Remember the three Sydney influencers who sued a Chinese restaurant in Cabramatta after the restaurant accused them of faking food poisoning to get out of a $364 bill in 2020? Well, three years later, the influencers have received an official apology from the restaurant following parties agreement to settle the case and have the proceeding dismissed.
In case you missed the drama, let me fill you in. On December 25, 2020, Jennifer Do, her partner, and her two daughters Belinda and Julie Nguyen went out to dinner at Cabramatta’s Silver Pearl Chinese restaurant. The women — who often shared their dining experiences on social media — ordered a bottle of red wine and live lobster served sashimi style. They claimed that the lobster was off, and only left cashola for the bottle of wine.
And that, my friends, is when shit hit the fan.
The restaurant’s official Instagram posted a picture of the women, overlayed with text alleging that the women were “fraudulent diners”. They also alleged that the women faked having food poisoning to get out of paying the bill, calling them out by name and referring to their actions as “dishonest, entitled, classless behaviour”.
Following the post by the venue, the influencers sued the restaurant for defamation claiming that it had caused damage to their reputation after reportedly being seen by a maximum of 140,000 people. According to news.com.au, Belinda claimed that following the incident, they received threats and private messages that were “aggressive and threatening” and that she lost her job two weeks after the incident went viral.
In November 2023, Julie and Belinda spoke to The Kyle & Jackie O Show and The Project about their story. Julie also shared her perspective on her TikTok account.
The case was set to be heard in October 2024. However, on Friday, the restaurant posted a lengthy apology to its official Instagram. Silver Pearl also reached out to PEDESTRIAN.TV via email to share that the case had been dismissed with no damages awarded to Jennifer Do and her daughters.
“On December 2020, Jennifer, her partner, and her daughters Julie and Belinda came to our restaurant for Christmas dinner. They ordered lobster and wine. Jennifer’s partner expressed dissatisfaction with he lobster, a complaint we respectfully disagree with, maintaining that our food consistently meets the highest quality standards, and we vehemently deny any suggestion that our seafood was and is not fresh,” it wrote.
“However, we do accept that on 28 December 2020 we published a post that was made about Jennifer, Julie and Belinda. We now acknowledge that none of them ate any of the lobster and it was only Jennifer’s partner who did. We acknowledge that they paid for the wine.”
“We are aware the posts gained significant traction and caused Jennifer, Belinda and Julie hurt and embarrassment. It was never our intention for the matter to escalate to the extent it did, and we are empathetic to them for any harm our post may have caused,” the statement continued.
“We value all our customers and their experiences, and we are committed to always rectifying any misunderstandings that they may have before further escalations,” the restaurant’s statement concluded, noting that it would like to “bring closure to this chapter and encourage all parties to move forward”.
Since the public apology, Silver Pearl has released a further statement which claims that the case was dismissed hence no damages were awarded to Jennifer Do and her daughters.
“Following the dismissal of the case brought against Silver Pearl in Federal Court proceedings, Silver Pearl extended an apology to Jennifer Do and her daughters. This apology, disseminated through official social media channels, reflects Silver Pearl’s commitment to empathy and understanding, without any admission of wrongdoing or liability,” the statement reads.
Jennifer Do, Julie and Belinda Nguyen have all shared the public apology to their social media channels but have turned off comments.
