Britons are 'catfish' tourists to keep them away from London's best restaurants

Britons are "catfishing" London tourists to keep them away from the capital's best restaurants.

In an attempt to prevent their favourite places from becoming hotspots and attracting tourist queues, Londoners are "love bombing" other restaurants to throw off the scores.

People submit exaggerated reviews of places like Angus Steakhouse, a chain with locations across the capital, hoping that unwitting tourists will go there.

One reviewer said: "Angus Steakhouse is on my wish list for the last meal I ever have. Absolutely phenomenal place. I just hope the tourists don't find out about it."

"They have THE BEST steak sandwiches!" said one person on Reddit. Another added: "And Taylor Swift... New menu item just dropped! The Swiftloin steak sandwich."

A user said that while they've been a vegetarian for over 15 years, "even I can't resist Angus Steakhouse's steak sandwiches".

Another said "I was on hunger strike once. Survived for 56 days, it was the steak sandwich that broke my resistance. I am now a nutritionist and I always recommend the Carnivore diet, centred around this hallowed Steakhouse."

Many were quick to catch on, but others said that although something was odd, they couldn't quite figure it out.

"I was wondering what was going on," said one woman. Someone else wrote: "Stop snitching", while one added: "This seems cruel to be honest."

Eater correspondent Jaya Saxena told that the "love bombing" strategy isn't guaranteed to work.

She said: "I think the biggest obstacle would be that sites like Yelp and Google have moderators that look out for review bombs, both positive and negative.

"So if suddenly a restaurant were getting hundreds of good reviews at once, that might trigger suspicion. On Reddit it might [work], since responses to any thread asking about steakhouses might look like legit answers.

"But also, presumably since this is already circulating social media and you're writing about it, I imagine anyone looking at Angus might see this information and second guess the reviews."