Guy Fieri Bad Reviews Piling Up, Critics Hate His Restaurant

Guy Fieri is not faring well with his new restaurant, as critics have called Guy Fieri’s American Kitchen & Bar everything from terrible to on par with school cafeteria food.

The criticism of Guy Fieri’s restaurant started rolling with a scathing review from the New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells. He wrote the review as if he were speaking directly to Fieri, scolding him as a disappointed parent would to a child:

“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?”

“Were you struck by how very far from awesome the Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders are? If you hadn’t come up with the recipe yourself, would you ever guess that the shiny tissue of breading that exudes grease onto the plate contains either pretzels or smoked almonds? Did you discern any buttermilk or brine in the white meat, or did you think it tasted like chewy air?”

Were the New York Times review the only scathing takedown of Guy Fieri’s restaurant, the boisterous chef might have gotten off the hook. But since Wells’ review went up, a number of other outlets have joined in the criticism of the giant Times Square eatery.

Instead of rating Guy Fieri’s restaurant with stars, as he does for all other reviews, Wells simply called it poor. This prompted one of Wells’ colleagues, Nick Fox, to tweet that he didn’t even know a “poor” classification existed.

The Huffington Post also reached out to some other food critics in New York, and all rated Guy Fieri’s American Kitchen & Bar as the bottom of the barrel in New York eating.