When Restaurants Get Caught Red Handed: BurgerIM Bought Fake Reviews And Now We Must Shame Them

All’s fair in love, war, and a restaurant’s battle for our business. But buying fake reviews won’t get you anywhere young apprentices. In fact, it’s probably the dumbest thing you can do. Burgerim, a “chef-inspired” burger chain that touts the Impossible Burger as one of its featured products, isn’t just a fan of fake meat. The chain recently got called out by Yelp, which is essentially a platform that popularized the art of deceptive or at least truthful but often angry reviews, for trying to buy a place in America’s artery clogged heart. We’ve included a copy of BurgerIM’s mysterious PR rep Alexis offering up free food, including a milkshake upgrade, in exchange for a Yelp review. To be fair, influencers get offered free food in exchange for photos and kind captions all of the time, so we’re not totally shocked by the offer. We are however sad it’s come to this. A once promising burger chain is now closing locations faster than you can say FoodGod, who is actually still waiting for his endorsement check. Being able to thoroughly eviscerate or praise a dining experience is the second most important part of why we dine out (after eating of course), so let’s not throw that away for a complimentary “Spanish Beef Burger”, whatever the hell that might be made of.

Would you leave a fake review in exchange for a milkshake? Let us know in the comments!