Rach undercover at RTL: Christian Rach testing Restaurants – STERN

In fact, the idea of ​​the program is more than exciting. After all, who does not? Who wants to try a new restaurant, going before the Internet and read through reviews or opinions. And actually, there is always someone who has something to complain about and is also a well-rated restaurant bad reviews.

TV chef Christian Rach visited precisely these restaurants. In a four-part documentary he wants to find out what is on bad reviews on the internet off. Is the food really that bad? Or want so-called “trolls” only hurt the restaurant? A special feature: Christian Rach testing Restaurants undercover, so to speak, in the Wallraff-style. But he goes five hours the mask and turns into Hartmut Plaske so it now no longer recognizes.

Back to Rach, the Restaurant Tester

His first goal is the restaurant “gladness” in the center of Frankfurt, which has gotten pretty bad reviews. Also from the Frankfurter semi-celebrities and children’s author Nadia Doukali. She wrote that even the hunger would not have managed, the bad food to force down. Harsh words. Rach makes them seek out and goes with her undercover in the restaurant to make it to the test. The result: The food in the “gladness” is really bad. But not as devastating as the author asserts it.

Until then, the broadcast was indeed exciting, a new approach. The next day, however, Christian Rach goes again into the restaurant – this time without any five-hour facial treatment and in familiar climes – as Restauranttester. And from then happened what one already knows from his old books: The menu is turned inside out, the bosses and employees pick themselves up and in the end even the semi-celebrities satisfied with the “gladness”

. How destructive are bad reviews?

But how bad reviews on the internet really have on restaurants? The Star has talked with Jan Pflüger, a managing director of the Brooklyn Burger Bar in Hamburg. Yelp is the restaurant has very good reviews, but also scathing as “Unfortunately a big disappointment,” or “terrible, the burger was unfortunately not good at all” or “Loud, uncoordinated service that stands in its own way and bad food”.

“As a guest you must always make sure that one reads across several review sites. If the bad reviews outweigh, you can be sure that the restaurant is something wrong. If, however, a handful of bad reviews were issued with little content, then the host has to decide whether he believes this “himself says Pflüger. “We take every review seriously. But there are also differences in the evaluation portals. Especially if they are anonymous. You get quickly a sense of what is relevant and what is not. If the negative criticism is justified, we will discuss the team or liable for the errors on site. “

It is quite clear yet whether bad reviews really alienate new customers. That must Rach find out in the next three episodes yet. Whether he has to disguise this necessarily, is another question.