Influencer Is Told to ‘Grow Up’ After Sharing ‘Honest’ Review of Restaurant

A foodie found herself in a tense exchange with a Michelin-starred chef after sharing her experience at a San Francisco restaurant.

In a recent TikTok video, Kat Ensign (@katwalksf) revealed she received a “wild” message from Chef Geoffrey Lee after sharing her “honest” opinion on the food sold at the Hamburger Project. She had gone to the restaurant after reading a newspaper article raving that it sold “1,000 burgers in their first two days of business.”

“The menu was simple with three smash burgers starting at $6.89 for a classic single,” she said in her review. “And you can upgrade your meal for $35 with a little Tsar Nicoulao Caviar. I started with the loaded fries with cheese, sautéed onion and HP sauce.

“I think they forgot the sauce on mine and I’d just forget the fries if you’re thinking about giving this spot a shot,” she added.

Ensign went on to describe the single “Wisconsin” butter burger as “good not great. These are thin burgers, they’re giving Ozempic burgers,” before rating it a 7.2.

Tasting the classic burger, she said it was “all bread and not hot enough.” Having given it a 5.1 rating, she concluded, “This was really not for me.”

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In her follow-up video, Ensign revealed she had gone to the restaurant shortly after it opened and said they needed time to settle.

She shared a screenshot of an angry direct message that she received from Chef Geoffrey Lee in response to her review.

“Because someone needs to tell you to grow up,” the message read. “It’s pathetic being damn near 50 and trying to have influence over 20 year old somethings to try to remain some kind of sense of relativity. All of chefs look down on it and one of us has to tell you.”

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Ensign corrected the chef by saying she was in her 30s and accused him of “attacking” her age and weight for sharing an “honest review.”

According to her, he also began to send her angry messages on Instagram which led to her asking her over 15,000 followers “Am I the a------?”

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A few commenters defended the chef in the comment section, however, the majority of responses argued he had behaved inappropriately.

“OMG for a business owner to say things like that?! That’s wild,” one person commented.

“Wowwww this is disgusting behavior,” another wrote.

“That’s insane! I was considering giving this place a try after a few weeks of opening, but never mind,” a third added.

According to The San Francisco Standard, the viral dispute led to Chef Geoffrey Lee stepping down from all three of his restaurants with immediate effect.

On Jan. 8, he released a statement on Instagram directly addressing “Ms. Ensign and others affected by my actions.”

“After a few days of reflection, I would like to express remorse for how I conducted myself in the ordeal with Ms. Ensign,” he wrote. “There are no excuses to be made, I took it further than it needed to be. I am sorry.

“Creating food and taking the risk to share it with others is something I am passionate about,” he continued. “After decades of dedication, seemingly non-stop work, and being consistently criticized for it without ask, I will utilize this time away to assess a better way to go about it.

“As I have shared with Ms Ensign, in my line of work, especially starting off young, they always said to ‘cook with passion,’ ” he added. “Cooking with passion involves attaching some level of emotion to it. Speaking personally, when emotion is involved, there is a gamble of vulnerability left out there on the table. My vulnerability was attacked and this time I defended it with regrettable hostility.”

In a statement to PEOPLE, Ensign said, "This experience has been challenging, especially knowing it resulted in the owner losing his job. That was never my intention, and it’s been upsetting for everyone involved. I simply want to move past this and focus on my own work moving forward."

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