Don’t Taze Me Menupages!

Some time ago I wrote on the double standard whereby communist iconography is still acceptable in pop culture, while fascist regalia is strictly beyond the pale. One of the examples I used was the Cork City of Culture promotional campaign which drew on the imagery of Maoist China. Up piped Kevin in the comments, to remind me of the restaurant Café Mao. We all agreed that it is in poor taste to name restaurants after genocidal dictators.

Years passed (I’ve always wanted to write that), and I found myself eating there a few weeks ago. The old chestnut of the name came up again in conversation over Five Spice Noodles, and I thought I’d mention it in my brief review for menupages.ie, a useful restaurant review service. I made some sort of reference to Chinese people in Dublin and how they might feel about an Irish-owned restaurant using the name and image of Mao. Given the sheer scale of his slaughter, he must have been responsible for the murder of family members of at least some of them. I added that we await the arrival of Café Hitler, Chez Stalin and Pol Pot’s Grill.

The review appeared without this final paragraph, and I assumed I must have been clumsy in my editing, until I received an email from menupages. They apologised for truncating my review, saying that “We have had other users make similar comments and have received complaints from the management, as the comments are not related to the food or service???.

I should say first of all that I’m not that bothered about the name Café Mao. Yes it’s crass, but if a restaurateur is that ignorant and disrespectful of the culture from whence his food comes, that’s his problem. And after all, it’s not like I refuse to set foot in the place. Neither am I exercised by questions of freedom of speech; in fact I’m embarrassed to use the word “censorship??? for something so trivial. Rather, I’m gobsmacked that menupages so readily volunteered to me the fact that their editorial policy is open to interference by restaurant ownership. I had thought they might at least try lying to me about it, rather than cheerfully admitting it. One can only wonder how often this kind of editing happens. If a restaurant gets in touch and says that the rats in the bathroom are unrelated to food and service, do menupages remove references to them too?

It is well-known that certain print publications will often soften up negative reviews which might upset their main advertisers (this is why even the best music and film mags must be approached with caution), but I had thought that the beauty of online user-submitted review sites was that even where the reviews are ill-informed, they’re honest. In the case of menupages, this assumption of honesty is fatally compromised.

I replied (not that it was really the point) that the name and theme of a restaurant are an important part of the dining experience and as such shouldn’t be immune from criticism, and menupages said they’d consider the point and get back to me. I’ve heard nothing from them since. Help, I’m being censored! Don’t taze me bro!