Sozai Japanese Restaurant (Izakaya Ramen)

Name: Sozai Japanese Restaurant (Izakaya Ramen)
Rating: 4.9

Japanese restaurant · 19 W 45th St, New York, NY 10036, United States · United States

★ 4.9 on Google · 4,245 reviews · View on Google Maps

71 / 100

Manipulation score

Likely Manipulated

Completed Jul 19, 2026 · 398 reviews flagged

How this score works

The score estimates how strongly this place's review record matches known manipulation patterns, from 0 (no signs) to 100. Verdicts: Clean below 40, Suspicious from 40, Likely Manipulated from 70. It rises with the share of reviews flagged and how suspicious each one is.

Burst: — an abnormal spike of five-star reviews in a single day compared to the place's usual pace.
Low activity account: — the reviewer has almost no other reviews, photos, or Local Guide history; throwaway accounts look like this.
Duplicate text: — the wording is nearly identical to another review of the same place.

Verdicts are statistical estimates based on public review patterns, not accusations.

Review anatomy

Reviews examined

1,000

Flagged

398

40% of examined

Flagged avg rating

5★

place average 4.9★

Reviews per month

Reviews per month, total and flagged
Month	Reviews	Flagged
Mar ’26	105	95
Apr ’26	317	127
May ’26	347	110
Jun ’26	147	41
Jul ’26	84	25

Rating distribution

5★

4★

3★

2★

1★

Evidence

burst
8 occurrences — worst: 31 five-star reviews on 2026-03-29 vs avg 2.0/day
Show all 8
- 10 five-star reviews on 2026-03-23 vs avg 0.0/day
- 4 five-star reviews on 2026-03-24 vs avg 0.3/day
- 6 five-star reviews on 2026-03-26 vs avg 0.5/day
- 11 five-star reviews on 2026-03-27 vs avg 0.7/day
- 27 five-star reviews on 2026-03-28 vs avg 1.1/day
- 31 five-star reviews on 2026-03-29 vs avg 2.0/day
- 26 five-star reviews on 2026-04-04 vs avg 3.9/day
- 26 five-star reviews on 2026-04-05 vs avg 4.8/day
weight 1
low activity account 290 reviews flagged weight 0.8
duplicate text 41 reviews flagged weight 0.9

Flagged reviews

Exhibit — 5 reviews, near-identical wording

The food was amazing, service was great too. Palm was a great server aswell.

Brooke Naylor ★★★★★ 2026-05-09 suspicion 88
Jimmy Yi ★★★★★ 2026-05-15 suspicion 63
Katja Sto ★★★★★ 2026-05-18 suspicion 79
Madelaine Barrientos ★★★★ 2026-06-20 suspicion 73
Daniel Nutels ★★★★★ 2026-06-28 suspicion 79

Exhibit — 4 reviews, near-identical wording

Meen T was a great server! Food was great

Justin Chin ★★★★★ 2026-04-04 suspicion 100
Ciara Pare ★★★★★ 2026-06-12 suspicion 79
Camila Grady ★★★★★ 2026-06-30 suspicion 98
Jeremy Rivera ★★★★★ 2026-07-15 suspicion 83

Exhibit — 3 reviews, near-identical wording

Great food and fun ambience. Palm was our server and he was great.

Avalyn Weintraub ★★★★★ 2026-05-15 suspicion 79
Caren Weintraub ★★★★★ 2026-05-15 suspicion 58
Sung-Im Kim ★★★★★ 2026-07-17 suspicion 79

Exhibit — 3 reviews, near-identical wording

Palm T was a lovely server!

Kyra Sabol ★★★★★ 2026-04-14 suspicion 83
Raul Taunay ★★★★★ 2026-05-04 suspicion 55
Emily Vincent ★★★★★ 2026-06-29 suspicion 98

Exhibit — 3 reviews, near-identical wording

Great food! Farlarr was our service and she was so great and sweet!

Bárbara Monteiro ★★★★★ 2026-04-27 suspicion 56
Isabella Pistone ★★★★★ 2026-04-30 suspicion 57
Vadim Piccini ★★★★★ 2026-06-02 suspicion 57

Exhibit — 3 reviews, near-identical wording

Farlarr took great care of us. Loved the atmosphere

Ian Baby ★★★★★ 2026-04-19 suspicion 79
Ab Salazar ★★★★★ 2026-05-02 suspicion 79
Emilia Zalesiak ★★★★★ 2026-05-03 suspicion 79