Dear readers, we know you want us to open Eater LA to comments. We love your queries, complaints, and props, which all ends up in our inbox. We're in talks with Eater HQ about possibly flipping the comments switch (notice they don't have comments either), but we're still debating. Here we have the perfect example of why we fall on the con side of the "Should we?" fence. Two days ago, we noticed five successive Chowhound posts on The Village Idiot on Melrose, all with the same verbage. This person had nothing good to say.
This was a horrific experience! The food, the service, the bathrooms - disgusting. We eat out a great deal in Los Angeles and would rate this restaurant poorly on every level. Starting with the staff at the bar - poor on customer service and ability. Move onto the atmosphere - cramped and unclean. Bathrooms that were filthy - unsanitary, no paper, no service and overflowing toilets. The menu lacked imagination and truth. A "chicken breast" plate that showed with leg, bone and skin all attached and a medium-well hamburger bloody and cold inside. The waiter was rude, sarcastic and lacking in anything that appeared to be wait staff experience. Village Idiot? Maybe a better name for anyone that dines there...Now we're all for criticism, but there's just something about this that screams, "I slept with that waiter last night and he ignored my 56 text messages today. Bastard!"
After clicking on the writer's name, we come to find that they've never posted about any restaurant before, only the Village Idiot and it's exactly the same post every time. Everyone knows the Chowhound moderators feed on this kind of thing, and it took all of 12 minutes to have the posts wiped clean from the message board. For once, we actually agree. We've been to the Idiot a number of times and it's never been dirty, the food's always cooked. The writer obviously has a personal vendetta against the restaurant, and a hell of a lot of time on their hands: The same post shows up on The Knife, Citysearch, Digital Cities, the LA Times, and probably a slew of others. Eatingoutinla, don't you think the message gets lost in bulk?
