Hilarious New York Times review about Guy Fieri's new Times Square Restaurant

[LBIJim]

Ouch. Pretty brutal review.

I don't know why the critic bothered to go to Guy's restaurant in the first place. He KNEW it wasn't going to be a culinary masterpiece.

Exactly. Sounds like he went there specifically to do a hatchet job. The people who read the NYT restaurant reviews are extremely unlikely to go to those types of places to begin with. Still, the review was an amusing bit of schadenfreude, which may have been the intent all along.

Jim

 

[zurgswife]

Wrong thread...

 

[Gumbo4x4]

You don't know very much about him do you? He has never trained as a Chef and never worked as a Chef. He has worked in restaurants as a waiter, maitre d and as a restaurant manager. And then he won a contest on TV. The Next Food Network star is more of a personality contest than a cooking contest.

I was under the impression that he owned at least one restaurant prior to the win on Food Network. At any rate, his restaurants don't quite sound like my cup of tea, but we have enjoyed many of his recipes from Guy's Big Bite. And we're fully addicted to DDD

 

[phorsenuf]

Would a 4 in Feather bed topper help the sleeping comfort of a sleeper couch? Trying to think of some way to make a sleeper couch more comfortable to some of my older kids who are visiting for a few days during the holidays.

I have no experience with a feather bed topper but I found them on Amazon.

Trying to change the subject are we?

 

[lizabu]

I was under the impression that he owned at least one restaurant prior to the win on Food Network. At any rate, his restaurants don't quite sound like my cup of tea, but we have enjoyed many of his recipes from Guy's Big Bite. And we're fully addicted to DDD

Yes. You're correct. He owned restaurants too but has never been a Chef and has never trained as a Chef. This restaurant in Times Square is obviously just an opportunity to cash in on his name. Who can blame him? He's a business man after all. But to go in an expect something special because he's supposed to be a famous "Chef" is not very realistic.

 

[Squirlz]

You don't know very much about him do you? He has never trained as a Chef and never worked as a Chef. He has worked in restaurants as a waiter, maitre d and as a restaurant manager. And then he won a contest on TV. The Next Food Network star is more of a personality contest than a cooking contest.

You're right, his time in France wasn't really formal training. But he certainly does know food and is an excellent chef.It's not like Oprah opened a restaurant or something. I don't think his style of food is what the reviewer was expecting.

 

[lizabu]

You're right, his time in France wasn't really formal training. But he certainly does know food and is an excellent chef.It's not like Oprah opened a restaurant or something. I don't think his style of food is what the reviewer was expecting.

You're right. It wasn't. He was an exchange student. If eating French food is the same as being Classically trained in French cuisine then I guess he was...but it's not.

 

[Uncle Remus]

Would a 4 in Feather bed topper help the sleeping comfort of a sleeper couch? Trying to think of some way to make a sleeper couch more comfortable to some of my older kids who are visiting for a few days during the holidays.

I have no experience with a feather bed topper but I found them on Amazon.

Trying to change the subject are we?

 

[Mysteria]

Had to show the review to DH. From day 1 he hasn't liked the "guy".

 

[SaraJayne]

No, he's actually a trained chef who won a television chef competition and became a TV personality.

No, he isn't a trained chef.

 

[DeltaDiamond001]

I never liked Guy Fieri. His shows are just too loud and obnoxious, as programs centered around food, for my taste. I love watching the Food Network, but his personality really turns me off.

The gold tipped spiky hair, the glasses on the back of the head, the pretend macho attitude, the ugly clothing, the fake cooking show, the boring recipes, the premature mid-life crisis car, the constant shoveling of food in to the mouth, complete with questionable grunts and moans regarding the 'awesome' flavors, the annoying, overly loud voice... must I continue...?

 

[crashbb]

You're right, his time in France wasn't really formal training. But he certainly does know food and is an excellent chef.It's not like Oprah opened a restaurant or something. I don't think his style of food is what the reviewer was expecting.

I've read three bad reviews - I guess none of them were expecting that style of food? When it is more than one reviewer, one starts to think that the "style" of food is "bad food".

 

[luvmy3]

Ah, Guy Fieri

"There is nothing more pathetic than an aging hipster"

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Guy was on the Today show. I thought he handled the review with dignity. Stated he wasn't perfect and that they are doing what they can to make the restaurant better. He did feel the reviewer came in with an agenda but never said anything really bad about him or the paper - just that the review was over the top.

I will try the restaurant the next time we get to the city. It's all subjective.

 

[Heidict]

What I will never understand is why people would visit a place like NYC and then go to a commercially branded, cheesy, mediocre restaurant when there are so many amazing, authentic and unique places to eat there. Places where you can get delicious and well prepared food with a wide range of prices.

 

[powellrj]

I don't know much about him, but I do know that a few weeks ago Andrew Zimmern was talking about him on his podcast-Go Fork Yourself and he said he knew Guy before we won NFNS. He said that the real Guy is not like the Guy you see on TV. He is playing a character. While I don't know if he is a trained chef, he did go to college in Las Vegas and it involved a kitchen because he had gone to school with the guy who ran the kitchen now and they were using one of the recipes he had developed while he was in school. It could have been a hospitality course or something, I don't remember what they said.

 

[FireDancer]

What I will never understand is why people would visit a place like NYC and then go to a commercially branded, cheesy, mediocre restaurant when there are so many amazing, authentic and unique places to eat there. Places where you can get delicious and well prepared food with a wide range of prices.

Exactly. I go out of my way when I travel to find small, locally owned restaurants and not chains or places with celebrity names attached to them. Even in Rome I got out of the touristy areas for the majority of my meals and found places where the locals eat. I have no desire to pay for a name instead of good food and I've never found one of these places to have better food than the locally owned places with a chef you probably never heard of.

Fieri is my least favorite of the Food Network personalities so I wasn't sad to hear about the reviews. I wasn't surprised either.

 

[snapppyd]

I like Guy, and I get a kick out of his DDD show. I guess DH and I are in the minority, because we enjoy a TGIF or ESPN kind of meal now and then. I usually cook Italian food at home, so it's a fun change to go out for a burger, fries and beer.

 

[Princess Dolly]

Pretty much what I would expect out of a Guy Fieri establishment.

Fact is, if you're visiting NYC, and you're eating at any restaurant in Times Square, I'm thinking haute cuisine is pretty low on your "Experience New York" checklist.

Indeed!

It's one thing if you live near by and go often, it's another when you visit maybe once in a lifetime. I can eat burger and fries wherever, when I am in NYC I want to take advantage of having real chefs with restaurants, something that is lacking in my two horse town.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Exactly. I go out of my way when I travel to find small, locally owned restaurants and not chains or places with celebrity names attached to them.

I used to travel on business with folks who would get to a new town for the first time and say, "Let's go to the Olive Garden tonight". :facepalm