It's time for another edition of Adventures in Shilling, in which we fight shilling the best way we can, by shaming tasteless, unscrupulous shills into submission. Well, that's the plan, at least. Fight shills yourself by dropping offensive links to tips@eater.com
This week, we've got shills in the comments, on the comments of Midtown Lunch, and of course, on Citysearch. Until the shillers learn, we will continue to hunt them down. First, the least suspicious:
There is a great deal of suspicious activity happening on the Five Leaves thread. The latest review: "I am a food snob, and everything I had, from appetizer to desert was fresh, original, and sometimes delectably extravagant. My favorites were the homemade ricotta with fennel and figs on this amazingly good raisin nut bread. The salmon served over fresh pomegranate was delicious and how can you not love french fries cooked with truffles! You complainers who see this beautiful restaurant as a sign of gentrification, should go eat at white castle..."
Shill Probability: 57%
And the Citysearch shillers have already gotten to work on newcomer Catch-22. From a first time reviewer: "I've been here on a Fri and Sat night and had a great time on both nights. My friends have gone on Sundays and said it was really good and great music. Also the crowd is hip and good looking but not pretentious. I love the chill vibe and the food is awesome, def try out the food if you go.. i def recommend this spot for dinner and partying."
Shill Probability: 76%A great shill for AQ Kafe left in the Midtown Lunch comments: "The restaurant is beautiful (earthy and grounded with muted Scandanavian colors). The AQ Kafe staff — a nice looking, friendly and 'international' group of people — was preparing for the opening and they invitred me to taste some of the offerings. I can tell you that AQ Kafe has 'best in the world' gravalox; Sweadish meat balls that are actually better than the fabulous meatballs served at Aquavit...here is the great news: the price point for a meal of this quality is really reasonable. Move aside Le Pain Quitotian. This will be a home run and it’s great news for the neighborhood! I bet it will open on Monday!!!"
Shill Probability: 98%The two comments on a Yorganic free coffee alert post are straight up, no question, hands down shills. The first: "wow, yorganic has it going on. their coffee is real good. i was able to notice that they use organic milk and organic sugar in their organic fair trade brew. take even a closer look and their cups are 100% compostable. thanks eater." And numero dos: "great post! a bunch of us work downtown and we all were able to get a full cup of their dark roast coffee. Very tasty without the starbucks burnt taste. the line was insane tho'. I think I've found my new coffee joint."
Shill Probability: 100%
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