Monday 31 January 2011

Benihana Kuwait #FAIL

The latest rage on the blogosphere and twitter land!


so you go to a new place, to enjoy a meal, have a good time, a regular night one, right? well, you might not enjoy your meal, the experience at the restaurant, the waiter is nasty, anything might ruin or get on your nerves... its fine, you just decide not to visit again, but hey let's vent out on my blog about it you would say...


Mark from www.248am.com a popular blog on the Kuwaiti scene, has posted (you can follow him on twitter.com/mark248am) his review on his experience at the recently opened Benihana in Kuwait (full review here http://tiny.cc/q86o4) . . . and behold, Benihana replies, not with a "ohhh thank you for the feedback Mark", "we will take your thoughts into consideration", but no, they show up full knives swinging!!



FILING A LAWSUIT against Mark for defamation and what not... i mean SERIOUSLY ?!!? 


well, i've read the review, and its not that bad at all, complimenting the nice waiters, the fact that the place holds up despite being open for coupla days only... well the GM, with apparently silly english skills, has filed a lawsuit against Mark, instead of investing the effort and words and money into dealing with the constructive criticism the place was faced with.


All this coming when i posted yesterday a review about a restaurant in Dubai (http://tiny.cc/2n7cj), i have my fingers crossed now.


Unfortunately for Benihana, with an established reputation, this comes as a big blow, and i doubt the place will stay in business in Kuwait. I wonder even the ripple effect of this whole shebang across the outlets in the region. 


These days with the power of social media and all the blogging activity increasing by the minute here, with especially a vocal culture, brands should play ball and even offer their hand to be embraced by social media.. it is always and will always remain a two-way and more communication process,, people listen, people watch, people share, people do good. Brands are thus to calculate every step they make, how they talk, how they act, how they present themselves,, a slip is no longer a tiny press clipping to hang on a wall of shame in a GM's office, NO, it becomes the mockery of everyone ! 


Everything is interconnected, the internet and social media just sky rocketed that fact! 


What do you think Benihana is to do to redeem itself? was it right in following this action against Mark? would all this refrain you from stating your opinion or push to shout it louder!? 


Check out other posts on the matter here:


http://tiny.cc/1ahjo on Fake Plastic Souks by @AlexanderMcNabb


http://tiny.cc/mnxlf on Five One Eight by @ansam518


http://tiny.cc/2pklu on His and Hers Q8 by @His_Hers_q8 (co-blog like ours)


http://tiny.cc/04epz on Life In Dubai by SeaBee


http://tiny.cc/qglu2


http://tiny.cc/afy89 on Irrelevant Combinations by @mzaher


MAKE SURE TO HASSLE THEM on their FB page as most are 


http://www.facebook.com/BenihanaKuwait?v=wall


and finally hahahaha 






@Alexi13


Follow me on Twitter.com/Alexi13



3 comments:

  1. Honestly, the amount of money they will invest in the lawsuit and brand image repair after this nonsense could have been used to improve their cooking, train their staff, and probably have enough money to support three villages for two years.

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  2. and turn all the $$ u make on FarmVille into real dough!!

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  3. I couldn't have said it better..I'm with you all the way @KJ..as I've been saying on almost every blog, this is important as it will set a precedent for what is to come. Blogs and social media is still a new territory that has yet to be "governed" so to speak by lawmakers. What are they suing for? Libel? Slander? Invasion of privacy? Whatever the case, it has definitely made me think twice about all of the not so good reviews and pictures I have posted on my blog! We are with you MARK of2:48am, all the way!

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