Top Restaurant Critic Is Slammed Online After 'Snobby' Wetherspoon's Review

Nothing divides the opinion of the Great British public quite like Wetherspoon's.

To some, it's a reliable town centre staple, and one of the only boozers that still offers some respite from the endlessly soaring drinks prices and lack of affordable dining-out options.

Credit: Toby Charlton-Taylor/Creative Commons

For others, it's shithole of the highest order; a place where surly women in neon pink 'bride-to-be' sashes start on you without provocation, but the mixture of spilled treble vodka Red Bulls and vomit entrenched into the carpets makes it impossible for you to run away (that's a hypothetical scenario. I'm not writing from personal experience. Honest.)

Whichever camp you're in, we can surely all agree on two salient facts:

1. Wetherspoon's is an important social hub for the people of the UK. And 2. It sure as shit isn't any place for a Sunday Times food critic.

However, that didn't stop esteemed restaurant writer Marina O'Loughlin from going for some scran and having a moan about it - a decision for which she is copping some serious flack online.

Wetherspoon's is without a doubt one of our nation's favourite pubs, but the newly-appointed Times food reviewer described it as "shorthand for all that's bad about 'British' food and chain catering"...and that's before she'd even eaten there.

Unsurprisingly, people who have read Marina's review are accusing her of being out of touch at best, and a class tourist snob at worst.

And with lines such as: "all the vomitous carpets, hastily erected wood panelling, fruit machines and reproduction art a cheap beer devotee could desire," it's not hard to see why.

"You've done the lovely Middle Class thing of looking down on something you're too privileged to understand," said one disgruntled Twitter user.

"Spoken like a true middle-class snob. Wetherspoons serves a market well and its food is fine. It's where my family went as a treat," said another.

In response, O'Loughlin tweeted to say: "been called some magnificently vile sweary names on here today it seems. I applaud everyone's creativity!"

Anyway, regardless of what some jumped-up food journo thinks, the beloved pub chain in question won't be changing a thing, telling the Independent: "She is a reviewer and is entitled to say what she wants."

Sources: Sunday Times; Independent

Featured Image Credit: Ben Sutherland/Creative Commons

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.