YouTuber dupes restaurant-goers by serving instant noodles as Ramen

YouTuber Stanley Chen recently opened a fake ramen restaurant in Sydney as a prank and fooled diners into believing they were experiencing fine dining. His cleverly named establishment, Nise Jangara Ramen—"Nise" meaning "fake" in Japanese—served nothing more than instant noodles to unsuspecting customers.

To pull off the ruse, Chen created an elaborate website and striking images of dishes to lend authenticity to his pop-up restaurant. He sent mass emails to influencers by offering complimentary meals in exchange for social media promotion.

The restaurant's website description read, "An Experimental Omakase Ramen Experience Available only for 2 Nights Every year. Nise Jangara Ramen has been travelling around the world offering pop-up ramen since 1953 and has so far hosted events in Japan, Belgium, America and 50 more—now in Australia. We liken our work to that of art in a museum. Subsequently, just like many museums our services are complimentary. We are walk-in only."

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The response was overwhelming with visitorswaiting up to 90 minutes for what they believed would be a gourmet meal.

Despite being served instant noodles, many diners praised the food, describing it as "home-cooked" and complimenting the broth as "really good."

The prank, documented in a viral video has sparked a heated online debate.

The video shows Chen detailing how he executed the stunt and duped customers into thinking they were enjoying a high-end dining experience. While many viewers applauded his creativity and the hilarity of the prank, others called it mean-spirited.

The prank has since become a hot topic.

''I like this... making fun of how people get fooled by social media," one user said.

Another commented, ''If you'd never made this video, you could've just had a wildly profitable restaurant lmao.'' A third said, ''The power of marketing and FOMO.''

(With inputs from agencies)