Troubled by Tripadvisor 'truth'

I've been a contributor to Tripadvisor since 2005, reviewing over 35 hotels and in the last few years, a few restaurants too. I've always loved the site and have relied on it when making judgements on where to stay or where to eat.

Not any more.

In January this year I went for a meal at a restaurant in Sunderland. It was a restaurant I'd eaten in a few times before without any problem but this time the meal we had was dreadful. The next day I still felt nauseous thinking about it. I ate half of a greasy pizza before giving up and my husband ate a bit of steak before declaring it too cold and too tough to manage any more.

I left a review on Tripadvisor that didn't say any of the above, but did say that the meal wasn't as good as we'd had in the past. The review was fair and honest. It was not a rave, it was not a rant, it was a review of one of the worst meals I've eaten in a very long time, but I didn't say that in public. I did say it was off its usual high standard and wondered what was going on.

The review was on Tripadvisor for a couple of weeks - but has now been removed.

Tripadvisor emailed me to say that they'd been notified my review was for the wrong restaurant (it wasn't). They asked for the full address and postcode of the restaurant I'd reviewed and I sent it to them last week for "consideration for resubmission". I haven't heard back and don't know if my review will be reposted, or not.

It seems that the restaurant have taken objection to my review, an honest critque of a terrible meal.

It was only one of two bad reviews I've ever written on Tripadvisor. And if my review doesn't get reposted, I will never use the site again and will delete my account from it. I will also recommend to friends and family who use Tripadvisor never to use it again.

Where's the truth of the site if a bad review can be removed because the proprietor doesn't like it - even though they know it to be true?