Even if you think that restaurant critics are useless in a Yelp-fueled world, there's a good chance that you read New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells' takedown of Guy Fieri's massive Times Square eatery. It has spread across the Internet like wildfire, even extending to non-food publications like Gawker. Wells awarded the restaurant no stars, and called it "Poor," prompting a Tweet by his colleague Nick Fox to remark that he didn't even know the Dining section "had a 'poor.'"
Why did this review fascinate people so much? Well, let's face it -- good reviews just aren't as fun to read as bad ones, and Wells managed to compose the entire review in rhetorical questions, a literary device that can easily fall flat if not done correctly. Here's an excerpt:
Why undermine a big fist of slow-roasted pork shank, which might fly in many downtown restaurants if the General Tso’s-style sauce were a notch less sweet, with randomly shaped scraps of carrot that combine a tough, nearly raw crunch with the deadened, overcooked taste of school cafeteria vegetables?
Is this how you roll in Flavor Town?
Wells isn't the only one to find Guy's restaurant less than palatable, though. We've rounded up some of the other New York critics thoughts. It's pretty safe to say that while Times Square is not exactly known as a premiere dining destination, Guy Fieri's American Kitchen & Bar may in fact be the bottom of an already bad barrel.
UPDATE 11/15: For Guy Fieri's response, see here.
Check it out: