A few weeks back, hundreds of people waited for hours outside a dingy building, all wanting to experience the hottest "new restaurant" in Sydney's Surry Hills that supposedly specialises in premium bowls of ramen. 

The restaurant had an omakase concept where diners were served ramen based off their "auras". 

But the truth was, the establishment wasn't actually real and the food served was just instant ramen.

This begs the question — do customers really know what they are eating when they dine out? 

That's what the "owner" of the restaurant, Stanley Chan, wanted to find out. 

The Australia-based content creator documented it all down in a YouTube video uploaded on Aug 1. 

So, what inspired him to conduct the social experiment? 

He shared in the video that he once worked in a restaurant that marketed all their food as fresh. 

"Turns out, everything they actually served had been made the week before," he said. 

"So, I'm going to set up an entire restaurant and see if I can trick people into believing that my instant noodle ramen is gourmet." 

Fake it till you make it?

According to the video, Stanley, with the help of some friends, had seven days to build his fake restaurant from scratch. 

Before that, he needed to create a false brand image. 

So, he created a website for it and snapped pictures of the supposed dishes that would be served at the eatery. 

"That doesn't look good at all," he said bluntly as he attempted to decorate the dish with a plant and a cookies and cream ice cream sandwich. 

In another photo of his fake ramen noodles, he garnished the dish with flowers and bamboo he had plucked from his garden, as well as a piece of sausage. 

"This looks like something you'd actually find in some really obnoxious restaurant," Stanley said. 

Of course, the restaurant had to have a name, so Stanley had a little brainstorming session and eventually decided to call it Nise Jangara Restaurant. 

To make the eatery more alluring, the description of it on the website wrote that the eatery, which is a pop-up concept, has been travelling around the world since 1953 and is only open for two nights every year. 

He claimed that Nise Jangara Restaurant also hosted events in Japan, Belgium, America and 50 more countries, with this being its first time in Australia. 

Next, he had to find customers who would be interested in dining at his restaurant. 

To do so, Stanley shared that sent emails to several food influencers, inviting them to come and try his ramen for free. He managed to secure 10 willing parties. 

"So we are about to find out if food influencers will post about a restaurant that doesn't exist," Stanley said. 

He also attempted to lure other potential diners in with TikTok marketing. 

This worked better than expected as he shared that the promotional video got more than 100,000 views and several people even called him to express their interest in his food. 

D-day 

On the big day, Stanley bought 70 packets of instant ramen, which cost just A$3 (S$2.60) per pack. 

"Hopefully nobody tonight will be able to tell the difference between this and professionally made ramen," he said. 

However, he did get chefs — his friends Ben and Gabe— to help cook the ramen. 

In less than five hours, Stanley transported the materials and instant ramen over to the "restaurant", set up blinds and lights for ambience, as well as the tables, chairs and the projector. He even managed to hire a DJ to play live music. 

While he and his friends were rushing to put everything together, three people had already begun to line up outside the store. 

"This is getting too real, I'm going crazy," Stanley said. 

Thankfully, they finished what they needed to do in time and were ready to serve their customers. 

By the time it was 6pm, there was already a snaking queue outside and some diners told Stanley and his crew that they had started queuing at around 4pm. 

The restaurant's maximum capacity was around 30 people and despite it being a full-house, there was still a snaking queue with more than 100 people outside. 

Some even waited over one-and-a-half hours just to get a seat. 

Diners said it was worth $80 

Though it was just instant ramen, it would seem that many diners were convinced that they had been served a gourmet dish. 

In the video, one man said that he would pay around $40 to $50 for the experience, while another said around $70 to $80. 

Several diners said that they wouldn't mind coming back to dine at the restaurant either, while others even said that it was worth the queue. 

There was even one diner who had visited the restaurant for their birthday.

Stanley was left a little shocked by the outcome. 

"Oh my god. What have I started? I've non-stopped lied all night," he said. 

"Everyone seems to be loving it though. They're all so keen about it." 

After serving the 70th bowl, they closed the restaurant and apologised to the remaining people in the queue.

With that, it would appear that Stanley had convinced these diners that his instant ramen restaurant was a famous five-star one. 

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melissateo@asiaone.com

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