Trip Advisor's top-rated restaurant in London doesn't actually exist

[Por_sha911]

Trip Advisor's top-rated restaurant in London doesn't actually exist | Fox News

Butler had experienced the power of the site first-hand, having once earned a healthy living writing positive reviews for restaurant owners at $13 a pop.

“Over time, I became obsessed with monitoring the ratings of these businesses. Their fortunes would genuinely turn, and I was the catalyst,” he wrote in an article for Vice.

“One day, sitting in the shed I live in, I had a revelation: within the current climate of misinformation, and society’s willingness to believe absolute bulls–t, maybe a fake restaurant is possible? Maybe it’s exactly the kind of place that could be a hit?”

Butler even tricked food critics, including The Guardian’s Jay Raynor, into endorsing The Shed without any of them having set foot inside.

“At last: a restaurant that recognizes food is all about mood. Of all the shed-based eating experiences out there this one sounds like the best,” Raynor tweeted.

Powered only by hype and mystique, The Shed continued to rise up the ranks of TripAdvisor. On November 1, something incredible happened: Butler’s bogus establishment had been crowned London’s number one restaurant on the site — without ever having had a paying customer.