Restaurants offer taste of their worst Urbanspoon reviews

Some of Melbourne's most popular restaurants have taken the unusual step of publicising examples of the worst reviews they have received on restaurant recommendation site Urbanspoon.

In an online video, posted by the Lucas Group, which runs Chin Chin in Flinders Lane and Baby in Richmond, kitchen and waiting staff read out some of the more scathing reviews recently posted on the user-generated Urbanspoon website.

"When the goat dish arrived, it looked like something a dog regurgitated onto the plate," laughs Chin Chin head chef Benjamin Cooper as he reads out one such review.

"Attractive but arrogant and messy service," reads Ben Wicks from the Meatball and Wine Bar in the city.

"Drinks got spilt on my friend, the wrong drink order was delivered to myself ... Only attend if you have a mega-craving for balls in your mouth. I lost count of how many times our waitress mentioned balls."

Lucas Group marketing manager Holly Lucas said the group decided to post the video "to have a little bit of a laugh" at some of the more "outrageous" reviews restaurants receive.

"We just wanted to give a humorous take on some of the feedback we get from Urbanspoon. We do take the feedback seriously. But some of it is so outrageous, sometimes you've just got to have a laugh," Ms Lucas said.

She said she monitors Urbanspoon and other online review websites daily.

"I'm on them every day just making sure that everything is OK. If any guests have come in and they've got any issues, I usually follow them all up.

"However, some of them are extremely ridiculous and there's nothing that we can do to fix that situation," she said.

Ms Lucas said she was not concerned that highlighting the negative reviews on social media would damage the reputations of the restaurants involved.

"We're all pretty confident in what we do and you can't keep everyone happy ... So we figured it can't do us too much harm."

The national body for the restaurant industry, Restaurant and Catering Australia, recently urged the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to investigate review websites such as Urbanspoon over concerns about fake reviews and unfair ratings.

Ms Lucas said fake reviews and damaging reviews by competitors were something many restaurants were concerned about.

"You can always speculate but it's difficult to prove it. Many of the reviews are very helpful, but some people do take advantage of it or they don't seem to use it appropriately. This was our chance to have our say on it."