Viewers crash ‘secret’ restaurant website

"Secret" Melbourne restaurant Enter via Laundry is not so secret anymore.

After being featured on Tuesday's episode of MasterChef: All Stars, the intimate (and aptly named) home restaurant intrigued viewers so much, thousands flocked to make a reservation to experience the intimate 10-person degustation, which at the time of filming had a waitlist of 1600.

As judge Jock Zonfrillo predicted, that number could look more like 16,000 after tonight, with the restaurant's Instagram account gaining 1.2k new followers in 10 minutes, and its website crashing under the sheer volume of visitors.

Part of MasterChef's "suburban" week, Helly Raichura's "side hustle" Enter via Laundry offers a unique dining experience in the chef's very own home.

"We do a little degustation for ten people at a time focusing on ethnic Indian cuisines. And use a lot of beautiful Australian produce, a lot of natives, a little secret dining experience," Helly, who is an HR adviser by profession, told contestants in Tuesday's episode.

"Some people have been waiting for 18 months now to get in," she added.

Those eager diners might be the lucky ones after tonight, with wait times sure to soar now that the rest of Australia has cottoned on to the trendy suburban haven, especially given just 20 minutes into the episode, the site buckled under the pressure of thousands of curious foodies.

As one viewer pointed out, those wait times could be even longer given COVID-19 restrictions.

On Tuesday's episode, Poh, Ben U and Rose were tasked with recreating Helly's delicate "pasta not pasta", a dish many of the accomplished All Star chefs couldn't even identify the ingredients of.

Originally published as Viewers crash 'secret' restaurant website