sense of humour’, Mr Mountain posted something in response that added fuel to the fire.
“This person just kept commenting over and over again,” he said.
A Fyre employee saw the comments and took it upon herself to message the person after they finished a shift one evening, but it fueled the backlash even further.
“She had one of her friends write a really bad review about our restaurant on Facebook and it was the most horrific review,” Mr Mountain said.
“It was definitely our food and furniture, but it didn’t look like a plate of our food that we were serving, it had been tampered with.
“It turned out that the person who left the review was a good friend of the other person.
“It got such a huge response that we were repeatedly criticized with one-star reviews.”
Mr Mountain has been bombarded online with one-star reviews from people who have never been to his restaurant
Mr Mountain said the restaurant received 200 reviews within an hour, all of which were negative
The controversy all stemmed from an incident last year after a vegan restaurant left a one-star review discussing its “shortcomings as a chef.”
Mr Mountain took the comment personally and it led to him banning anyone who identified as vegan via Facebook.
“Unfortunately all vegans are now banned from Fyre (for mental health reasons),” he wrote on his Instagram account.
Following the ban, vegan activist Tash Peterson organized two disruption protests at the restaurant, which led to her being charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct.
In one, Ms. Peterson, along with a dozen other activists, stormed into Fyre as a loudspeaker loudly played the sounds of pigs squealing in distress.
Protesters sang and showed a video of a pig being slaughtered, with the sound amplified through a loudspeaker.
Footage showed Mr Mountain storming out several times and grappling with protesters as he tried to take the speaker from Ms Peterson.
Customers also felt visibly uncomfortable, according to the celebrity chef, who said the protests disrupted his business and scared diners.
Mr. Mountain has also filed a defamation lawsuit against Ms. Peterson over social media posts she allegedly made that he said had damaged his reputation.
Ms. Peterson clashed with Mr. Mountain during a protest at Fyre last year
Ms Peterson has made headlines around the world for organizing similar protests in Perth, pouring blood into a butcher’s shop and harassing diners eating out.
She has since tried to justify her form of protest in several social media posts.
“We’re not going after this restaurant because they ban vegans – yes, that may have been a reason that led to that – but ultimately it’s because this man profits from animal abuse and murder and he also glorifies it. she said at the time.
Mr Mountain said at the time that it caused him enormous distress.
“I don’t want to sound like the whiny Pom, but these people have nothing better to do and we’ve had a few mental vegans,” he said.
“It’s hurting the company, despite all the hard work we do.”
He revealed on A current issue while the drama had cost him his relationship.
“I lost my partner over this, I lost a relationship, I thought I was going to marry this woman and she just couldn’t handle the amount of attention – thank you vegans,” he said, choking back tears.
Vegan activist Tash Peterson protests outside Fyre restaurant, where chef John Mountain banned vegans
Mr Mountain said that although he seemed “somewhat sane”, he was trying to protect his business and when someone tried to damage it they had crossed a line.
Mr Mountain has lived in Australia for seven years after arriving from Britain, where he was a celebrity chef who shared an agent with kitchen superstar Jamie Oliver.
He has appeared in cooking shows The Great British Menu and Chef Race UK v US.
He has also worked with culinary pioneers Heston Blumenthal at the original famous Fat Duck restaurant in Berkshire, England, and with the brash Michelin three-star Marco Pierre White in London’s Mayfair.
Despite repeated attempts by vegans to sink his restaurant, business boomed immediately after his first confrontation with Ms. Peterson.
‘It went ridiculously well… Normally I visit six people in this beautiful restaurant. I have booked 35 for dinner (on Wednesday night),” he said in June 2023.
‘Thank you so much for all you vegans, I can now buy a new farm and look after my animals beautifully.’
