3 Days to Open With Bobby Flay - Restaurant Updates/Reviews

With 2 episodes already airing for 3 Days to Open with Bobby Flay, and another scheduled to air tonight, I thought it would be interesting to look at the reviews for the restaurants on Yelp.  Of course the restaurant is going to have a good amount of business after opening with Bobby Flay visiting and the free local publicity.  Also, the restaurant gives their update to Food Network, so they will definitely not say anything bad about themselves or the business and say everything is going great.  Onto the first 3 restaurants reviews of 3 Days to Open with Bobby Flay:


Episode 1 - Sticky's Finger Joint in NY.  Yelp Rating - 3.5 (73 reviews)

The Good - "What a great place. Take something relatively simple, like the chicken finger, and turn it into something awesome."
"A restaurant totally devoted to chicken tenders?! Brilliant. Their crispy chicken tenders are awesome. Crisped just right and the chicken itself is of great quality."
The Bad - "I really only have one complaint about Sticky's Finger Joint, and that would be the pricing, which is a little on the expensive side."
"I'm sorry to say, but like Erik S., my experience with co-owner Paul was completely awful!!! Uggggggh!!!
It's obvious that Paul is an arrogant SOB that only cared about himself and has a disregard for anyone that crossed his path. I don't know about you, but for me this is not a way to run a business and seeing this makes me not wanna come back!!!
Not only did he give the finger to his staff, but he also gave the birdy to his customers when he decided to play wanna-be DJ and blast his obnoxious techno music to the point where it was absolutely unbearable."
Conclusion - Reading through the reviews, it looks like there are a lot of complaints about Paul, which shouldn't be surprising after watching the show.  Although some are entered as a result of the show, many happened before the show even aired.  The food seems to have some good reviews, but some complaints about the price for the portion size.  Paul has also been replying to every negative thing said about him on the Food Network recap of the show and getting into arguments with the people leaving comments.  I would say for this restaurant to succeed, Paul will need to stay out of the limelight.


Episode 2 - Melt Mobile in Stamford, CT.  Yelp Rating - 4.0 (Only 4 Reviews)

The Good - "This is a really great comfort-food treat."
" I chose a Pork-U-Pine sandwich and for dessert a Strawberry Supreme Melt!   They were so Blood Good!  They both had the perfect crispy crunch on the outside and delicious, ooey-gooey goodness on the inside...I did not find these sandwiches as greasy as I had expected (grilled cheese sandwiches tend to be so) - which was a wonderful surprise."

The Bad - "Eh, the cafeteria in my office complex makes a better (albeit, simple) grilled cheese sandwich than this. And that's saying a lot"

Conclusion - Looks like from the small set of reviews that they are putting out a quality set of grilled cheese sandwiches and their customers seem to like them.


Episode 3 - Licari's Sicilian Pizza Kitchen in Grand Rapids, MI.  Yelp Rating - 3.0 (6 reviews)

The Good - "Went there just for the pizza, and we weren't disappointed"
"The staff was very friendly and I got to meet the owner Gianni, who was also very nice and helpful."
The Bad - "The pizza crust was good, but the pizza itself lacked some flavor.  The polenta sandwich was downright boring, but the chips were good."
"Pizza is OK.  $5 for a Peroni beer (or $4 for a miller light), and was charged full price for 1/2 price wine.  Need to get prices and act together."
Conclusion - There were some other good reviews that were filtered by Yelp, so if these weren't filtered, the rating would have been greater than 3.  Seems like there are multiple complaints about prices for food and drinks, and that most of the people like the pizza and homemade chips.


It looks like all of the restaurants so far on the show have had the normal growing pains of start up businesses.  With Bobby Flay and the publicity of being in the local papers and on television, the restaurants should be successful to start.  But to continue their success, they will need to figure out how to satisfy their customers better.