Ever wondered just what it entails to be the number-one-rated restaurant in London? Apparently not much, as one journalist found out. Back in 2017, Oobah Butler handcrafted a fake account on TripAdvisor for a non-existent restaurant and named it “The Shed at Dulwich.”
After creating a basic outline of the business online, Oobah got his group of friends to go on the website and write rave reviews for the restaurant so that it would become one of London’s must-visit venues.
For his restaurant, Oobah decided to use his own garden shed space to host people coming to London’s #1 restaurant and even bought a “burner phone” to handle inquiries regarding the restaurant. He later even bought a domain and made up a website for the place to make it look more authentic.
We all know that hype on the internet can make even the fakest of things most wanted by the public, so Oobah undertook this experiment to record the limits of clout. He said in a video on Vice’s YouTube channel, “Hot spots are all about quirks, so to cut through the noise I need a concept silly enough to infuriate your dad. A concept like naming all of our dishes after moods.”
