Review Guidelines

First Table Review Guidelines

Here at First Table we want to ensure our restaurant reviews offer useful information to help fellow diners make good choices when deciding on their next dining experience.

A good reviewer is as unbiased as possible, offers constructive feedback and evaluates the experience as a whole (whether good or disappointing).

We go about our business with fairness and integrity, therefore we want to ensure the reviews on our platform are a trustworthy source of information. To help us achieve this, and to get your review published as quickly as possible, please ensure your review follows our guidelines:

Accountability

Users leaving restaurant reviews are required to state their full name. If users don’t want their full name displayed against their review, they have the option to leave a private review. Negative reviews submitted under false or incomplete names will not be published on our website.

Reviews submitted referring to the misuse of the First Table deal (conditions of the deal must be accepted to make a booking) will not be published on our website. 

Opinions expressed about a restaurant are those of our users and not of First Table itself. First Table holds the right to omit a review if it breaches our Review Guidelines.

Accuracy and honesty

Inaccurate reviews can be harmful, and in some cases, damaging to businesses. Please only submit reviews based on real experiences relating to the relevant restaurant. Write an honest summary offering the reader a seat at the table including (but not limited to) the speed of service, staff knowledge and attentiveness, food and drink, and the overall atmosphere. Keep in mind that we are all human and we all have challenging days so keep the reviews constructive.

Users suspecting food poisoning must get in touch with the restaurant immediately. In order to confirm a case of suspected food poisoning, users need to go to their doctors to obtain a sample and contact your relevant Food Standards Agency. The review will be withheld from our website to protect yourself and First Table against defamation until we receive a letter from a registered health professional verifying the case.

Language

We do not allow swearing or crude language in reviews. We can also reject reviews that include defamatory content, personal insults and promote intolerance for individuals or groups based on their race, gender, religion or nationality. We do not allow reviews containing full CAPS LOCK sentences (it’s scary!) and external links. 

The promotion

We reserve the right to correct spelling and poor grammar for the purpose of publishing reviews within our marketing material including for our Review of the Month promotion, email marketing, social media content and website. Private reviews aren’t published and will be privately sent to the restaurant.

Terms and conditions for our Review of the Month promotion can be found here.

Publishing a review – the process

Users can choose to make a public or private review of their dining experience. If the user submits a public review, your review is automatically sent to our team for screening to ensure it complies with our review guidelines before publishing to our site. Please note, reviews can take up to 30 days to be displayed on our website.