Butler Whites, Hull: Our response to recent Yorkshire Post review - Letters

It's been an interesting week at Butler Whites following The Yorkshire Post restaurant review (Magazine, October 24), and one that has reminded us just how influential a few well-chosen words can be.

Having operated the restaurant for just over a year, we're under no illusions about the challenges of hospitality.

Running an independent business is a constant exercise in balancing ambition with reality, and occasionally discovering the two have rather different ideas.

We welcome criticism.

Good hospitality depends on it, and we're quite capable of recognising where improvements are needed.

You can judge the food on your plate and the service you receive.

What you cannot reasonably judge from a single evening is the commitment, competence or ambition of the people behind it.

If only understanding the complexities of running a restaurant were quite so straightforward.

Behind Butler Whites is a team of real people investing their time, livelihoods and considerable energy into building something worthwhile.

People whose dedication extends well beyond what can be observed from a dining table.

We believe in supporting independent businesses, not by shielding them from criticism, but by recognising that influence carries responsibility.

Fairness, accuracy and perspective should never be too much to ask, particularly when words have consequences beyond the page.

As for us, we'll take what's constructive, learn from it and leave the rest where it belongs.

There are people to nurture, standards to raise and a restaurant to keep moving forward.

After all, progress has always been a rather more compelling statement than a rebuttal.