EDMONTON—A local food blogger ate a disappointing cheeseboard at a city restaurant recently, but when he posted his negative review online, he got a mouthful from the eatery’s owner and other business people.

Leduc Nguyen, who blogs about food on his Instagram account “letseatyeg” as a side hobby — garnering him almost 16,000 followers — went to the downtown Edmonton eatery, The Common, and ordered the cheeseboard.

On July 14, Nguyen decided to post about the experience, and found himself being personally attacked on social media by business owners in the city. The pile-on has raised some questions from social media users about how businesses should deal with unhappy customers online.

People started collecting screen shots of the now-deleted comments and posting them to social media platform Reddit. The Reddit thread about the incident has more than 500 comments. Many were dismayed by the words of the commenters, including those from the restaurant owner.

“I was sitting on these photos for a bit and wasn’t sure I wanted to post them,” Nguyen said in his post. “This was probably one of the worse meals I’ve had in a long time.”

He went on to detail his disappointment in the “dense” cauliflower tots, undesirable pita chips and what he said tasted like canned strawberries.

“I wasn’t expecting any sort of backlash or anything like that,” he said. “My whole existence as a blogger is just to provide honest feedback. That’s the purpose of my page, it’s my opinion.”

Having been a fan of the restaurant for years, Nguyen also said he felt the food quality had gone downhill.

The reaction from local business owners, the owners of The Common, and others (thought by Nguyen to be friends of the owner) was swift. Comments were made attacking his credibility as a blogger, his work at a children’s hospital and his loyalty to the city.

“Stick to sick kids,” posted Katy Ingraham, owner of Cartago, a restaurant in south Edmonton. Nguyen doesn’t work directly with patients at the Stollery Children’s Hospital; he told StarMetro during an interview that he’s a clinical genetics technologist there.

The exchange also included comments from The Common co-owner, Kyla Kazeil, who has since deleted them.

“Where’s your job? I’d like to come there and give my non-professional opinion,” Kazeil wrote.

The Instagram post itself had hundreds of comments, ranging from people disgusted at the reaction of the business owners, to some who staunchly defended local Edmonton restaurants.

Nguyen said he sees both sides, and doesn’t hold anything against Kazeil, who he said he has since spoken with, adding they have worked out their differences.

For her part, the owner of The Common said in a written response to StarMetro that she apologizes for her actions.

“I let my passion cloud my judgment and made a mistake by responding negatively to the review,” Kazeil wrote. “I chose to take the feedback personally and am sorry for my actions, as they have reflected poorly on our business. I also want to extend a sincere apology to my partners, staff and loyal customers for not upholding the level of professionalism we strive for each day.”

Kazeil also said she wished Nguyen would have brought his concerns forward to staff instead of posting them online.

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“The understanding is that if they’re local, you have to support them blindly, whether or not they’re good,” Nguyen said of local business culture. “It’s not necessarily something that I agree with, but I do understand why people feel so strong about it because it is true, they are local and they do have families.”

Nguyen said he understands his account and its healthy following gives him a certain amount of responsibility to be careful about what he posts, since it could affect someone’s livelihood.

However, the implications of the post have gone much further than leaving some folks disgruntled.

Nguyen received an anonymous email chastising him for his critique of the cheeseboard, with the writer signing off with a single sentence he felt had ominous and threatening connotations.

“Your girlfriend (her full name) should be ashamed of your post,” said the writer, who identified himself only as Peter.

Nguyen said it was indicative of how quickly things can get out of hand on social media.

Another comment by an account from local clothing company Suka Clothing was interpreted by Nguyen to be racist.

“Caramel Big Mac B-----s,” it said.

However Alisha Schick, owner of Suka Clothing, said in an interview that it was not her intent to be racist. When she realized her comment had been interpreted as such, she deleted it. She said she didn’t know the race or gender of the person behind “letseatyeg” when she commented.

“It was not by any means meant to offend anyone by any race or anything,” she said.

“More of the comment was generalized to big corporate companies and food chains and people who are in support of those food chains.”

Schick said she is now questioning her actions on social media, and doesn’t know if the cheeseboard is a hill worth dying on.

“Everything just got blown out of proportion, but no, I would not comment ever again,” she said. “I’m over it, I’m done with social media. I’m just going to be silent and I’ll spend more time being creative in my backlashes against things.”

Ingraham did not respond to requests for comment about her remarks concerning Nguyen’s job at the children’s hospital.

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