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‘The Grill’ In Santa Clarita Faces Backlash After Yelp Comments Turn Crude
‘The Grill’ In Santa Clarita Faces Backlash After Yelp Comments Turn Crude

‘The Grill’ In Santa Clarita Faces Backlash After Yelp Comments Turn Crude

“The Grill,” a Mediterranean Restaurant located on Soledad Canyon Rd. in Santa Clarita, is facing internet scrutiny after the restaurant’s owner reportedly responded harshly to a series of comments and testimonies about The Grill on Yelp.


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On November 29, Kevin Rolle, his girlfriend and his mother walked into the The Grill hoping to get some food. Rolle’s mother had found the establishment on Yelp, and the trio decided that’s where they wanted to eat together.

“Based on some of the pictures we saw on Yelp, I was bummed we never got to eat there,” said Rolle in an interview with KHTS.

However, when Gracielle Ramirez, Rolle’s girlfriend, walked up to the counter to begin her order, she was ignored by the man taking orders, who Rolle later identified as the restaurant’s owner, Romik Arutunyan.

“(The employee) walked to the other end of the counter, away from my girlfriend, without acknowledging her, and started playing the television,” said Rolle. “After a while of us waiting, he finally turned around and said, ‘We only have chicken.’”

Rolle’s mother stated that she had read the reviews about the beef kebabs, and wished to order them.

“But when she asked for the kebabs, he told her, ‘Those are kebabs and we only have chicken,’” said Rolle. “So after that exchange with my mom and him, continuing to ignore us, my mom told me … that she didn’t want to eat here.”

This is when he said he told the man behind the counter that they would find somewhere else to eat and began to walk out.

Rolle alleges the business owner responded, “I don’t care.”

After finding a new restaurant to eat at nearby, Rolle’s mother was so upset about their experience at The Grill that she then decided to post her experience on Yelp.

“What a jerk! I would give this place negative stars if it was possible,” Rolle’s mother concluded her Yelp review with.

Soon after posting her one-star critique on the restaurant review forum, a response by a profile listed to be the owner of the The Grill responded: “Because you’re nothing to look at! Was disgusted when I saw your faces..wouldn’t even let you s*ck my big fat d*ck.”

This response elicited recourse from Rolle, who says that he normally wouldn’t jeopardize someone’s business through online reviews. But he took to social media with a screenshot of Arutunyan’s alleged response.

“I normally would have let this kind of thing go, but he sent my mother this in a private message,” said Rolle. “I’ve been in the restaurant business and I normally wouldn’t try to take anyone’s business down, but he attacked my mom and now I want everyone to know just who he is.”

In juxtaposition to Rolle’s story, KHTS reached out to Arutunyan, who said the recent bad publicity is a smear campaign out to ruin his business.

“This is some sort of hate crime,” said Arutuyan. “Someone hacked into my account, so I had to let go of my whole staff. I’m running the place by myself. It’s unfortunate.”

Artutuyan, who said he took over the restaurant two years ago, said negative stories and crude internet comments were the result of disgruntled employees.

“It was all the workers (who) wanted raises and didn’t get them,” said Arutuyan. “It’s just really horrible people that didn’t get what they wanted.”

Arutuyan denied Rolle’s accusations, and said nothing of the sort transpired in his restaurant.

“I don’t think that ever happened,” said Arutuyan. “I know my customers, and I would have remembered something like that taking place.”

But because of what he claimed was a hacking of his Yelp account, Arutunyan told KHTS he fired his entire staff after learning of the response to Rolle’s mother’s account.

“The whole staff is gone after that incident,” said Arutuyan. “It took me two days to take charge of my restaurant.”

And in an explanation to the Yelp comment, and the comments from the past, Arutuyan said the comments and the comment responses were the work of a former employee with the login information.

“As you can see, all the comments are one after another,” said Arutuyan. “It’s really odd.”

Although a four-star restaurant online with 273 reviews, Rolle highlighted the other Yelp reviews running parallel themes to his experience.

One review from Marina G. November 29, 2017, contends that the owner has “no sense of how to treat a customer.”

Another from Cory D. posted on June 27, 2017 said the owner had the “worst customer service I have ever seen.”

However, user F.S. posted on September 20, 2017 that “Romik, their manager, and cashier, Haley, are very friendly and accomodating.”

But Rolle said he does not believe the defense made by The Grill restaurant owner, confirming that the person in the picture on the Yelp profile is the same person who he spoke with at the restaurant.

“Honestly I don’t believe that, cause if you look at his replies in the past, he’s done this before,” said Rolle. “Also, the owner had said our comments and story are fake, but we have nothing to gain from putting him on blast.”

Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com.

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‘The Grill’ In Santa Clarita Faces Backlash After Yelp Comments Turn Crude

5 comments

  1. Wow! Will never patronize this place and plan to tell all friends and family to do the same. The owner’s story does NOT even sound credible. Man up, apologize and be contrite.

  2. It takes years to build a good reputation and only a few minutes to tear it apart.

  3. Wow….KHTS does a report on restaurant reviews. Looking forward to your next story on pre-teens sending mean text messages to each other.

  4. I have never patrinized this shop and can only go by what I read but there are three sides to every story, her side, his side and, the truth. Not sure why some one would tell all their familiars to avoid this place without going there and confirming a dinning experience as noted above.

  5. I’ve been there. It was very pricey compared to other restaurants with the same food. His daughter was working plus another worker. The food was nothing to brag about. I thought it would be better. Then an animal hospital moved in making the place sound as if that’s where they get their meat. The owner said he got rid of all the employees because they wanted a raise, does this mean he also fired his daughter?

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About Caleb Lunetta

Caleb has been a Santa Clarita resident for most of his life. After attending Hart High School, Caleb went on to study political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara along with College of the Canyons.