Lady Chu turns bad reviews into Sydney’s hottest Dinner invitation
Screenshots of savage Google reviews are usually a nightmare for venues, but at Potts Point’s Lady Chu they’ve turned into a calling card.
Owner Nahji Chu has gone viral for her blunt, funny and sometimes brutal clapbacks to one-star critics, with diners now seeking the restaurant out just to see the energy in person. As one social media user put it: “Not going to lie, I wanna visit this place now because of the responses”.
Forget the usual corporate “we’re sorry you had that experience” template — Chu doesn’t bother with PR gloss. When a diner named Hilary described her visit as “deeply disappointing”, Chu replied: “We didn’t ask for your recommendation. Try not to blame others for your misery, Hils. The keyboard is not your secret power”.
Another reviewer complained about being seated outside, slow food, dirty tables and even suggested Chu was ‘under the influence’ and yelling at staff. Chu’s response was a full serve:
“Thanks for visiting without a booking on a fully-booked Wednesday and still somehow getting a table (miracle, right?). You waltzed in mid-service chaos and mistook passion for possession and vibing for violence. I wasn’t ‘under the influence’ of anything except Sydney Council, capitalism, and too many dumplings.
“If you caught a bit of theatre while you dined, congratulations, you got dinner and a show. The ‘dirty table’ you mentioned had just survived a table of six Negronis and one influencer.
“Sorry the food took an hour, however, it is very unlikely! But we were busy keeping the city alive and keeping up with entitled walk-ins. Next time, book a table and I’ll personally light your candle and whisper your order to the chef like it’s foreplay.”
Speaking to news.com.au, Chu said she has no plans to soften her style. “My replies aren’t about being combative. They’re about honesty,” she said. “I reply the way I cook; direct, honest, zero MSG. Sydney’s hospitality scene has been muzzled by fear of bad reviews, and I’m just not playing that game.
“If someone dishes it out publicly, they should expect a little seasoning back.”
The Vietnamese-Laotian entrepreneur, who arrived in Australia as a refugee in the late 1970s, first made her name as the ‘rice paper roll queen’ behind Miss Chu before that business collapsed in 2014. She rebuilt with Lady Chu in late 2021 and now runs the compact Kings Cross-side-street venue hands-on, from the pass to the bookings.
Her straight-talking approach extends beyond Google. In May, rangers told her to move pot plants they said were blocking the footpath, prompting a fiery exchange caught on video. Chu told them they were “freaking me and my customers out” and later said the council was being “really pedantic and petty”. Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore labelled it a “torrent of abuse” and accused her of treating a “public footpath” like a “private courtyard”.
For Chu, the noise around complaints and criticism is “just water off a duck’s back now”. “That’s what happens when you become high-profile and successful,” she said.
Jonathan Jackson, 3rd December 2025
