Originally Posted by
VivoPerLei
This is the bit I found objectionable:
"The dining room, deep in the hotel, is a broad space of high ceilings and coving, with thick carpets to muffle the screams. It is decorated in various shades of taupe, biscuit and ... ."
I don't believe that has any place being in a supposedly professional review, but YMMV. His experience could very well have been awful (we've all had them), but the overuse of snark doesn't help his case.
Like a lot of restaurant critics in print, that's just Rayner's schtick - maybe it's just a British thing. I've actually read some of his reviews after the fact for restaurants I have dined in, and his comments about food and service have been reasonable and mostly coincident with mine.
At least professional reviewers (i.e. those that get paid and are published) don't go around saying everything is "the best ever" or "the worst ever" as we often see in TA.