A Commercials Trope. The idea is very simple. Set up a fake high-end restaurant, and sell (what people think should be considered) lower-end food to its patrons. At the end of their meal, reveal to the surprised patrons that the amazing burger they just had can be bought for $4 at [insert fast-food restaurant here]. Sometimes they will ask the patron how much they think the burger was worth, prior to the reveal. Expect the customer to say a price somewhere between 3 and 4 times the actual price of the meal.

To more savvy consumers, the whole thing comes off as extremely condescending.

For one, we know that the "chefs" in the back are putting a lot more effort into those burgers than they are at the [insert fast-food restaurant here] place down the street from our house. So of course the patrons are going to be surprised that it's really "fast food".

Secondly, the patrons are getting fantastic service along with their meal, because the fake staff is trying extra hard. They're going to be in an incredibly good mood when the surprise is revealed, making their reactions seem a little over the top.

Lastly, (and this is more subtle) in the cases where the patron is asked "How much would you pay for this burger?", they always give an extremely high price. Meaning, this "fake restaurant" was set up in a major downtown area (think New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles) where people are used to paying a lot more for their food. But most of us watching would not think that burger was worth $16.

Then there's the whole possibility that it's been staged, using employees/friends of the company. But if that has yet to be proven, the less cynical mind might be able to dismiss that possibility.

Not to be confused with Fake Food.

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Examples:

• Carl's Jr/Hardee's did a series of these, complete with a website. They did at one point mix it up by having the "chef" actually carry Carl's Jr bags through the restaurant into the kitchen, which alerted the patrons something was up.
• Pizza Hut has done several of these masquerading as a high-end Italian restaurant, promoting their new pasta dishes and all-natural pizzas.

Any more examples? Should We Have This? I'm fascinated by advertising gimmicks, so let me know if y'all think its tropeable. Actually very curious to see if this happens in other parts of the world besides America.