A DINER has been banned from four Colchester restaurants after a blow-up over the bill at the swanky Pavilion.

Sam Chisnall’s public slating of the venue, in Middleborough, was the final straw after calling out its ‘poor presentation, slow delivery and inconsistent quality’ after a recent trip.

A response, signed off with “king regards” from Maciej Andros, assistant manager at Elysium, appeared to be sent as a direct message.

It read: “Thank you for your feedback on social media.

“As a group we obviously cannot exceed your expectations.

“Therefore, to avoid future disappointments, I would like to inform you that you won’t be welcomed in our venues ever again.

“That includes Mimosa, Hudson and Qube.”

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Although it appeared the criticism landed the diner with a lifetime ban of all Elysium Group venues, a spokesperson for the restaurant explained it was Mr Chisnall’s “aggressive and abusive behaviour” towards staff which led to the “unusual step”.

The spokesperson said: “We welcome all customer feedback, both negative and positive as it enables us to constantly improve our offering and guest experience, which is at the heart of our business philosophy.

“Mr Chisnall has been asked to refrain from visiting any of Elysium Group venues due to his aggressive and abusive behaviour towards our personnel, something that we have encountered previously as well involving this individual.

“Our hard-working staff are there to provide the highest standards of service and food to our customers at all times, and on occasions that our offering does not meet with our guests’ expectations, we will seek to remedy this immediately.

“We cannot, however, tolerate abusive or aggressive behaviour towards our personnel which was also witnessed in this case by a number of other diners at the restaurant when Mr Chisnall was presented with his bill which he refused to settle in full.”

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The wine cellar inside the upmarket venue

Scores of people have weighed in on Sam’s Facebook post, sharing reviews of the £3 million restaurant which has a four-star Google rating from 90 customers.

Owned by Ash Afzalnia, it has already become a destination venue since opening in March.

READ MORE: INSIDE COLCHESTER'S £3M RESTAURANT AND BAR

But Sam does not recommend it, calling the manager he dealt with “abrupt and confrontational, disrespectful” and “an absolute disgrace”.

He added: “He clenched his fist and told us, after ruining our meal, he will not even take money off our meal that was massively under-cooked.

“I feel so embarrassed after taking a few clients out for something other customers rant about how good it is.

“I thought they could be at least professional. They were completely unresponsive to our comments.

“I’m lost for words and completely thrown, I’m sorry to say.”