Moment man drops a piece of lint into his own boba tea so he can leave a ‘fake, sabotaging review’ of Vietnamese restaurant … while sitting right under security camera
- A customer dropped lint into their own drink before leaving a negative review at a San Francisco area boba tea shop in video shared by the store’s owner
- Aaron Qian, owner of The Tea Hut, shared a clip of a man pulling out lint from his pocket and dropping it into a drink and then leaving a one-star rating
- Yelp later removed the man’s reviews which included a recommendation that local health departments should ‘check on’ the shop
A customer who left a negative review for a tea shop in San Francisco’s Bay Area was outed by video that showed him dropping lint into his own drink before sharing his one-star rating.
The incident happened at The Tea Hut in Millbrae, California, where a man identified as ‘Nat. A’ wrote a Yelp review stating the health department needs to ‘check on’ the shop.
Included in his ‘fake’ and ‘sabotaging’ review, the man added a photo of the drink which appeared to have lint in it.
The shop’s owner, Aaron Qian, in response to the review released the footage of the man dropping foreign objects into his drink on Instagram.
Qian told KRON that as a small business, food safety is their top priority and that they take situations like this very seriously.
A man was seen dropping lint into his own drink at the Tea Hut in Millbrae, California
This is the Tea Hut in Millbrae, California where a customer dropped lint into his own drink
The situation first began with a negative review left several weeks ago for the Tea Hut’s Millbrae location, including the pics of the tea and the store.
‘Health department NEEEDS to check on this,’ the man wrote in his review.
The Tea Hut owner posted the video and the one-star review.
‘This guy left two reviews at two different locations. Luckily our camera caught what he did to this drink,’ the Tea Hut posted on Instagram.
At the start of the video, the man is seen sitting at a table inside the cafe before reaching into his pocket and dropping the items into his cup of tea.
He takes several sips before he puts the items in via the cup’s lid.
The unidentified man is then seen photographing the cup’s surface.
Qian reported the reviews to Yelp, which later took down the negative review which included the photos of the lint.
‘One of the fake sabotaging reviews got removed! Thank you so much for having our back and reporting this person,’ Tea Hut said in a post. ‘We are so touched by the overwhelming support of the community!’
At the start of the video, the man is seen sitting at a table inside the cafe before reaching into his pocket and dropping the items into his cup of tea
Before slipping the lint in, the man is spotted sipping his tea
The unidentified man is then seen photographing the cup after dropping the lint in
This is the negative review the man left which included photos of his drink and the shop
Qian reported the reviews to Yelp, which later took down the negative review
‘As a small food business owner, food safety is our top priority,’ Aaron Qian, Tea Hut owner, wrote in a statement to KRON 4
In a statement to KRON, Qian wrote that he is thankful for the support and Yelp for removing the review.
‘As a small food business owner, food safety is our top priority,’ Qian wrote.
‘There’s no way that we would serve a product that doesn’t meet our standard. Not just me, even the tiniest restaurant will greatly pay attention to food safety,’ he said.
‘This is the basis of survival when it comes to operating a food facility,’ Qian wrote.
Overall, the Tea Hut has a 4.0 star rating from dozens of reviews.
Several other reviewers and followers have said the shop has ‘good quality tea,’ with drinks ‘made to perfection,’ and ‘best service and great coffee tea.’