A chef’s war against vegans has been reignited after his restaurant was again bombarded with one-star reviews more than 10 months after the row began.
It’s déjà vu for Fyre bar and UK-born restaurateur John Mountain after a fake online review sparked an avalanche of trolling about his Perth venue.
Mountain made headlines last year when it banned vegan diners from its restaurant after a series of negative reviews from customers complaining about a 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 made on a Facebook page from people who had never been to his restaurant.
Fyre bar and restaurant owner John Mountain is again being bombarded with one-star reviews from angry vegans, this time from Germany.
Mr Mountain was harassed by a person who left negative reviews about his restaurant despite never having eaten there
Mountain said he was happy to receive customer reviews and comments if they were genuine, but it was unfair to target businesses with negative online comments that were false.
“It’s defamation and it’s worse than that because it can’t be removed,” he said.
‘All restaurants are rated on Google with Google reviews. Anyone can be a keyboard warrior, anyone can say whatever they want.
‘On Perth Foodies there were 200 reviews in an hour, all negative.
‘A bit of revenge on the part of a person who created a bit of a scandal. Luckily for me it all worked out thanks to the great support we’ve had and I can’t thank the people of WA enough.”
The restaurant receives about one positive review a week from people who have dined there, but Mr. Mountain noticed one person who always had something negative to say even though he had never been there.
With his “stupid, dry British sense of humour”, Mr Mountain posted something in response that added fuel to the fire.
“This person kept commenting over and over again,” he said.
A Fyre staff member saw the comments and took it upon herself to message the person after they finished a shift one night, but this further inflamed the reaction.
“He got one of his friends to write a really horrible review about our restaurant on Facebook and it was the most horrible review,” Mr Mountain said.
“It was definitely our food and furniture, but it didn’t look like a plate of our food that we served, it had been ruined.”
‘It turned out that the person who left the review was a good friend of the other person.
“It got such a massive response that we got slammed again, repeatedly, with one-star reviews.”
Mr. Mountain has been trolled online with one-star reviews from people who have never been to his restaurant.
Mountain said the restaurant received 200 reviews within an hour, all negative.
The whole controversy arose from an incident last year after a vegan restaurant left a one-star review that talked about his “shortcomings as a chef.”
Mountain took the comment personally, leading him to ban anyone who identified as vegan from Facebook.
“Sadly, all vegans are now banned from Fyre (for mental health reasons),” he wrote on his Instagram account.
After the ban, vegan activist Tash Peterson organized two protests at the restaurant that resulted in her being charged with criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct.
In one, Ms. Peterson, along with a dozen other activists, stormed inside Fyre, with a loudspeaker blaring the sounds of pigs screeching in distress.
Protesters chanted and showed a video of a pig being slaughtered with the audio amplified by a loudspeaker.
Mr. Mountain was seen charging several times and fighting with protesters while trying to grab the speaker from Ms. Peterson.
Customers were also visibly uncomfortable, according to the celebrity chef, who said the protests were disrupting his business and scaring diners.
Mountain also filed a defamation case against Peterson for social media posts he allegedly made that he said damaged his reputation.
Peterson clashes with Mountain during a protest in Fyre last year
Peterson has made headlines around the world for organizing similar protests in Perth, in which he threw blood on a butcher shop and harassed diners eating out.
Since then, he has tried to justify his form of protest in several social media posts.
“We’re not going after this restaurant because they ban vegans; yes, maybe that was one of the reasons that instigated it, but at the end of the day it’s because this man is profiting from the abuse and murder of animals and so is he.” is beautifying.” ‘ he said at the time.
Mountain said at the time that it caused him great distress.
“I don’t want to sound like a whiny Pom, but these people have nothing better to do and we’ve had a couple of mental vegans,” he said.
“It hurts the business, despite all the hard work we do.”
He revealed in A current issue at the same time that the drama had cost him the 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 all the attention, thank you vegans,” he said, fighting back tears.
Vegan activist Tash Peterson protests at Fyre restaurant, where chef John Mountain banned vegans
Mountain said that while it might seem “a little crazy,” he was trying to protect his business and when someone tried to harm him, he had crossed a line.
Mountain has lived in Australia for seven years after arriving from Britain, where he was a celebrity chef who shared an agent with cooking superstar Jamie Oliver.
He starred on the cooking shows Great British Menu and Chef Race UK v US.
He has also worked with culinary pioneers Heston Blumenthal at the famous original Fat Duck restaurant in Berkshire, England, as well as the daring, three-Michelin-starred Marco Pierre White in London’s Mayfair.
Despite the vegans’ repeated attempts to sink his restaurant, business was booming immediately after his first confrontation with Mrs. Peterson.
“Things have gone ridiculously well… I usually have half a dozen people at this beautiful restaurant… I have 35 reserved for dinner (Wednesday night),” he said in June 2023.
“Thank you very much for your vegans. Now I can buy a new farm and take care of my animals wonderfully.”