In what has to be one of the most viral reviews of all time, a New York Times restaurant review has hit a ridiculous number of shares on Facebook. Today, the social network announced that “As Not Seen on TV,” the uncompromising teardown of Guy Fieri’s new Times Square restaurant, has over 45,000 shares across the site.
I know I’ve seen at least a dozen of my friends post the article. Funny photos and memes can get thousands of shares on Facebook – even hundreds of thousands (just ask George Takei). But for an article to get this kind of viral reach is pretty unusual.
The whole review, written by Pete Wells as a series of questions to owner Guy Fieri, is a giant f*ck you to the whole food network celebrity chef culture. Or maybe just the worst of it.
Here are some select gems:
Why is one of the few things on your menu that can be eaten without fear or regret — a lunch-only sandwich of chopped soy-glazed pork with coleslaw and cucumbers — called a Roasted Pork Bahn Mi, when it resembles that item about as much as you resemble Emily Dickinson?
and…
When you hung that sign by the entrance that says, WELCOME TO FLAVOR TOWN!, were you just messing with our heads?
or how about…
What accounts for the vast difference between the Donkey Sauce recipe you’ve published and the Donkey Sauce in your restaurant? Why has the hearty, rustic appeal of roasted-garlic mayonnaise been replaced by something that tastes like Miracle Whip with minced raw garlic? And when we hear the words Donkey Sauce, which part of the donkey are we supposed to think about?
and in closing…
Is the entire restaurant a very expensive piece of conceptual art? Is the shapeless, structureless baked alaska that droops and slumps and collapses while you eat it, or don’t eat it, supposed to be a representation in sugar and eggs of the experience of going insane?
Ouch. The article, while undeniably hilarious, is pretty mean-spirited. Guy has had some people come to his defense.
But that’s irrelevant. What’s relevant is that, at least according to popularity on Facebook, this review is one of the top food articles of the year.