When it comes to bad restaurant service, Yelp can be used as a tool to expose unfair treatment and service. Sometimes, when in the hands of entitled people, Yelp can also be used as a weapon, threatening the livelihood of oftentimes struggling restaurants. This story deals with the latter type of Yelp reviewer, and a restaurant chef and owner who is being called a hero for defending his eatery and staff on Instagram.

#wedontnegotiatewithyelpers

It all started when chef and owner Michael Scelfo of Alden & Harlow, a Cambridge, Massachusetts restaurant, posted this picture (which is now deleted) on Instagram of two  women who allegedly came in to the restaurant rudely demanding service without a reservation.

According to Buzzfeed, Scelfo later added, “It’s one thing to be entitled, but mistreat my family. Hell no.” Scelfo continued:

“My choice to post this is not to slander on them per say but to call attention to a major flaw in the current ‘online review system & entitled mentality.’”

Boston Eater, which originally broke the story, reported that many of the comments on the now-deleted picture were negative:

“Various industry folks have chimed into the conversation with a call to ban the duo from other restaurants if they’re recognized. One Instagram user claiming to have witnessed the drama noted that they told the bartender they weren’t tipping since they couldn’t get a table.”

However, the discussion continued on twitter, where Scelfo was called a hero:

Scelfo responded:

In a new post, Scelfo wrote:

“#wedontnegotiatewithyelpers stands true though and I would encourage more people to be responsible with it. Uber allows for service providers to rate customers, we should move to that system. I will always stand by my staff, always.“

The two women never actually followed through with their threats on Yelp — not yet, anyways.

Written by NextShark.com‘s Max Chang