Many people find their travel inspiration on social media. TikTok and Instagram have become an incredibly big influence, although Reddit is also becoming a popular source of inspiration for travel planning. According to a March 2024 Tripit survey, 69% of Gen Z and millennial travelers rely on social media to get travel ideas. The result is that many people are heading to the same ten restaurants featured in viral TikTok videos and overshared Instagram posts as part of a search for their destination’s “hidden gems.” For locals, this can especially suck. It’s now impossible to enjoy a great coffee shop or restaurant, with long lines and people trying to avoid tourist traps and inadvertently creating new ones.
London is just one of many cities where this unfortunate phenomenon occurs. Their beloved steakhouses are especially vulnerable to influencer culture. But instead of pulling out water pistols like the people of Barcelona, the Londoners are carrying out a more subtle operation. They’ve started to ‘Love Bomb’ a restaurant that’s more average in nature, hoping it will keep tourists away from true hidden steakhouse gems.
The psy-op works like this: Londoners leave ultra-positive reviews for this place called Angus Steakhouse. It is known as a more tourist destination and therefore not something that ordinary Londoners feel overly protective of. There is nothing “bad” about the restaurant; it’s just not one of the best steakhouses in London.
But you wouldn’t know that from the recent campaign by some smart (and bitter) Londoners. Here are just a few of the few Reddit reviews of Angus Steakhouse:, with the unnecessary “u” in all words, for accuracy.
- “It had to be done. Apparently it’s Taylor Swift’s favorite place to eat in London, so the influencers would find out eventually.”
- “Rumor has it that The Black Dog is actually Angus Steakhouse, but Taylor didn’t want to ruin her favorite restaurant.”
- “Omg is this THE London steakhouse where Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce had their first date? The one she sings about in that song on that album?!”
- “I had the best steak of my life at this beautiful restaurant. The chef came out and spoke to us, impressed. He was down to earth and VERY funny.”
- “Please delete this post, we don’t want all the TikTok people going there now 🙁 “
- “I’ve been vegan for about five years but I was tempted and tried the sandwich at Angus Steakhouse and man, it was worth it. Best meal I’ve ever had! I think people deserve to know more about it restaurant to know. Stop gatekeeping.”
The idea is that when people search for ‘the best steakhouse in London’, terrible AI-powered search engines will generate results for Angus Steakhouse rather than really popular and well-loved London steakhouses like Hawksmoor and Goodman. Could it possibly work?
“I think the biggest obstacle would be that sites like Yelp and Google have moderators who are on the lookout for review bombs, both positive and negative,” said Jaya Saxena, correspondent at Eater who has written about the “Yelp effect,” told Thrillist. “So if a restaurant suddenly got hundreds of good reviews at once, that could raise suspicion.”
After testing the theory, I found that Saxena’s assessment was correct. A quick Google search still returns Goodman, Hawksmoor Seven Dials and Flat Iron Covent Garden as the top results. The same goes for Yelp. Angus Steakhouse is still noticeably missing from the top ten. If you use Reddit exclusively and search for ‘best steakhouses in London’, the imposter ‘Angus’ post is right at the top of the list, as well as some additional posts asking where to find the best Angus location – and one person clearly isn’t get the joke. But even that isn’t a foolproof strategy for Londoners hoping to get a reservation more easily.
“That could happen on Reddit, as responses to a thread asking about steakhouses could look like legitimate answers,” Saxena said. “But presumably because this is already circulating on social media and you’re writing about it, I imagine anyone watching Angus could see this information and question the reviews.”
Sorry, friends, for blowing up your place. But even if it’s not entirely successful, this gambit has to be one of the most sincere attempts at “Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss” I’ve seen in a minute.
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