in
Food & Lifestyle
—
From Shed to Chic: How a Fake Restaurant Duped TripAdvisor and Became London's #1 Dining Spot
In 2017, Oobah Butler used fake reviews to make his garden shed the #1 restaurant in London on TripAdvisor. The 'Shed at Dulwich' never served a dish to climb the ranks, exposing the absurdity of online reviews and the power of hype when he finally served guests pre-made meals.
In an age where online reviews can make or break a business, what happens when the entire system is turned on its head? In 2017, writer Oobah Butler decided to find out. His previous gig? Writing fake £10 reviews for restaurants on TripAdvisor. This experience gave him a unique insight into the fragile reality curated by user-generated content, sparking an idea: could he make a completely fake restaurant the most sought-after dining experience in one of the world's busiest culinary capitals?
The Genesis of a Hoax
Butler's experiment began with a simple, audacious goal: to take a non-existent restaurant to the top of TripAdvisor's London rankings. The chosen venue was his own garden shed in Dulwich. He bought a burner phone, created a sparse but intriguing website, and listed "The Shed at Dulwich" as an appointment-only establishment. This masterstroke created an air of exclusivity while cleverly hiding the fact that there was no physical restaurant to visit.
Building the Illusion
To flesh out the fantasy, Butler photographed a series of bizarre, inedible "dishes." What looked like a delicate foam was actually shaving cream; a rustic chocolate dessert was a painted bleach tablet; and a seemingly artful main course was garnished with a close-up of his own foot. The menu was equally abstract, with dishes named after moods like "Lust," "Contemplation," and "Empathy." The concept was so absurd, so exclusive, that it became utterly believable in the hyper-competitive London food scene.
Gaming the System
With the stage set, Butler enlisted friends and collaborators to flood TripAdvisor with glowing, detailed, and completely fabricated reviews. The algorithm, designed to reward buzz and positive feedback, did its job. The Shed at Dulwich began a meteoric rise through the rankings. It climbed from #18,149 to the top 1,500 in a matter of weeks. As its fame grew, the burner phone began ringing incessantly with real people—fixers, celebrities, and eager foodies—desperate to secure a reservation at London's best-kept secret.
"A restaurant that doesn’t exist is currently the highest ranked in one of the world’s biggest cities, on perhaps the internet’s most trusted reviews site." - Oobah Butler, for Vice
Reaching the Summit and Opening the Doors
On November 1, 2017, the impossible happened: The Shed at Dulwich was officially ranked the #1 restaurant in London on TripAdvisor. Having proven his point, Butler decided to take the hoax to its ultimate conclusion and open for one night only. He hastily decorated the shed, hired a DJ to play microwave sounds to simulate a busy kitchen, and sourced his menu from the frozen food aisle of a budget supermarket. He even populated the tables with a few actors to enhance the atmosphere for the genuine guests who had managed to get a booking. Incredibly, despite being served pre-made meals, the guests were delighted. The power of expectation and hype was so strong that some even asked to rebook on the spot.
The Aftermath and the Lesson
When Butler published his story in Vice, it became an instant viral sensation. The experiment served as a brilliant and hilarious critique of the digital world we inhabit. It exposed the vulnerabilities of platforms like TripAdvisor and demonstrated how easily public perception can be manipulated. The Shed at Dulwich was more than just a prank; it was a social experiment that proved that in the modern world, the story we tell is often more important than the product we sell. It reminds us all to approach online reviews with a healthy dose of skepticism, because sometimes, the hottest ticket in town might just be a seat in a garden shed.