A restaurant owned by former footballer Gary Neville has gone into liquidation with £1million of debts after diners posted a series of negative reviews in its final months.
The venue in Leeds, which was called The Man Behind the Curtain and run by chef Michael O’Hare, folded with an unpaid tax bill totalling £519,000.
The restaurant was launched in 2014, with Manchester United legend Neville owning half of it. It received a Michelin star in 2015 along with three AA rosettes in 2016.
It gained a reputation for its extravagant and highly priced dishes including denia red prawn served on a telephone – a play on Salvador Dali’s ‘Lobster Telephone’.
Other unique dishes included olives wrapped in edible cellophane along with salt and vinegar ox cheek, while its pork rind and chocolate pudding was also prized.
Also on the menu was the ‘Emancipation’ dish of ‘cured cod, charred gem, dashi and vinegar’ which was Mr O’Hare’s creation for the BBC‘s Great British Menu in 2015.
The restaurant had a 10 or 14-course menu depending on the time of day, with lunch costing £95 and dinner £145 or £165. Adding a ‘prestige paring’ drinks package cost £180. And in May last year, it also began a ‘menu rapide’ four-course lunch for £40.
It had been performing well on TripAdvisor with an average rating of 4.5 stars from more than 1,500 reviews – but more one and two-star reviews began to be posted in the final months ahead of its closure last December, describing it as ‘absolute dross’.
However there were also still plenty of five star reviews coming in before it closed, with patrons telling of an ‘enjoyable meal’ and ‘such a cool unique experience’.
One of the most unusual looking dishes at The Man Behind the Curtain was denia red prawn served on a telephone – a play on the ‘Lobster Telephone’ object created by Salvador Dali
The restaurant in Leeds gained a reputation for unique and highly photogenic dishes
Even the cupcakes were presented in an artistic way at The Man Behind the Curtain
A tiny dish served up in a huge bowl was also on the menu at the now-closed Leeds restaurant
The Leeds restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in 2015 and three AA rosettes in 2016
Gary Neville’s company Relentless Leisure is owed £366,848 by the restaurant in Leeds
The The Man Behind the Curtain folded with an unpaid bill to the tax man totalling £519,000
The Man Behind The Curtain had a reputation for artistic presentation, including for tuna belly
Some 23 of the final 100 reviews, or 23 per cent, were one or two stars – a big jump compared to the 128 one or two star reviews overall across all 1,643, or 8 per cent.
One unimpressed customer in the final months penned a review titled ‘you’re not missing out’, saying: ‘Glad its closed. Nothing more than an overpriced, pretentious gimmick. Absolute dross, tiny portions in a silly setting, went for a burger after.’
A second from Halifax wrote a review saying and ‘pretentious c**p’ and added: ‘Disappointed but laughed about it afterwards. Cold and uninviting, extremely small portions and wine package was not to each course.
‘Not worth the cost at all. Pretentious BS. Eaten at restaurants all over the world with and without a Michelin star. This was the worst by far. An experience never to live again! If you don’t laugh about it though… which we did all the way home.’
Another patron on their fourth visit said the restaurant was ‘very disappointing’, having previously found there to be a ‘very relaxing’ start while sat in the reception area and served drinks.
But she said on this latest visit, ‘we were quickly shown to our table even though we arrived early and while opening my present from my husband had menus thrust at us and a speech – clearly wanted us to crack on’.
The woman described the food as ‘amazing as always’, but the wine as ‘just a joke if not an absolute rip off’, adding that the ‘prestige paring’ at £180 per person was ‘not worth it at all’. She also claimed to have been given ‘well below a normal measure’ for her £20 glass of wine.
The restaurant closed its doors last year and Mr O’Hare, who competed on The Great British Menu and appeared on MasterChef, has since opened a new restaurant in the city called Psycho Sandbar.
Manchester United legend Gary Neville owned The Man Behind the Curtain in Leeds
Michael O’Hare at The Man Behind The Curtain in Leeds, his restaurant which closed last year
Documents filed with Companies House show Neville’s company Relentless Leisure is owed £366,848 by the restaurant.
The statement of affairs reported £9,500 in estimated assets for creditors; a director’s loan owed at £500,000 described as ‘uncertain’ for payback, with fixtures and fittings worth £152,973 also having an ‘uncertain value’.
Banks are thought to be owed £14,000 with HMRC’s debt comprising two bills – one being £119,090 and the other being £400,194, The Sun reported.
The accounts for 2023 are overdue, but those for 2022 reported a profit of £187,000 and reserves of £105,938.
At the time of the site’s closure Mr O’Hare said the decision was ‘very much based on my exciting plans for the future, but is reflective of the changing experience market in which we all live’.
He also said he was ‘incredibly proud’ of his team’s work over the last decade.
Writing on LinkedIn earlier this year, Neville said: ‘A few years ago I signed one of the most instinctive and incredible deals that I’ve ever done when I went into partnership with Michael O’Hare on ‘The Man Behind The Curtain’ restaurant in Leeds.
Michael O’Hare competed on The Great British Menu and appeared on MasterChef
The Man Behind the Curtain was launched in Leeds in 2014, with Neville owning half of it
‘At the end of a meal I had at the restaurant, Michael presented me with the bill, but it wasn’t a normal bill, it was a bill that had a figure on it accompanied with a note that said this will give you 50 per cent of the restaurant, and from that moment on I was the co-owner of a Michelin star restaurant in Leeds.
‘Fast forward to today and it’s taken a brave and courageous decision for Michael to give up his Michelin star and open a new restaurant, Psycho Sandbar, that I went to earlier on in the week.
‘It’s a sensational restaurant with an unbelievable experience and a brilliant job from Michael and his team. If you ever get the chance to visit, I highly recommend it.’
Since retiring from football in 2011, former England player Neville has established a £100million empire ranging from property to marketing, but has endured some setbacks and losses.
His Hotel Football site overlooking Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium was reported in 2022 to have made a loss of more than £3million over two years.
The hotel, which Neville said had struggled due to Covid restrictions, had also been loaned £10.2million to stay afloat.
