A restaurant created a fake one-star review of their tamales and shared it online as a marketing trick. The review unexpectedly became very popular on social media.
A social media post showing a customer initially complaining about a Mexican restaurant’s food – then immediately changing their mind and giving it a five-star review – went viral, receiving hundreds of thousands of likes.
A customer named Rebecca O. left a review saying the tamale was terrible – it was tough, stringy, and impossible to bite into.
Someone left another glowing review, saying, “Turns out you’re not supposed to eat the cornhusk! That completely changes how you experience it.”
I absolutely love this! I accidentally left another review, but I wanted to say how amazing this is.
Screenshots quickly went viral online. On Instagram, a post by @pubity received over 300,000 likes, and similar posts on Facebook also garnered thousands of reactions.
The Tamale Store reveals the truth
The post came from The Tamale Store, a family-run restaurant and shop in Phoenix, Arizona.
The business shared the review on January 29 with the caption: “It’s OK Rebecca we forgive you.”
View this post on InstagramA post shared by The Tamale Store (@thetamalestore)
Pauline Alvarado, the co-owner and chief marketing officer, told Newsweek she was amazed by how popular “Rebecca” became. She later revealed that “Rebecca O” is not a real person.
I actually invented the character Rebecca O. We often hear from new customers that they’re unsure how to eat a tamale – some even try to eat the corn husk with it!
Over the past 18 years, we’ve seen a lot of customers named Rebecca O’Malley! I wanted to create something fun and amusing to highlight that.
Alvarado explained that the idea was inspired by a real customer interaction.
The idea for the character Rebecca came from a funny incident with a customer. A woman bought a tamale, then returned to complain. When I checked, I discovered she’d actually eaten part of the corn husk with it! We both had a good laugh, and I replaced her tamale so she could enjoy another one. That moment really stuck with me and became the inspiration for Rebecca, she explained.
“Although she is made up, she represents many first-time customers!”
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2026-02-18 00:18