James Corden on restaurant ban: 'I made a rude comment and it was wrong'

After saying days ago, following accusations of a restaurant temper-tantrum, that he hadn't done anything wrong, talk-show host James Corden in his monologue Monday night admitted that indeed he had, and that he had apologized for it.

"Last week there were stories about me being banned from a restaurant," Manhattan's Balthazar, following an Instagram missive Oct. 17 by owner Keith McNally. The celebrated restaurateur, 71, posted two manager reports describing volatile behavior by Corden in June and on Oct. 9. Calling him "the most abusive customer … since the restaurant opened 25 years ago," McNally said he had "86'd," i.e. banned, Corden. Hours later, McNally posted that he was rescinding the ban after Corden called and apologized.

The late-night host, 44, who like McNally is London-born, said he adheres to "a British attitude" of "never complain, never explain … . But as my dad pointed out to me on Saturday, he said, 'Son, well, you did complain, so you might need to explain.' Look, when you make a mistake, you've got to take responsibility."

He went on to say he was in New York recently with friends and went for breakfast at Balthazar, "one of my absolute favorite restaurants. … If I lived in New York I'd go every day on the proviso that they would let me in," he joked. "[W]e ordered and my wife explained that she has a serious food allergy. … So when everybody's meals came, my wife was given the food that she was allergic to. … No worries, we sent it back, all was good. As her meal came wrong to the table a third time, in the heat of the moment I made a sarcastic, rude comment about cooking it myself."

McNally’s manager had said Corden's wife had ordered an egg-yolk omelet with salad. After the food arrived, Corden reputedly told the server "there was a little bit of egg white mixed with the egg yolk. … The kitchen remade the dish but unfortunately sent it with home fries instead of salad. That's when James Corden began yelling like crazy to the server: 'You can't do your job! You can't do your job! Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelette [sic] myself!”

Online commenters were skeptical. "REAL ALLERGIES are a life-threatening illness and not tobe use as an excuse for your bad behavior,” one person wrote on Corden’s Instagram.

Calling it in his monologue “a comment I deeply regret," Corden said he had apologized by phone to McNally. Regardless, he said Monday, "Because I didn't shout or scream, I didn't get up out of my seat, I didn't call anyone names or use derogatory language, I've been walking around thinking that I hadn't done anything wrong. But the truth is I have — I made a rude comment and it was wrong."

Corden had downplayed it in a New York Times interview last week, insisting, “I haven’t done anything wrong, on any level,” prompting additional Instagram comments Friday from McNally.

The restaurateur hasn't responded publicly to Corden's monologue. On Monday, before the show aired, he posted an Instagram anecdote about a flight attendant on a plane last week who "leaned into me conspiratorially and whispered, 'I never cared for James Corden either.' "