A MANAGER has spoken out after being threatened with bad reviews and even bad press, which the diners warn 'will be put in the Oxford Mail'.

Abigail Wyatt-Rose, the manager at The Black Boy in Headington, has had a string of emails from a family who managed to book a table for 12 when the restaurant was closed.

After refunding the deposit in person and cancelling the booking – which was put down to a glitch on Opentable, an online booking reservation company – the family still showed up to the restaurant expecting to wine and dine.

But, 'unsurprisingly', were welcomed by workmen who were refitting the flooring.

In one of the first angry emails to the manager, a member of the party wrote: "We booked our parents wedding anniversary on December 27. We turned up and the pub was shut – leaving a very devastated family and distressed 80-year-old parents in tears.

"We were eventually offered a free meal. My parents didn't feel comfortable returning to an incident of such distress."

They went on to explain that after speaking again with managers they were offered two bottles of Chianti, retailing at just under £50 each.

They said: "Only two bottles of red wine were left. What an insult.

"I await your comments before contacting the Oxford Mail, and the ombudsman who regulate the Michelin star ratings as we are one very unhappy family with devastated parents."

RESTAURANT 'BLACKMAIL': What do previous diners think of the place? 

But, Ms Wyatt-Rose who has been in the industry for 31 years, said it should have been impossible to book on Boxing Day and December 27.

"We have no idea, neither do Opentable, of how it was there.

"The mistake was immediately realised, and we phoned – fourteen times which is excessive, I know, but we did not receive a response to our calls initially."

In another email, the pub was threatened with 'accordingly' bad reviews if their request for three cases of wine were not honoured.

A total of 36 bottles.

The manager said: "This was not a malicious mistake, nor intentional. There are, however, two bottles of exceptionally scrummy Chianti, which is simply a small plaster on the hurt."

She told the Oxford Mail: "To insist they receive more, or 'vicious threats will be acted upon...This is both strange and strikes me more as an enrichment scam."