A PENSIONER has become the most prolific restaurant reviewer on a travel website after posting his feedback on hundreds of meals.
Peter Macaulay, from Glasgow, has written 363 reviews on TripAdvisor during his travels to 198 cities in 43 countries. The 65-year-old, who is a retired oil rig medic, has been writing on the website since 2006 and said it was the perfect way to give feedback.
He said: "The best places accept constructive criticism.
"I stayed at The Savoy in London once and I managed to point out to them via TripAdvisor that their double glazing didn't seal and that outside was a flooded gutter full of cigarette ends and a blocked drain. But they were appreciative and they were only too happy to remedy things."
Mr Macaulay, who travels the world with his partner Alan, posts his reviews under a pseudonym but said some hoteliers and restaurateurs had been abusive because they did not like his comments.
Others had worked out his identity and had written to him with explanations or "excuses".
He has visited some of the best-known restaurants. But although he rated Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles as being "faultless", he "hated" Heston Blumenthal's restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London. "I found the noise and the food and the service very tedious," he added.
He said the most expensive restaurant he had been to was Gordon Ramsay's. He said: "It is a tiny restaurant with huge prices and an enormous number of chefs and waiters. But believe it or not, even although the manager was French, it was an amazingly good experience. Friendly with superb food."
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