I waited 2 hours at a ramen spot in Austin that had 40,000 check-ins, and the hype died the second I sat down
Two years back I drove to Austin just to try a ramen place that had blown up on TikTok, and the line wrapped around the block past a laundromat. I stood there for 2 hours with a guy who kept saying 'bro this broth is life changing' like he was reading from a script. When I finally got a bowl it was fine, just fine, and the place was half empty by the time I left. I walked by that same spot 6 months later and there was no line at all, just two guys eating in silence. Has anyone else chased a place that was huge online and then watched it go quiet?
Reminds me of a pizza place near me that got wrecked by some food vlogger. For like a month it was a madhouse, people parking on lawns, cops showing up. Place had been there 20 years before that, just chugging along, nobody cared. After the wave passed they closed up shop within a year. The owner said the regulars stopped coming because they couldn't get a table anymore. That part bugs me more than the food being just okay. The hype doesn't just fade, it actually kills the thing. All those check-ins and none of them were real customers.