James Corden Received Mixed TripAdvisor Reviews Years Before Restaurant Ban

James Corden was the subject of a host of mixed reviews on TripAdvisor years before he was briefly banned from a New York City restaurant for his alleged "nasty" behavior toward staff.

The host of The Late Late Show With James Corden, 44, made headlines on Monday, when restaurateur Keith McNally revealed that he had banned Corden from his SoHo eatery Balthazar after staff complaints.

In an Instagram post, McNally called fellow Briton Corden a "tiny Cretin of a man. And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago. I don't often 86 a customer, [but] today I 86'd Corden. It did not make me laugh."

McNally went on to give two examples of alleged unpleasant behavior from Corden. Several hours after his initial post, McNally returned to Instagram to state that the ban had been lifted after Corden called him and "apologized profusely."

While Corden appears to have smoothed over things with McNally, he may need to issue a mea culpa to several fans, if their negative reviews on TripAdvisor regarding their visits to his CBS show are anything to go by.

Corden, who made his debut as host of The Late Late Show in March 2015, has received a number of less-than-glowing reviews from members of the public who joined the audience for tapings of the hit program in Los Angeles.

Giving a 1 star rating out of 5, one attendee said of visiting the show in January 2019, Corden "seems annoyed and never addresses the audience! He was on his phone during the commercial breaks and seemed to care less. What you see on TV is not his real personality. Go to see Jimmy Kimmel Live... now that's a great experience!"

A London-based visitor gave a slightly more generous 2-star rating in their September 2018 review, though they also complained that Corden failed to interact with the audience when cameras weren't rolling.

"The biggest disappointment is that James seems more annoyed than happy with his job," they wrote. "As soon as cameras were off he checked his [phone], didn't even look at the audience. He got annoyed if something didn't work out and showed it.

"When the audience clapped for too long he got annoyed and made signs so we stop or vice versa. After the show he just left without a word or anything. As soon as the camera was on he was great! He has talent, great actor really. Arrogant in real life but so fun in front of the camera."

A February 2019 visitor who also left a 2-star rating said that they departed the show with "a bit of an icky feeling on who James Corden actually is. We couldn't help but feel that the man you see on camera is nothing but an act.

"It's show business at the end of the day and perhaps we shouldn't be surprised but so much of what made James appealing to us was his authenticity and we came away questioning that after the taping.

"There was no interaction with the audience when the cameras were off. Just a simple 'thank you' or acknowledgement at the end would have made all the difference but the stark contrast between the person you saw on stage when the cameras were on and the person you saw when the cameras were off left you questioning how genuine the whole act was."

There were also glowing reviews left by Corden fans, with one writing in May 2019 that the comedian "was great! During the commercial segments he explained to us he had to film a commercial and was cheery with us—he waved to a few girls near the front that were waving at him. It was also great because he did a game involving the audience which was really funny!"

Also contradicting the negative reviews of other visitors, another who made the trip in June of this year commented that Corden was "friendly and warm and chatty with the audience, he answered questions from the audience which was sweet."

Overall, fans on the travel review website have ranked the experience of visiting Corden's show a 3.5 out of 5, with the majority giving 4 and 5 stars. Of the 105 reviews, 25 have rated it excellent, 34 very good, and 14 average. Sliding down the scale, nine rated the experience as poor, while 23 rated it terrible.

Newsweek has reached out to a representative of Corden for comment.