Shortly after the opening of the Bazylia restaurant in the shopping gallery on Wesoła Street in Bolesławiec, Ms. Ilona, our reader's partner, ordered food from there to her workplace. Everyone was delighted with it.

A few days later, the couple—Ms. Ilona and our reader, Mr. Marcin—decided to visit the establishment in person. This time, according to both of them, the food left much to be desired. Mr. Marcin described the whole matter on Bazylia's Facebook profile. However, his comment was deleted, so after some time he posted his opinion on Google. Here it is: [pisownia oryginalna]

Since BAZYLIA [...] blocked reviews (including mine) on FB, I have to write here again :) Four days after the opening, encouraged by the reviews from opening day saying it was delicious, with great ingredients, etc., I went with my partner, ordered, and what happened...? The kitchen forgot to add 2 of the 5 ingredients to the pizza; there were 3... The quality of those 3 ingredients was the lowest supermarket shelf, with so many preservatives that they stung the tongue. The sauce was more like an extract of preservatives than pizza sauce. After reporting the matter to the waitress, we waited 20 minutes for someone to take an interest in us... we became lepers.... After what I think was the manager—or a waitress pretending to be one, because it was hard to tell as the woman did not introduce herself [...]. The woman first accused us of lying because she had spoken to the head chef and the ingredients had supposedly been there, even though the pizza had been taken apart piece by piece in front of the waitresses. Then the woman [...] after apparently checking the kitchen surveillance footage admitted that we were right (what a shock) and said the cook was at fault because she was learning.... I quote: and the head chef has gone out somewhere.... congratulations on the system.. rock bottom... Later the woman [...] manager said—and I quote again: this time the pizza will definitely be from the oven... so was it from a microwave before, or where the hell was it from? And finally, the waitress had to teach the “manager” how to give discounts.... Yes, we received a discount and a free pizza delivered to our home (hence the one star, and even that is generous), which also turned out to be rock bottom—the garlic sauce had no garlic :D the chemicals stung the tongue again... and the bacon was marinated supermarket bacon :) THAT IS WHY I DO NOT RECOMMEND BAZYLIA [...].

The effect of the comment? Mr. Marcin told us that a representative of Bazylia visited his partner at work to complain. He therefore wrote to Bazylia via Facebook:

A moment ago I received a call from my partner saying that your representative/manager came to her workplace to complain about my review of my visit to your establishment. First of all, this is extremely unprofessional. If you have a problem, please write to me rather than confronting my partner at work, because neither she nor I want that. Secondly, if you do not like my opinion, so what? I have every right to it; this is a free country and there is freedom of speech. Thirdly, if you promote yourselves on social media, you have to accept criticism and behave professionally. Fourthly, I described the situation from A to Z, with details, without insulting anyone. I hope the matter is closed.

The restaurant replied:

Everyone has the right to express their own opinions, but the law prohibits spreading false information.

We had no way to contact you, so I told Ms. Ilona that I was very sorry that you had published false information on the forum.

You have the right to be dissatisfied with the quality of service, the dishes served, or the restaurant's decor. However, the baseless allegation that the products are of the lowest quality constitutes an unlawful act and is defamatory.

We have been operating for five years and order the highest-quality goods from reputable suppliers, which we can prove in legal proceedings.

All sauces, semi-finished products and dishes are prepared daily from high-quality ingredients. Every day we receive fresh vegetables from a very good vegetable wholesaler in Bolesławiec, as well as other goods from the best suppliers throughout Poland. We do not cut costs on product quality, as demonstrated by the invoices from our suppliers.

Therefore, we will defend our good name on the basis of the evidence we possess.

In his review on the forum, you insulted many people and companies that contact us themselves asking for intervention. In this respect, your review is dishonest defamation.

By disseminating a false opinion unsupported by evidence, you are liable for damaging the good name of our company and our suppliers, as well as for financial losses that can be calculated.

We call on you to immediately remove the false content unsupported by evidence. In this way, we will end the matter without further action.

Mr. Marcin believed that the restaurant was threatening him with court action, so he went to a lawyer, who informed him that he was fully entitled to express his opinion online in that way.

In a conversation with the istotne.pl portal, the owner of Bazylia emphasized that the restaurant was not trying to threaten him with court action. Our editorial office received a statement on the matter. We publish it in full:

The customer ate the pizza and reported to the waitress that it did not contain bacon. It was difficult to assess this because almost nothing was left. Such situations occur in restaurants, so, for the benefit of both parties, I personally decided to accept the complaint. I informed the customer that he would not pay for the pizza he had eaten and that, in addition, he would receive a free bacon pizza to take home. The customer accepted the pizza.

The next day, the customer posted a negative and insulting review on the restaurant's Fan Page.

More than a month later, he again posted a negative review on Google, referring to the same incident. He added that the ingredients used for the pizza were “the lowest supermarket shelf,” full of preservatives, as well as the lowest-quality “marinated supermarket bacon.”

I also received a message from the customer on FB concerning freedom of speech. I replied that everyone has the right to an opinion, but disseminating information inconsistent with the truth is defamatory. I called on him to remove the passage concerning the quality of the ingredients, because we order high-quality goods from the best suppliers, as demonstrated by invoices and something we can easily prove.

We assumed that we would end the matter there. Now we regret entering into any dialogue at all. In any case, we do not intend to continue the matter—it is not as though there are not many other truly important things to do.

Regards,

Alina and Adrian Adamowicz

We asked our reader to respond to the content of the Bazylia owners' statement. He sent us a receipt supporting his version of events.

What do you think? What experiences have you had with this restaurant? We invite you to join the discussion.