Over on TikTok, restaurant reviewers have carved out their own little niche. Whether it’s Keith Lee reacting to a meal in his car or someone trying the latest line-up of Crumbl cookies, viewers flock to videos of creators promising their “honest and unbiased” opinions, particularly if that opinion is negative.
One account that prides itself on its “brutally honest” hot takes is @theviplist, run by Meg Radice and Audrey Jongens. With their catchphrase, “Go cry about it!” plastered on their page, they’ve built a reputation on hyperbolic and often scathing reviews paired with an IDGAF attitude.
But the two have now come under fire for their review of Semma, a South Indian restaurant in New York City and the only Indian restaurant in the city to receive a Michelin star. “This is why I’ve lost faith in the Michelin system,” they open in their video, with their signature abrasive voiceover.
After showing dish after dish and a quick little cocktail cheers, they claim they “could name 15 better Indian restaurants right now, including the biryani cart outside of my apartment.”
The one silver lining for them was the restaurant’s “Gunpowder Dosa,” a savory lentil and rice crepe filled with potato and sambar, a lentil and vegetable-based stew, which they said was the “best thing on the menu.”
But they were less than impressed with everything else they were served. “I get that this is Southern Indian, and so I can’t expect a tikki masala on the menu,” the voiceover continues, mispronouncing tikka masala, “But why did every sauce taste the same?!”
The pair describe the sauce as a “mystery sauce” that “drowned” every dish and, apparently, almost made them “go full Helen Keller when it got in my eye.”
In addition to the “mystery sauce,” the oxtail also disappointed them and incited a similar no-filter reaction. “Usually, I’m a whore for oxtail, but I’d close my legs for this.”
As for the biryani (or “bree-ani” as they pronounce it), they found it to have “as much flavor as a piece of Wonder bread.”
In the end, they thought “nothing was horrible, but nothing was great either,” claimed that they “don’t get the hype,” and signed off with their VIP List signature, “Go cry about it!”
As you may have guessed, commenters weren’t happy, many pointing out the microaggressions and racist undertones of the whole review.
And there was, of course, the “tikki masala” of it all.
But Meg and Audrey carried the same energy from their video into their comment section and defended their review. “I’m sorry if you think mispronouncing a word / critiquing a restaurant is a micro aggression,” they responded to one user.
The pair further defended the review in an interview with Today. “Here’s the thing about taste — it’s subjective…You’re welcome to agree with our taste or not.” They wouldn’t consider a negative review a “scandal,” either. “It’s just content. It’s commentary. It’s satire,” they told the publication.
But the most brutal response to the review wasn’t buried in the VIP List’s comments; instead, it came from none other than former Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi, who has now amassed over one million views on her video. “There was this really annoying video that was brought to my attention,” she begins, “I can’t help but respond.”
Referencing Meg and Audrey’s statement that they’ve “lost faith in the Michelin system,” Padma bluntly responds, “I’m pretty sure Michelin doesn’t give a shit about you either, or what you think about anything, let alone food.”
“Before you go off slagging other cuisines, you should understand them a little bit more, or at least, I don’t know, learn how to pronounce the dishes you’re actually critiquing,” she continues, addressing tikki-gate. “There’s no tikki anything in Indian cuisine.”
Padma closes by addressing the two women directly, “Semma isn’t made for you; it’s made for us. And I’m pretty sure if nobody but Desis went there for the rest of its existence, it would still be booked solid for the next decade.” Padma was born in Chennai, India, a southern city on the Bay of Bengal.
In fact, sticking to their cultural roots rather than appealing to a Western palate is something Semma prides itself on. “We like to represent and showcase our authentic South Indian cuisine unapologetically. We really want to be who we are,” chef and co-owner Vijay Kumar told the Michelin Guide. Many of the dishes on the menu come from his childhood and are ones that Padma has said remind her of home.
Commenters were certainly applauding her not-so-subtle takedown. “Imagine having the Queen of spice herself this mad at you, I would retire!!” one person wrote.
Meg and Audrey don’t seem phased by Padma’s response, though. They told Today that they’re “fans” and that her critique “wasn’t the beef we expected today, but we’re here for it.”
You can spot even more of their nonchalant attitude in newer videos, where they don’t directly address the criticism they received but instead poke fun at it. “After all of the troubling allegations, we decided to do some serious self-reflection,” a voiceover sarcastically says over a video review of Italian restaurant Il Mulino. The caption includes the hashtags #microaggression and #cancelled.
“We have now enrolled in a Duolingo premium plan to correct our pronunciation in every language.” The two go on to exaggerate their Italian accent on every dish as a snarky overcorrection to the Semma review. Even in their most recent review of Le Gratin, a French restaurant in the Financial District, the voiceover gives an over-the-top throaty pronunciation of “gratin.” “Pronounced exactly like that because god forbid I say it wrong,” they say.
As evidenced by their newest comments, though, the joke doesn’t appear to be landing, and their persistence could end up alienating their audience even further.
