Boston Restaurant Turns Tables On Bad Reviews

Chefs do not always take criticism well. Prolific restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow notoriously took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to respond to Frank Bruni's takedown of Kobe Club. And the chef-antihero of the 2010 horror movie Bitter Feast responds to a mean-spirited review by brutally torturing its author.

Back Bay Social Club takes a different tack. The year-old Boston bistro regularly compiles choice complaints into punchy top-10 lists e-mailed out to advertise the restaurant. The lists deflate the griping through humor. The suggestion that their burgers are made of "unicorn meat and leprechaun tears," for example, is illustrated with drawings of a unicorn and a leprechaun hat. Take note, Sam Talbot, before you do anything rash to poor Sam Sifton! (Although these ten might have gone beyond the humor pale.)

Below, the top-10 e-mail: