Detroit restaurant receives scathing review from Detroit Free Press

(WJBK) - Thursday morning Empire Kitchen and Cocktails, cooking at Fox 2. By Thursday afternoon the new Detroit restaurant reeling after a Detroit Free Press review, urging why you should avoid the new Detroit bistro. 

The review gets worse from there, saying there’s nothing here worth coming for that you can’t already get somewhere else. 

The Detroit Eatery notes that the Free Press critic eviscerates Empire Kitchen and Cocktails in their review.

“Maybe people will come and give us a try because of the article and say ‘wow I guess he was wrong,’ Michael Abrams said. 

Abrams one of the owners of Empire Kitchen and Cocktails, opened its doors in May, and  from what we could tell customers seem to like it, despite the bad review. 

“I thought it was a really rough take on a new restaurant here in Detroit, that I think it’s trying to do something good in the community, I ate there before and I thought the food was great, and the atmosphere was great, all the staff were nice,” Bonsitu Kitaba said.

While the people who spoke to Fox 2 disagreed with the review itself, they all agreed the critic has a right to his opinion. 

“Well it’s just one person’s opinion, if the world ran on one person’s opinion, what kind of world would it be,” Brent Diedrich said.

“Everyone has an opinion, so if they like certain foods, but I like this food, it’s very good and their brunch, out of sight,” John Paul said.

The owners of the restaurant can’t help but be concerned about possible fallout from the article.

“I happen to think it’s a beautiful restaurant, a lot of time and energy has gone into it, and a lot of people have chosen to make this their career so I hope it’s not affected negatively, we’ll see how it all falls out,” Abrams said.

The writer of the review did not return calls for comment.