Guy bites back!
Guy Fieri — and his new NYC Times Square restaurant, Guy's American Kitchen and Bar — became the butt of many jokes online on Tuesday and Wednesday after the New York Times' food critic Pete Wells penned an instantly quoted, searing review.
Defending himself and the restaurant to TODAY on Thursday Nov. 15, Fieri told Savannah Guthrie that Wells went too far in his review — in which he calls the food largely "inedible," "greasy" and "ruinous" with a "chaotic" atmosphere and a staff which "seems to realize this is not a real restaurant."
"I just thought it was ridiculous," the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives host, 44, said. "I've read reviews. There's good and there's bad in the restaurant business," Fieri explained. "That one went overboard," he said of the piece, in which Wells sniped, "Why[is] the kind of cooking you celebrate on television . . . treated with so little respect at Guy's American Kitchen & Bar?"
Fieri charged that Wells "came in with a diferent agenda."
"I've been in the restaurant business 25 years. Do we do it perfect? No. Do we strive to do it perfect? Yes," said the Food Network star, who has numerous other restaurants around the country before opening the Times Square location two months ago. "Do I think I've fallen short? By no means. [But] do we make mistakes? Absolutely."
"People see me as a TV guy. I'm really a chef," he added.
Tell Us: Was the New York Times review unfair?