By CHARLENE CHUA

HE HAD taken offence at food blogger Kaelyn Ong's reviews of the desserts served at his eatery.

Related link: » Food fight over Internet reviews

But five years ago, Mr Mac Woo, the owner of Obolo, had himself written negative comments of desserts sold at other eateries, on an online forum. The words he used included 'deformed' and of 'very pathetic quality'.

Miss Ong had called Obolo's desserts 'sickeningly sweet' and 'cloyingly sweet'.

But, Mr Woo, 30, maintained that there is a difference in the way he and Miss Ong wrote their reviews.

'The difference is that her choice of words was emotional. If she had written 'too', 'extremely' or 'overly' sweet, that's okay,' he said.

'The words I used were based on facts. For example, deformed means that the slice of cake wasn't cut properly, perhaps with the edge missing.'

Mr Woo, who opened his business 2 1/2 years ago, said he is fine with criticisms as long as they are done in 'a neutral, objective manner', and that bloggers should express their thoughts in a 'socially responsible manner'.

Okay with other reviews

He pointed out that Miss Ong's review of his desserts was not the only negative one.

One netizen, who posted a review of Obolo's desserts on a food review website, said Obolo's macaroons were the 'biggest let-down of the evening'.

Mr Woo said he was okay with the review.

So what was it about Miss Ong's review that offended him so much?

'(Using words like 'sickeningly') is basically telling people how they would feel after eating the dessert,' he said. 'In this case, they would feel 'sick' (not in the medical way) from the sweetness of the cakes.'

This manner of description, he added, may have a direct, negative impact on his eatery's business. Mr Woo was also riled by Miss Ong's description of his macaroons in another review she wrote on a food website.

She had said that eating his macaroons was akin to 'eating jam straight out from a bottle of jam'.

But, Mr Woo said, there was no jam used in his macaroons - 'only fresh, made-from-scratch' ingredients. So, he added, Ms Ong's comment was misleading.

Mr Woo said he does not plan to go ahead with the legal action he had threatened Miss Ong with.

'My friend gave me some great advice and I'm heeding it - from now on, just don't read anything Obolo-related on the Internet.'

This article was first published in The New Paper.