Fieri No Match For Bad Review

On Friday, Mark noted in his Buzz post that “Guy Fieri says the big mean New Yorkers are just picking on him.” In case you missed it, I want to mention what has so ruffled the culinary self-promoter’s feathers.

On the 13th, New York Times restaurant reviewer Pete Wells wrote about Fieri’s new Times Square eatery named Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar. The review is crushingly epic.

I encourage you to read this piece, just so you know what it sounds like when doves cry.

A few of my favorite excerpts:

Somewhere within the yawning, three-level interior of Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar, is there a long refrigerated tunnel that servers have to pass through to make sure that the French fries, already limp and oil-sogged, are also served cold?

What exactly about a small salad with four or five miniature croutons makes Guy’s Famous Big Bite Caesar (a) big (b) famous or (c) Guy’s, in any meaningful sense?

Why did the toasted marshmallow taste like fish?

SERVICE: The well-meaning staff seems to realize that this is not a real restaurant.

It is easy to see why Fieri was in full-scale damage control mode last week. But maybe it was unwarranted. Do you honestly think anyone that goes into a Times Square restaurant – aka tourist mecca – really cares? There is a reason Olive Garden is in business after all.

H/t to Kornheiser Radio for the scoop and the Daily News for the photo.