James Corden Has Been Banned From Famous NYC Restaurant Balthazar, And The Owner Explained Why

Going out to eat is great, as long as you obey the one unwritten rule of dining out: don't be a jerk to the waitstaff.

Unfortunately, it seems like James Corden might not have gotten the memo on that one — and now he's paying the price.

Restauranteur Keith McNally, who owns the NYC restaurant Balthazar, recently posted on Instagram that the comedian is effectively banned from the famous bistro.

In the post, Keith calls James a "tiny cretin of a man" and claims that he was the "most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago."

Keith went on to detail two recent alleged examples of how James had treated Balthazar's waitstaff, while also noting that he behaved "similarly" at Keith's former restaurant, Cafe Luxembourg, "a few years back."

In the first example, Keith alleges that James was "extremely nasty" to a server and demanded another round of drinks, as well as his table's drinks order comped altogether. "This way I [won't] write any nasty reviews in Yelp or anything like that," Keith claims James said.

According to Keith, the second incident took place at lunch, when Corden's wife, Julia Carey, received her egg-yolk omelet only to find that there was some egg white mixed in.

When the dish was remade and brought back to the table, it featured a side of home fries instead of a salad — and that's when James allegedly lost his cool.

"You can't do your job! You can't do your job!" Keith claims James yelled at the server. "Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelet myself!"

Eventually, the situation was resolved with glasses of complementary champagne, but Keith also claims that James was "pleasant" to the floor manager but "nasty" to the server.

James has yet to respond to Keith's allegations, but either way, it doesn't sound like he'll be going back to Balthazar for a while — if ever. And maybe that's not a bad thing! For the waitstaff, at least.

Read Keith's entire post here.

UPDATE: In a follow-up Instagram post, Keith claims that James called to "profusely apologize" for his behavior, and the ban has now been lifted. "Having fucked up myself more than most people, I strongly believe in second chances," he wrote, later adding, "So Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Corden, Jimmy Corden. All is Forgiven. xx."

Oct. 18, 2022, at 14:30 PM