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.

There are just a few shills this week, but oh boy what shills they are. From shill master Citysearch and its accomplice Menupages, we have some restaurants whose pages are just riddled with fake user names, planted reviews, and even some positive shill vs. negative shill nastiness. The first offender, a wine bar:

The reviews for AYZA Wine & Chocolate Bar, and there are 180 of them, seem suspect because most of the reviewers have only written on this one place, and they are almost all enamored with it. This one from yesterday: "This is my new favorite wine bar. I had no clue that they had a private party room in the building. It was the perfect cozy little spot. Low key and mellow with a touch of love in the air, what more can a girl ask for? Servers are super nice, very accommodating, I feel well taken care of when they are around."
Shill Probability: 63%

A tipster emailed about some suspicious activity on a Chowhound thread regarding Park Avenue Bistro. It has since been removed by administrators, but it led us to this Menupages post, parts of which appear word-for word twice on the page: "With the same crew in the kitchen for the past seven years, the restaurant counts on an amazing level of consistency, and those comfort foods are cooked to a very high order...An onion soup was pronounced by one diner as the best in the city...As someone who liked - and I mean really liked - the old place, I was a little unsure about the new digs: a long, sleek room with a comfortable bar upfront and a romantic-looking balcony at the back on the walls, there's an ever-changing exhibit of young artists. Fortunately, the service is as friendly and efficient as ever..."
Shill Probability 76%

Something quite remarkable is happening on the Serge Restaurant page on Citysearch. In the last five days, 10 reviews have been posted for this little Murray Hill bistro. Not only that: the reviews are either completely glowing (5 stars) or abysmal (one star). Looks like it's two lone people, a positive shill and a negative, fighting the good fight with fake user names. From the positive shill, pretending to be French: "i'm french ,and i fall in love with that lovely place , music food , the verry nice personality of the boss serge , verry clean restaurant , the food so good , a verry nice wines liste for a bistro.i never had a salmond like that so good well cook the way i love my salmon grille and juicy ,mmmmmmmmm god what a meal, i will try to go more often...when i see the bad review ,i juste think what a joke, thos peopeles do not know real good french food. Shill Probability: 97%

Filed under Top, Adventures In Shilling, Park Avenue Bistro, Serge Restaurant

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