Why Zachary Quinto Is Being Called Out For Being A Terrible Customer

In today's era of crowdsourced restaurant reviews, customers have no problem calling out establishments for bad food and poor service. Restaurants, meanwhile, aren't shy about shaming problematic patrons, particularly famous ones. As just one example, James Corden was (temporarily) banned from an NYC eatery named Balthazar in 2022, with the restaurant owner posting on Instagram that the comedian was "a tiny cretin of a man." (The restaurateur later went into a shame spiral over the incident and lifted Corden's restaurant ban, while the comedian apologized for any upset.)

Now, it's seemingly Zachary Quinto's turn for public pillorying. The actor, who's perhaps best known for his role as Spock in J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" films, was called out in an Instagram post shared by the Toronto restaurant Manita.

According to restaurant staff, Quinto reserved a table but didn't respond when they texted him twice to tell him his spot was ready. When he eventually arrived to find that staff had given his table away, and after they informed him that the vacant tables he saw were reserved for other customers, he reportedly "yelled at [the] staff like an entitled child," which resulted in "[making the] host cry and the rest of [the] brunch diners uncomfortable." In the post, the restaurant then invited him and his "bad vibes" to dine elsewhere.

While many commenters on Manita's Instagram post applauded the restaurant's response to Quinto's alleged behavior, not everyone felt the establishment was entirely in the right, including one Instagram user who claimed to work in the restaurant industry. Their comment — the top response on the restaurant's post, garnering 58 likes at the time of this writing — suggested that staff could have handled things in a way that left everyone satisfied.

As the commenter suggested, Manita could have apologized for giving away Quinto's reservation and perhaps offered him a free drink. It might also have seated him at one of the empty tables, since it was able to place another diner (or diners) at the table he reserved. As the commenter also noted, a little creative juggling of reservations and arrival times can often cover for late arrivals without having to disappoint anyone. As this user told the restaurant, "It's not a good look on you guys and makes it seem like you're doing the bare minimum of 'here's a reso — oh you missed the text messages? Too bad.'"

Still, if the restaurant had dealt with the situation in a different way, it might not have had anything to post about, so perhaps it's just as well. After all, the incident may help boost Manita's publicity — to date, the establishment has just 34 Yelp reviews and only one review on TripAdvisor.