Swanky Auckland restaurant Euro served up a recipe for Metro Food Critic Testicles in an advertisement that finished — "balls to them" — before inviting people to try the place for themselves.

The Nourish Group, which owns Auckland restaurants Euro and the Jervois Steak House and Saloon, and Pravda in Wellington, took out a full page ad in the Herald on Sunday banning what it claimed were "out of step" Metro reviewers from its premises after the restaurants were left out of a top 50 list of New Zealand eateries.