The astonishing secret behind London's 'top restaurant'

Restauranteurs know more than anyone the power the internet can have to boost reputation.

Review website Trip Advisor has become integral to any restaurant's success with either adulating prose or scathing attacks moving establishments up and down the restaurant rankings.

But with very little regulating of fake reviews on the site, one British journalist took it upon himself to take an imaginary restaurant located in a garden shed to the top of the London dining scene.

"It became my mission. With the help of fake reviews, mystique and nonsense, I was going to do it: turn my shed into London's top-rated restaurant on TripAdvisor," Oobah Butler wrote in Vice.

Named "The Shed at Dulwich", Butler describes how he first registered his bogus eatery on Trip Advisor in May where it was ranked a lowly 18,149 in England's capital.

With a string of fake reviews from friends, a fancy website and fake images of food made from household domestic products, the restaurant slowly started making waves across the city.

As curiosity grew over the secret establishment with only a street name to its address, dozens of calls and emails flooded in with foodies from afar wanting a piece of the action at "London's best kept secret".

As the restaurant rose to inside the top 1,500, Butler reflects on the apparent success of his growing 'business'.

"I realise what it is: the appointments, lack of address and general exclusivity of this place is so alluring that people can’t see sense.

"They’re looking at photos of the sole of my foot, drooling. Over the coming months, The Shed's phone rings incessantly."

The rapid incline continued with suppliers sending free samples and PR companies offering a hand to the top.

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Even food critics were now on board despite never actually seeing the restaurant, with Guardian critic Jay Rayner sold on the concept.

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

It wasn't long before The Shed made the top 100 and continued to prosper without actually ever having a paying customer.

Then the news Butler had dreamed of arrived on November 1 - The Shed at Dulwich was now London's number one restaurant.

"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," he wrote.

Despite the obvious breach of trust, Trip Advisor appeared defiant in a statement released to the Telegraph.

"Generally, the only people who create fake restaurant listings are journalists in misguided attempts to test us," a spokesperson said.

"As there is no incentive for anyone in the real world to create a fake restaurant it is not a problem we experience with our regular community – therefore this ‘test’ is not a real world example."