If you were active on social media during the past week, you probably would have heard some news about this Japanese fusion rice bowl eatery called Ishiro.
And you would have known that the news related to them isn’t good.
If you missed all the action, here’s a complete outline of everything you need to know about the Ishiro case.
How It All Started
Back in May 2021, 34-year-old Khoo Keat Hwee, the owner of another Japanese eatery called Mentai-Ya Japanese Cuisine, said he started noticing one-star Google reviews for three of his outlets at Bukit Panjang, Sengkang, and Tampines.
Due to the number of one-star reviews he received, the overall score of one of his newer outlets dropped below 2.5 out of 5 stars.
While he tried to ignore the negative reviews, the number of such reviews started increasing, and it ended up causing him to feel demoralised.
This led Khoo to upload an apology video onto Mentai-Ya’s Facebook page on 30 June.
He said that he and his staff will do better to improve, and apologised for the negative experiences his customers felt. He also asked for these reviews to stop, as they have heavily affected his staff’s morale.
Khoo also revealed that from June to August 2021, his sales had gone down by 20% due to the negative reviews posted.
Mentai-Ya Finds Out
After a while, Khoo started getting suspicious and noticed that the reviews were posted by the same group of eight to nine individuals.
He started investigating to find the culprit behind these fake negative reviews.
After a few months of researching, he noticed something. The same group of individuals had given plenty of five-star reviews to Ishiro’s outlets, and one of them was a newly opened branch that was only one week old.
Fed up with this, he decided to upload a Facebook video on 5 September exposing Deon Goh as the main culprit.
He also asked other businesses that have been affected similarly if Deon Goh was actually linked to Ishiro.
On 7 September, another video was uploaded onto Mentai-Ya’s Facebook page, asking for three individuals to stop their harmful marketing tactics.
They are identified as Deon Goh, Eunice, and Wen Bin.
These three people have been posting repeated negative reviews on its page, and they are all linked to Ishiro.
Ishiro’s First Apology on Instagram
After it was called out by Mentai-Ya, Ishiro posted an explanation on Instagram on 8 September, claiming that the reviews were made by a “young, immature employee” who had dined at Mentai-Ya thrice as he allegedly stayed nearby.
Ishiro explained that the reviews were based on the employee’s own experience dining at the eatery as a paying customer, and these reviews were not intended to defame anyone.
While Ishiro acknowledged that the reviews were made using multiple Google accounts, it reminded the public that this was not illegal. Ishiro said that “that is his personal issue and it has nothing to do with Ishiro”.
It also tried to justify its employees’ actions of giving Ishiro five-star reviews as a way of them giving “a little rating boost up on the Google profile”, something that they claimed Mentai-Ya has done as well.
While Ishiro acknowledged the complaints brought up by Mentai-Ya, the former had something to say about the way Mentai-Ya publicised its employees by taking photos of them and identifying their personal social media accounts.
Ishiro remarked that these acts were “really unfair” and that it appeared to be “an act of bully”.
Shortly after the post was uploaded, netizens flooded the comments section to criticise Ishiro for the way it handled the controversy.
This ultimately led to the post being removed.
However, Mentai-Ya had already captured screenshots of the apology and posted it on its Facebook page.
Ishiro’s Second Apology on Facebook
On 9 September, Ishiro followed up with an apology post on Facebook directed to “Mentai-Ya and all businesses”.
This time, it also apologised for the approach its initial apology took.
In the post, it said that it was never its intention to defame its competitors, and stressed that the employee acted on his or her own accord. Despite this, it apologised for the harm that was caused by the unfortunate events.
It ended off the post by saying that Ishiro accepts full responsibility for all actions and will take this as a learning opportunity to make amends and “ensure respect within the business community”.
Netizens react
After the whole incident was brought to light by Mentai-Ya, netizens flooded the Google review page of Ishiro’s four outlets – Punggol, Bedok, Timbre+, and Nanyang Polytechnic – with negative reviews.
Some of the reviews even mimicked the ones that were left by the three individuals behind this controversy.
However, after a short while, the Punggol, Bedok, and Timbre+ outlets of Ishiro could no longer be found on Google. The only outlet that still remains is the one at Nanyang Polytechnic.
Many of the negative reviews have also been deleted, and the eatery now has a total of nine reviews, with an overall score of four stars.
The Social Outcast Also Realises
The Social Outcast is an eatery that serves Halal charcoal-grilled burgers.
The stall initially operated right beside Ishiro in Bedok Marketplace, but it ceased operations in May 2020 due to unforeseen circumstances.
On 14 September 2021, The Social Outcast was reopened as a restaurant at Turf Club.
Through the publicity from Mentai-Ya, 41-year-old Aminurrashid Hasnordin, owner of The Social Outcast, later found out that his business has also received a number of negative reviews from the individuals linked to Ishiro.
He only learned of the reviews after the opening of his new restaurant.
Aminurrashid also revealed in multiple Facebook videos that he was the target of racist comments calling him derogatory names, one of which was left on a video that was uploaded by The Social Outcast’s Facebook page in December last year.
He also noticed that the same individual went on to post negative reviews on the website and Facebook page of The Social Outcast.
Mentai-Ya and The Social Outcast Take Legal Action
Both Mentai-Ya and The Social Outcast have engaged lawyer Clarence Lun from Fervent Law Chambers to represent them in this case.
Both eateries have sent letters of demand to Ishiro seeking compensation for defamation on 15 and 16 September.
Mentai-Ya is seeking $70,000 in damages, while The Social Outcast is seeking $50,000 in damages.
According to Mothership, both eateries are seeking compensation for “false and defamatory comments and reviews” made by Deon Goh and Wen Bin.
These comments have not only caused the eateries’ business reputations to suffer significantly but also caused the owners unnecessary “emotional and mental distress”.
They have also requested for all negative reviews to be taken down, and for Ishiro to issue a public apology. This has to be posted on its Facebook page for a month.
Ishiro must also ensure that none of such statements are published again.
Ishiro Asks for Extension
It was revealed on 21 September that Ishiro’s lawyers have requested a 14-day extension so that they can have some time to respond to both letters of demand.
If Ishiro does not comply with the requirements stated in the letters, both Mentai-Ya and The Social Outcast will proceed to take this to court.
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Feature Image: Facebook (Ishiro)
