Posted by Daisy on September 1, 2007, 6:39 pm, in reply to "Re: Sophie's Restaurant, Exmouth" The point was that the owner of Sophie's took us for fools. Adopting different aliases, she sent various messages, but of course all from the one computer, thinking that we'd not be able to work this out. And when asked if she was "the same Maureen.." she denied it and claimed to be Maureen Cohen of Whitechapel ! Now, anyone who's been to Whitechapel lately knows that most of the Cohens left decades ago. She's just pulled this out of her box of London stereotypes, and as a Londoner I find this offensive. In other words, she thought she could manipulate Restaurant Spy for her own purposes, by impersonating several "satisfied customers", and she thought we'd be too stupid to notice. Who will respect our reputation for independence if we allow restaurateurs to get away with this ? I acknowledged in my review that I'd been a bit mean. I explained why, and said that Sophie's is what it is. I think you'd be hard pressed to find an example on Spy of a review belittling any restaurant or café for being "working-class". Whatever that means. Do please give some examples.
Iain, I understand your point, and I did rate Sophie's as "OK", because it is. If you read Spy regularly, you'll know that we regularly mock pretentious, highly priced places, and praise the humblest chippie or kebab shop. My review of the Rainbow Crystal Kebab Shop in the Holloway Road, for example.
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