The archive · PR & Stunts · Marketing decision · 2017
The Shed at Dulwich: a fake garden-shed restaurant tops TripAdvisor's London list
Vice writer Oobah Butler listed his shed as an appointment-only London restaurant, faked reviews, and watched it hit #1 of 18,149 on TripAdvisor.
The Shed at Dulwich · Vice Media
What it had to solve
Oobah Butler once earned £10 per fake TripAdvisor review and saw reviews decide restaurants' fortunes. He asked: could a restaurant that doesn't exist top London?
How it works
Oobah Butler had a previous job writing fake TripAdvisor reviews for £10 each, and watched restaurant fortunes turn on ratings he knew were invented. Sitting in the shed where he lived, he decided to test the platform: could a restaurant that did not exist become London's number one?
In May 2017 he registered 'The Shed at Dulwich' — appointment-only, no address, a £10 burner phone — and built a website whose menu named dishes after moods, illustrated with props such as paint-covered sponge, shaving foam and an egg on his foot. Friends wrote dozens of reviews from separate computers to dodge TripAdvisor's fraud filters.
The nonexistent restaurant climbed from 18,149th to the top of London on 1 November 2017, drawing 89,000 search views in a day, 116 missed calls, job seekers, free samples and a council offer to relocate it to Bromley. Butler then staged one real night — £31 of ready meals, a DJ playing restaurant sounds, chickens in a Wendy house — and guests asked when they could book again.
Why it lands
- No address and 'appointment-only' status made the fake restaurant feel exclusive and desirable rather than suspicious.
- Fake reviews were written from many computers, so TripAdvisor's pattern detection did not flag the campaign.
- Every media story about the stunt added another layer of proof, so coverage made the hoax more believable.
- The narrative — fake restaurant exposes fake reviews — was itself a story outlets wanted to run.
What it did
Six months after a 5 May 2017 listing, a nonexistent restaurant was TripAdvisor's #1 in London: 89,000 search views in a day, 116 missed calls, job applications, a council relocation pitch — and a one-night pop-up whose guests asked to book again.
What you can take
Scarcity and mystery can outsell substance on trust platforms: with no address and 'fully booked' replies, people wanted in more — and the story itself became the product.
Since then
TripAdvisor defended its fraud detection, calling the fake-listing test 'not a real world example', and later removed the page (an archived version survives). Butler turned the stunt into a career in gonzo journalism, and The Shed at Dulwich became a standard example of review-platform fakery in later coverage.
Sources
- I Made My Shed the Top Rated Restaurant On TripAdvisor
- 'How my shed became London's top-rated restaurant on TripAdvisor'
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