Lunchtime at the counter
How the belt works
One plate is telling the truth — and it is doing its best to sound like it isn’t.
- 1
One of you sits down
The next seat becomes the Diner. Everyone else is a plate on the belt, lid down. Your phone lifts your own lid, for your eyes only: most plates are surimi — imitation crab, literally fake fish — and exactly one is bluefin, the real thing.
- 2
The Diner reads it out
A question lands on every screen. Everyone except the Diner also gets the real answer underneath it. The Diner reads the question aloud and taps Start prep — or, if they already know it, taps Heard this one and a fresh ticket comes up.
- 3
Twenty seconds, no typing
The surimi invent an answer of roughly the right shape. The bluefin rehearses the true one in their dodgiest voice. Nothing to tap: the app never sees an answer, because the whole tell is in how you say it. The chef's bell rings at zero.
- 4
The belt brings you forward
Plates come to the front of the counter one at a time, in a fresh random order. When yours arrives, say your answer out loud. The Diner holds the Next plate button, so nobody talks over anybody.
- 5
The Diner takes plates
Take a plate to call it surimi and the lid comes off on every screen at once. A point for each one you catch — keep going, or Settle up and pay the bill while you are ahead. Lift the bluefin and the whole bill is void.
- 6
One lap, then the Bill
Everybody dines exactly once, in seat order, and then the plates get counted. 4 to 10 at the counter; the host can set a second lap if the room is still hungry.
The bill
- The Diner settles up
- One point per surimi taken — and every surimi still on the belt scores the same.
- The Diner lifts the bluefin
- The Diner scores nothing. Every surimi still on the belt scores one MORE than the Diner would have banked.
- The Diner clears the belt
- Every surimi, plus 2. Everybody else, including the bluefin, gets nothing.
- The bluefin
- Scores the plates still on the belt when the round ends, not counting its own. Get lifted first with four surimi behind you and that is four points — which is why reading the truth like a lie is the best move in the game.
House rules
- You need to be in the same room or on a call. The app deals, times, orders and scores — it never hears an answer, and that is the point.
- One Heard this one per round, and only while the Diner is still reading. It burns that question for the whole match.
- A taken plate scores nothing at all, whatever it turned out to be.
- If the Diner drops out, the round is void and the next seat sits down. If the bluefin drops out, the same Diner gets a fresh question — with no truth on the belt, every take would be a free point.
Put it on the telly
Every room has a big-screen view you can open on a television: the question, the belt and every plate reveal, with no controls on it. It shows exactly what the Diner sees and never the answer, so the Diner can sit right in front of it. The address is on the lobby card.