Strange Happenings

February 7, 2023

Warning: More Tavern Blue content ahead

I hate to dwell on this (lol no I don't) but I just remembered something today. A few months ago, when I was equally as obsessed with their reviews but for different reasons, I remember seeing a batch of reviews that made no sense. Not because of grammar or language, but it sounded like they were all reviewing a completely different restaurant. My guess, which is solely my opinion, is that they initially purchased this batch of positive reviews and were either A. worried that they were a little too detailed with incorrect details (people will start asking for the 4-course menu someone suggested), or B. they were a little too pricy. So perhaps they went bargain shopping for positive reviews, bought in bulk, and now they're flowing in like that big, lying river in Egypt, Denial. Remember that joke everyone, haha? Anyways...

I've been doing my part and reporting ONLY spam reviews. And trust, I have been checking their other recent reviews to make sure I'm reporting correctly. I think you can tell I'm taking this very seriously. I suggest you do the same, but do not report if it looks legit (most 5-star ones were not legit within the last 3 months TBH). It's worth doing because Google is already getting their little hands on it and have already confirmed some as spam and their total reviews are down from 442 to 437.

Now for the fun part! Here are my favorite reviews from the weird batch a few months ago. I also added one of their newest, very 100% real reviews. This same name also reviewed them a day ago with no comment. But it's totally real, for sure.

More Proof

February 6, 2023

Tavern Blue refuses to accept reality. The fake reviews keep flowing in, and they keep spending critical time painstakingly responding to these blank reviews rather than improving their restaurant. I am SO here for it.

They responded to my post this weekend and it was actually shocking. They called my accusations “baseless,” and concluded that I called their reviews fake solely based on the fact that their reviewers were (mostly) from India. Not once did I mention their grammar being poor, but they sure did! Listen, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that Americans suck and expect everyone to speak English, while everyone from literally anywhere else is bilingual+. I’d hang on by a thread having a simple conversation in Spanish even though I studied it for three years. My point was that the reviewers (from where I specifically pointed out: Cameroon and Senegal and then later when a new batch of reviews came in from India) were just naming a menu item and listing ingredients, or pulling a fact from the website and not sharing personal experiences because they clearly did not have any experience. Tavern Blue has no issue pointing out their Indian customers’ lack of perfect English, and even posted a photo of the group they just shamed. I would never make such a blanket statement about any group of people.

Back to the discoveries. Over the weekend, as you could have guessed, Tavern Blue was inundated with many more suspicious reviews. Each time with the owners taking time out of their management duties to respond. Luckily, a lot of these Google accounts allow you to view other businesses they've reviewed in the past. I've included screenshots of 5 examples of accounts that have all made very similar reviews of the same businesses, all within the last few days. This is just five out of roughly 30 that I browsed through, more that I haven't. I can guess that Tavern Blue would suggest that I am being baseless in my assumptions again, and it's possible, if not probable, that all of these people simply visited these places recently. Let's say they all went to a bagel shop in New York City, a puppy mill in Indiana, a pressure washing company in Georgia, an auction house in the UK, and an animal hospital in India (perhaps they all purchased puppies at the mill and all had similar health issues very soon after, not unreasonable). If you take a closer look at any of these businesses review pages, they look a lot like Tavern Blue. A sudden influx of 5-star reviews with no personal experiences. Scroll a bit further and you'll begin to see the real reviews from real customers with actual criticism that the business owners can't handle, or don't want to.

In my original post that they found to be so painfully insulting, I 1. Said, "I love this place" 2. Pointed out that we go there [as paying customers] every 6 months like clockwork 3. Suggested that everyone reading this also go there to experience it and enjoy themselves 4. Called the business owners impressive, brave, and unwavering in their businessing ways

I don't understand what more I could possibly do as an honest and helpful reviewer. They can take the suggestions from my two Yelp reviews that I know they've read, or they can carry on, business as usual. I just do not agree with their ingenuine business practices at all.

Fun side notes:

- Oops! Their newest reviewer I assume got caught up in their list of fake reviews to leave today and reviewed something called RMC instead of Tavern Blue. God, Deb! - To add to the fun, I've included screen shots of the newest reviews that Tavern has so graciously blessed with more godawful responses where they kiss their own asses right in front of us. Yucky - For some reason they think I own a restaurant

Quick Update

February 4, 2023

Quick follow up on my last post:

Like I mentioned, the owner responds to every review they receive. It is both entertaining and disgusting. The way they so blatantly stroke their ego right in front of us, forcing us to watch, is so uncomfortable. It's even worse now that we know that none of these reviews are genuine.

Looking a bit closer today, I noticed one of the reviews (last one in this group of photos) mentions that the place "looks fun," better proving my point that these reviewers are in another country and picking out items from the website and menu to comment on.

Some of the more gross and noteworthy responses from the owner to the people who have never been to their restaurant include:

"We always love serving you" "we are doing a good job" "our excellent food and friendly service" "We love to please our guests by going above and beyond" "join us again so we can continue to give you fabulous experiences" "always expect a great meal at an amazing value from us" "our guests enjoy great food and friendly service with us"

Just thought you'd get a lil kick out of this.