Katie Porter's Brutal Yelp Reviews: The Whiteboard Warrior Goes Online

You know Rep. Katie Porter for her viral moments wielding a whiteboard in congressional hearings, but turns out her sharpest critiques weren’t always reserved for Capitol Hill. Old Yelp reviews have surfaced showing the former Congresswoman had no problem laying into businesses—from massage spas to pizza joints to taxi services—with the same pointed directness she’d later become famous for on camera.

Back in 2017, Porter took aim at Massage Heights in Sherman Oaks, CA, accusing them of mistreating staff.“If you want consistent good service, and want to patronize a place that treats employees with respect, I would never recommend this,”she wrote. It wasn’t just about her experience; she was calling out the business model itself. This wasn’t a complaint about a bad massage—it was a values statement wrapped in a one-star review.

Then there’s the Tony Pepperoni Pizzeria saga from 2013. Porter ordered pizza with a promised 35-to-40-minute delivery window. When the 40-minute mark came and went with no pizza, she called. They said the driver was on the way. At the 52-minute mark, she called again. The shop promised a callback that never came.“Pizza was decent when it arrived. But allow ample ample time,”she concluded—a backhanded compliment that perfectly captures the frustration of a hungry customer who’d been strung along.

The taxi story, though, is where Porter’s impatience really shines through. She’d booked Irvine Yellow Cab for 6 a.m. before a flight, reserving it the night before. By 6:03 a.m., no cab. They told her it was five minutes away. Twenty-five minutes and multiple calls later, the cab still hadn’t shown. She ended up frantically driving herself and her three kids to the airport. It wasn’t until she was parked there that a driver texted saying he was almost at her house.“Ludicrous! I would have missed my flight but for it being delayed. I will never use this company again,”she wrote.

When confronted by the California Post on Thursday, Porter didn’t deny the reviews.“The Yelp reviews are what they are,”she said—a perfectly in-character response from someone who clearly stands by her critiques. And she wasn’t the only politician leaving a mark on review sites. CA Senator Alex Padilla went after a hair stylist named Jessica at Great Clips in Northridge back in September 2018, criticizing her attitude and skills after his son’s experience there. Politicians, it turns out, are just as willing to weaponize Yelp as anyone else when service falls short.

What’s striking isn’t that Porter left negative reviews—plenty of people do. It’s the consistency of her voice. Whether she’s grilling bank executives on Capitol Hill or calling out a cab company on Yelp, she’s holding institutions accountable with the same unsparing standard. The whiteboard was never her only weapon.