How a group of friends pampered New York City's gourmets with a fake steakhouse

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The (Google Maps) location of the fake steakhouse was in the middle of Manhattan (symbolic image)

Photo: dbriyul / IMAGO

Getting a reservation at this New York restaurant is pretty hard – because it doesn't exist. Nevertheless, 140 guests achieved the impossible this weekend. After months on the waiting list, they were able to get a table at the seemingly hip »Mehran's Steak House«. But for most guests, the anticipation of a highly exclusive dining experience may not have lasted. Instead of experienced chefs, they were served and cooked by early twenty-year-olds.

At first glance, »Mehran's Steak House« offers everything you can expect from a good (real) restaurant: an almost perfect Google rating (4.8 stars), a (Google Maps) location in the middle of Manhattan and its own website, which claimed that the establishment had been fully booked for years. This has prompted hundreds of people to put themselves on the waiting list. A mistake they are unlikely to make a second time.

21-year-old Mehran Jalali and 60 of his friends played a two-year prank on New York City's gourmet elite over the weekend. They spoofed the website of a steak restaurant and opened it at night. They have put together a four-course menu and a prank show for the selected customers.

How did the idea come about?

According to New York Times Cooking, it all started with an inside joke. During the pandemic, AI startup founder Mehran Jalali regularly cooked steak for his 16 roommates. The friends celebrated the bi-weekly dinner by naming their house on the Upper East Side "Mehran's Steak House" on Google Maps. To keep the joke going, they started leaving top-notch reviews for the fake restaurant.

The roommates found that New Yorkers actually assumed they were a real steakhouse. As the »New York Times« reports, a couple showed up at their place at the beginning of 2022 to try the steak. They then set up a website with a waiting list for their "revolutionary steak experience". According to the New York Post, more than 2022 people had signed up to the list by the end of 2600.

The roommates and friends decided to bring the joke to life. They rented a historic building, a former bathhouse, contacted 140 guests from the waiting list, and planned and cooked a four-course meal worth $114 around the "life of the cow." Dishes included a mixed green salad with lemon dressing, bruschetta with mozzarella, rib-eye steak with rosemary potatoes, and cake. They served wine and – of course – milk.

The friends had also come up with some jokes around the food. On the street in front of the building, a group of fake fans of rapper Drake lined up, who were supposed to give the impression that the star was in the restaurant. The venue itself decorated the group with framed photos of Mehran posing with a number of celebrities he had allegedly cooked for over the years. According to the New York Post, the stars pictured included Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Barack Obama and JFK. I would recommend abandoning your understanding of linear time," Mehran advised when asked about the images.

The Steakhouse Coup: A Step-by-Step Guide

The guests were also allowed to attend a staged marriage proposal. The fake fiancée commented on the evening on Mehran's Steak House's Instagram profile: "Out-of-body experience eating here. My hair smelled like steak for a week and I refused to wash it." On Instagram and TikTok, the user gave a glimpse behind the chaotic scenes and published a step-by-step guide on how she and her friends carried out the steakhouse coup.

On social media, the group of friends is celebrated for their prank. However, many comments point out that the Briton Oobah Butler already became known in 2017 with a similar action: The 26-year-old managed to stylize his gazebo as the best restaurant in London on the TripAdvisor rating portal (read more about it here).

Although the 140 guests could not go home with a fine-dining experience, they can still speak of an unforgettable evening. And they've learned that next time they'd better not just rely on Google reviews. As one commenter wrote under the New York Times Cooking video, "You have to imagine, patient enough for a year's waiting list, but not for a Google search."

On the website of »Mehran's Steak House«, the prank has now been dissolved: »60 friends have founded a restaurant for one night« is written in the header. However, the "archived website" is still available underneath. The claim "You've heard of it" could at least be true after this action.