Restaurant fights Yelp, seeks one-star reviews

Ed Brackett | USA TODAY

A California restaurant is taking on Yelp in a bid to be removed from the site over a co-owner's concerns about whether advertisers get better reviews, which the company denies.

Botto Bistro's attention-getting plea to customers: Give us a one-star rating! Please!

Yelp has repeatedly said that the company doesn't interfere with reviews and that businesses that advertise on the site are not treated differently from those that don't — even though a federal court ruled this month that there is nothing wrong with that, anyway. Software filters the reviews to determine ratings and it does not distinguish between those businesses who advertise and those who don't, the company says.

Yelp had not responded to efforts to contact the company for comment as of late Wednesday night Eastern Time.

In an interview with USA TODAY, Botto Bistro co-owner Davide Cerretini declares, "I want to have the worst restaurant in the San Francisco area!"

Botto Bistro, in Richmond near Berkeley, has launched a deliberate attempt to show the world that the restaurant doesn't care what the world thinks of its Italian cuisine — at least the world according to Yelp. And it seems like a good way for the restaurant to get booted from the site, Cerretini figures.

"I'm surprised we are still around on the site," he says. The restaurant, run by Cerretini and fellow Tuscany native Michele Massimo, has been openly mocking Yelp for about six months.

"We have nothing to lose," Cerretini adds. "Worst case, we go back to Italy and cook for mama."

Reviewers on Yelp as of Wednesday night are getting in on the act, with one-star reviewer Mark T. snarkily noting: "My food arrived before I wanted it to come. It was too hot to eat. It brought back all kinds of terrible memories of eating in Italy."

Darrin Z. tacks this on to his one-star review of the San Francisco-area eatery: "I have been here at least 20 times and it is still terrible."

One-star reviewer David S. goes over-the-top negative, noting: "The primary attraction was the small wildlife wandering across the table and I'm pretty sure only the flies on the table enjoyed the meal. Took a doggy bag home; the dog refused it."

The restaurant's average rating as of Wednesday night is 2 1/2 out of 5 stars, with about 100 "recommended" reviews displayed.

Yelp, based in downtown San Francisco, 15 miles from the restaurant, has been a review powerhouse for several years. Its CEO Jeremy Stoppelman is open about his own reviews of businesses on Yelp. One of them included a diss of a now-closed restaurant of Massimo's, Cerretini says.

Cerretini got fed up with what he says were constant phone calls — as many as 15 to 20 a week, he says — from Yelp asking that the restaurant advertise on the site. He says he noticed a pattern that when he did advertise with Yelp — the restaurant paid about $270 a month for six months last year, Cerretini says — the reviews were more positive. But as soon as the restaurant stopped advertising, he says, three bad reviews quickly popped up and a positive review vanished.

He says he has nothing against Yelp — he's just fighting fire with fire.

"You have to look at this way, my friend — this is business," Cerretini says.

Making matters worse — or better — for Botto Bistro is its 25%-off offer for customers who write a one-star review. Cerretini says that prompted an e-mail from someone only identified as "Marvin" from Yelp Support. The e-mail, published on a San Francisco area website, Inside Scoop SF, and dated Monday, cites "complaints from the community that you may be offering incentives in exchange for reviews."

Emphasizing that he and Massimo are "chefs, not cooks" and their food is great, Cerretini gets a laugh out of Botto Bistro's own Yelp profile, which declares, "Bad Tuscan food, bad customer service and horrible attitude."

Cerretini isn't aware of other restaurants using similar tactics to battle with Yelp. He says he is receiving a large number of supportive e-mails as word spreads about his one-star campaign.