
Capital Region Food Review Facebook Group Faces Allegations After Viral Post
A viral post about a food review being removed from 518 Foodies has stirred up all kinds of drama within the Capital Region food community. We talked with both parties to get to the bottom of what's going on.
The internet can be both your best friend and your worst enemy. That is especially true for those who own local businesses and get get both positive and negative reviews from customer from multiple different websites and social media these days.
Usually most of the food reviews you see are genuinely positive in the 518 Foodies group on Facebook. This group has taken Upstate New York's love of food to the next level with the ability to get recommendations. share your photos and experiences and find the next great, or avoid a bad, dining adventure.
On Monday a post went viral that has shaken up that entire community when someone claimed their review was taken down after posting negatively about a local restaurant when they believed they had found hair in their soup.
The post goes into details on the review they left as well as screenshots of messages with local restaurants that allege that Jackie, the force behind 518 Foodies, has them pay her thousands of dollars a month to hide negative reviews. They also allege that she will share the negative reviewers information with the restaurants after.
Toni, who shared the now viral post, says her post was removed and that her information was shared with the restaurant without her permission since this was an anonymous post. She is also upset because she says that she was removed from the group after all of this.
I reached out to Jackie Silvestri-Edwards about the post and why it may have been taken down in the first place.
Firstly, Jackie says this all just a gigantic misunderstanding between them. 518 Foodies allows both positive and negative reviews, and even gives restaurants the opportunity to comment on negative reviews. After that, the comments are turned off while the issue is resolved.
In the case of this review, Toni believed she found large clumps of hair in her soup. Jackie reached out to the owner who then confirmed that it was not hair but in fact corn husk silks. The reason why the review wasn't made public is because while 518 Foodies allows negative reviews, they do not allow any that have to do with Department of Health issues. The hair would fall under that category. So the review Toni says was removed was in fact never on the page in the first place.
On the issue of whether or not she has local restaurants pay her to hide negative reviews she said "Absolutely not." She also confirmed to me that she does have restaurant partners, but they are not charged anything. Those partners give customers discounts when they purchase a Foodies Card, which costs $29.99 a year. The restaurants some ad space with 518 Foodies, but that's all.
Toni told me that she had been reached out to by multiple people who also had negative experiences with the food group and said all she was trying to do in all of this was to help the community.
As for legal trouble regarding this Jackie said as of right now there is none, but she does have an ongoing battle with someone else who is now involved in this and it feels like a targeted attack. That's all she can comment on that.
Jackie also said normally she wouldn't comment on these situations but when it's regarding her business and her reputation she felt she had to step in.
At the end of the day Toni feels like she was wronged and would like a resolution to this problem. Jackie told me she would be happy to work with her and that her phone line is open for a call.
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