A top chef has claimed his restaurant was bombarded with fake one-star reviews after announcing he would not alter his menu for vegans.

Dylan Cashman, 37, owns The Blue Door on Waterloo Street in Surry Hills, Sydney, which serves a tasting menu using whole animals and vegetables from regenerative farms.

But angry social media users have slammed the establishment after spotting the menu stated they ‘do not cater to preferences, vegan, FODMAP or multiple dietaries’.

The restaurant, which only has two chefs serving at least seven courses per person, said it does not make changes if it feels it will take away from the experience or create food waste.

‘I was supposed to go to an event at this place until I was told they could not/would not cater for me as a vegan,’ an outraged diner wrote on Reddit.

One social media user commented: ‘I think it’s embarrassing if a “chef” can’t or refuses to do an amazing vegan dish.’

Sommelier and restaurant manager Angelica Nohra added that the restaurant has been plagued by poor reviews online following the social media storm.

Mr Cashman posted a photo of barbecued meat on social media in response, telling the critics to ‘go f*** yourself if you think you can come at me without repercussions’.

‘It’s not because we can’t (do vegan dishes), it’s because we don’t want to… similar to your choice around eating meat,’ he wrote.

Mr Cashman, who is also head chef, told Daily Mail he is worried some people may graffiti his restaurant of four years, or protest during service.

‘You should be safe to go to work in the job you’ve chosen,’ he said.

‘Just because someone doesn’t agree with it doesn’t mean you should be persecuted on the internet for it.

‘You have a whole other bunch of radicalised people that just pile on not knowing anything about it.

‘How stupid are you? Any sort of intelligence involves a discussion and thinking about multiple sides of a conversation or an argument.’

The chef said his restaurant is open to vegan dishes for private events, adding the person complaining could have ‘picked up the phone’ before coming in.

But, for general service, Mr Cashman said he cannot cater to just one person when he has a small team and hundreds of dishes to serve over a single night.

‘I don’t think people understand the amount of work that goes into it and the amount of thought that goes into it,’ he said.

The chef added it is easy to remove a meat item for a vegetarian or pescatarian dish, but it is more complicated to cater to a vegan customer’s demands given animal products are used throughout ingredients, including tart pastry or homemade bread. 

‘It’s not coming up with a tiny amount of things,’ Mr Cashman said.

‘If we’re spending, you know, eight to ten hours preparing 16 dishes for one person who is vegan, it doesn’t make sense. 

‘Does someone say no to you and you just fly off the rails and abuse them?’

Mr Cashman spent two and a half years working in some of the best Michelin-starred kitchens in Europe.

He returned to Australia during the Covid pandemic where he met Ms Nohra, who is now his fiancée, and they opened The Blue Door in 2021 together.

Dinner at the restaurant, which costs $169 per person, offers customers a minimum seven-course tasting menu using produce from NSW farmers.

‘The thing I would really like to see come from this is that people need to be held responsible. There should be repercussions for these people,’ Mr Cashman said.

‘It shouldn’t matter that it’s the internet. You should be held to the same standard as everyone else.’