'˜Free piece of lettuce' offered to customer who left one-star review after giveaway snub

But when one woman, who said she deserved the treat because her dog had recently died, was not picked, she told the restaurant: “I won’t be trying your place at all and consider yourselves unfollowed.”

However, just minutes later it appeared the critic, who The Gazette has chosen not to name, then submitted a one-star review to the restaurant’s Facebook page, slamming them for their “terrible service and terrible food”.

Pastels hit back. Co-owner Michael Gerome, 30, wrote: “Because you didn’t get picked, is it appropriate to leave a one-star, which is clearly a lie as you have not tested our food. Free piece of lettuce for leaving a FAKE review.”

The comments have now been deleted from Pastels’ Facebook page. The woman, who The Gazette has chosen not to name, said that she later phoned the restaurant to apologise.

She said: “It was just a bit of a laugh that went too far. I admit it was stupid and silly but I didn’t expect them to share it.

“I knew that the one-star rating wasn’t going to affect them because they had lots of five-star ratings. I didn’t really comprehend or consider the consequences. I thought they would private message me and I’d make a bit of a joke.

“I’m not going to say I’m not embarrassed.”

Gage Dunstan, 29, who also runs Pastels, said the offer of free lettuce would be honoured – but added: “We actually want her to come down and try the food and leave an honest review.

“We welcome all reviews. Any time we get a bad review we message the person and try to solve the problem, but with this review we had proof that she had not been and was slandering our business. We would never call out a genuine review.

“She said we must not be dog people, but we donate dog food to a lady who feeds homeless people’s dogs. We love dogs. The post had over 300 comments and we just can’t give something to every single person.

“But the feedback from our customers has been incredible. We have had lots of actual customers leaving us good reviews.”