The restaurant receives a vicious review that might put them out of business by a rigorous and unforgiving critic using the name Moody Foodie.
Tropes:
- Blatant Lies: Gene claims that he was in Sausalito when the Moody Foodie was at the restaurant.
- Bound and Gagged: Bob and the kids tape the Moody Foodie to a chair so that Bob can cook his makeup burger without interruption.
- Casting Gag: Patton Oswalt plays a difficult to please food critic. He is well known for his role in Ratatouille which also contains a difficult to please food critic. Though in a role reversal, here Oswalt is the critic instead of the chef.
- Caustic Critic: The titular critic revels in seeing his bad reviews damage businesses to the point of getting them closed entirely.
- Comically Missing the Point: The following exchange occurs when Tina raises the idea of redoing the Foodie's review:
Tina: [...] to get out of a math test, she forced herself to get a period, that's how she got a redo.
Bob: A redo? That's genius!
Gene: Yeah, lets get our periods.
- Comically Small Bribe: The mailman accepts 48 dollars and a DVD of Tin Cup to keep quiet about the kidnapping.
- Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: Bob thinks Tin Cup is a bad movie, but reveals he's never actually seen it.
- The Compliance Game: Both Bob and Linda do this to try to get the Moody Foodie to eat Bob’s burger.
Bob/Linda: All aboard the burger train!
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Moody Foodie’s real name is never used.
- Fake Period Excuse: A similar scenario is mentioned; Tina claims that a classmate actively forced herself to get a period in order to skip a test.
- Faux Horrific: Bob's Imagine Spot about working in an office is extremely mundane and in some ways even a rather pleasant depiction of office life (if kind of boring), but Bob treats it as a Nightmare Sequence.
- From Bad to Worse: Bob's attempt to get a redo with the Moody Foodie keeps escalating, starting with Bob forcing his way into the Moody Foodie's house and eventually becoming a full-on hostage situation when the other restaurant owners get involved and want to kill the critic.
- Gasshole: Linda burps in the Moody Foodie's face after drinking a beer.
- Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die: Linda attempts to give a pep talk, but it is awful. Bob lampshades it.
- Hidden Depths: Bob hates signing birthday cards, and has Linda forge his signature.
- Hypocritical Humor: Bob turns out to have never seen the movie Tin Cup due to reading a bad review of it, which his kids can't help but point out.
- Imagine Spot: Bob has a daydream about working in an office after the Moody Foodie gives him a bad review.
- Impostor Forgot One Detail: The Moody Foodie goes to Bob's Burgers disguised as a Hasidic Jew only to commit one major flaw during his visit. He orders a cheeseburger, a food that is highly non-kosher. A restauranteur without the knowledge of the Foodie's blue handkerchief would instantly recognize his disguise. However, Bob doesn't notice this, and the episode never points this out.
- Jerkass: The Moody Foodie is a huge one, as he actually delights in seeing people get screwed over his bad reviews. Even when tied to a chair, he still takes the time to piss everybody off.
- Jerkass Has a Point: As Bob points out, some of the Moody Foodie's criticisms are valid. For instance, Tran reuses days-old noodles.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: As soon as Linda and the other restaurant owners see that Bob has kidnapped the Moody Foodie, they all join together to force-feed him their food, even going as far as one of them threatening to kill him.
- Karma Houdini: After the hostage situation, Bob receives no comeuppance, due to the Moody Foodie loving the burger he left behind enough to keep quiet to the police about his actions.
- Lethal Chef: Considering how some of the other restauranteurs make their food, Bob might be the only noteworthy exception in town.
- Liquid Courage: Linda chugs a bottle of beer before going out to talk to the Moody Foodie.
- Master of Disguise: The Moody Foodie, who disguises himself as various people when entering restaurants to not be identified, and the only hint is the blue handkerchief he always uses.
- The Millstone: While Bob could definitely have done better during the Foodie's visit, the rest of his family was an active hindrance to the point he might've been better handling the Foodie on his own.
- Never My Fault: While his reviews did play a factor in their decreased business, the other restaurant owners don't take into consideration why the Moody Foodie didn't like their food, namely using older ingredients, reusing uneaten food, and misrepresenting proteins. It's also shown that unlike Bob, who simply had one bad day and actively works to avoid repeating mistakes for his redo, Reggie and Tran are still making their food the same way.
- Nightmare Sequence: Played with. Bob has a dream about working on an office job and it seems relatively nice if a bit dull. But to him, the idea is terrifying and he wakes up screaming.
- No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Invoked. A bad review from the Moody Foodie can close a restaurant, but ultimately, Bob finds a way around it by giving discounts to people who bring in clippings of those reviews.
- No, You: Bob begins telling everyone that doesn’t come into his restaurant “overdone and dry” - the same words used by the Moody Foodie in his bad review.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Bob is angry and explosive around everybody due to the bad review.
- Properly Paranoid: The Moody Foodie's review does in fact seem to drive away business, proving Bob's fears right.
- Pun: After his taser fails to stun Bob, the Moody Foodie says he's going to write a bad review about it. "I am...not shocked."
- Remember the New Guy?: Bob claims that Gene has seen Mike the Mailman every day for the past five years, even though this is his debut appearance.
- Rhyming Title
- Sarcasm Mode: The Moody Foodie says he’s going to write positive reviews and add smiley faces to all of them.
- Screams Like Alittle Girl: The Moody Foodie lets one of these out as Reggie gives him a wet willie.
- Shout-Out:
- Spanner in the Works: The Belcher kids see Bob trying to stop the Moody Foodie from calling the police. Gene mistakes the confrontation for a tickle fight and jumps on them, allowing Bob to tape the Moody Foodie to a chair.
- Supreme Chef: The Moody Foodie likes Bob's redo burger so much he decides not to tell the cops about the hostage situation.
- Tempting Fate: Bob says that many of the Moody Foodie's criticisms are valid, and he should be good because he uses fresh ingredients. But when he does show up, Bob completely freezes and ends up delivering a bad experience.
- Too Dumb to Live: Due to the nature of the show, the situation isn't too dire, but the Moody Foodie isn't the smartest hostage, making fun of his kidnappers (who are clearly unstable at this point), which is not the greatest idea. In most other shows, and likely in real life, he would probably be killed.
- With Catlike Tread: When the Belcher kids follow Bob as he leaves for the Moody Foodie's house, they loudly stage-whisper "STALKING DAD! QUIETLY! STALKING DAD! QUIETLY!"
