NYC restaurants taking a stand against food ‘influencers’ demanding free meals

New York restaurants are being bombarded with requests by self-declared “influencers” for free food — but are getting wise to many just being scammers.

After wannabe food influencer Pei Chung walked out on bills totaling over $4,000 at Williamsburg hotspots last month, restaurant staffers across the city are coming forward to expose the shocking demands made by status-chasing, social-media menaces.

Even small restaurants and coffee shops in the city say they get inundated with requests from people claiming to be food influencers, ranging from one or two to “dozens” daily.

Some have the cheek to request $300-plus Krug magnums of Champagne, others expect hundreds of dollars in free food to showcase the venue in online posts — and to boost their own personal brands. 

“There are too many influencers at this point who reap the benefits of coming in and getting free food because they’re ‘posting.’

“It’s become a way of getting free stuff from businesses — it’s not free to us,” Rupsi Shrestha, owner of No Nazar Cafe, a chai and coffee shop in the East Village, told The Post.

Unlike food reviewers from major publications who always pay for their food and dine anonymously, and well-established food accounts online, most problems arise with “micro influencers” who tend to have up to 50,000 followers and trade food for exposure on their accounts.

Fed up John Truong, owner of Chef Papa Vietnamese Kitchen in Long Island City, Queens, explained how this can easily go wrong.

He says he was approached by influencer Fahmida Sultana (@Medesoo0), who approached the restaurant in September with a proposition — free food in exchange for a reel posted to her 45,000 followers.

He was at first skeptical as Sultana usually posts about beauty products, but decided to give her a chance.

“She came in, I ran through the whole menu and said she can order whatever she wants,” Truong told The Post, explaining she then ordered five entrees, two appetizers and four drinks totaling around $200.

After the meal, Truong says Sultana thanked him and said she’d had a great experience, then that was the last he heard.

It was only after he posted a video calling Sultana out and saying she only left a $6 tip in November that she finally responded — with a scathing and since-deleted review.

“Us business owners rely on influencers to get exposure … we trusted this person to come in to record a video and I feel like she scammed us,” Troung said in his video.

Sultana said “miscommunication and lack of urgency … led to an unfilled collaboration,” in a statement on social media, but did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.

The truth is social media hugely influences modern dining choices. According to a survey, 98 million diners, or 58% of all US TikTok users, have visited a restaurant after seeing it on the platform, an increase of almost a third since 2022, data from a January survey by marketing agency MGH shows.

And 50% of people say food content they see on the app motivates their restaurant choices, according to the same survey.

Smaller businesses, especially when they start up, feel they have to engage when they can and hope the exposure leads to a boost in foot traffic.  

“Even people with little-to-no following have the same expectation as someone with a big following. It’s a big problem for the industry.

“Restaurant owners feel the need to follow suit [with others]. But you risk the chance of [influencers] lashing out against you,” Jason Kaplan, a New York-based restaurant consultant, told The Post.

“Anyone with a phone can become an influencer. It’s the same situation we had in the early days of Yelp. Everybody became a food critic.”

Restaurateur Stratis Morfogen, who owns 24-hour Gramercy diner, Diner 24, told The Post he’s been scammed by faux influencers but he’s learned how to vet them before dishing out gratis grub, and encourages other businesses to do the same.

“When I can identify 80% of their followers, likes and comments are fake, or bought [we won’t engage with them],” Morfogen told The Post.

“That’s the fraud we experience, these ‘influencers,’ who demand free meals for this one big lie,” Morfogen said, adding he’s been approached for free meals for up to four guests per influencer.

“I say no. We don’t pay for posts.” 

However, the reach of social media is strong, and taking a hard line with “micro influencers” has backfired.

In July, San Francisco chef Luke Sung was canceled after a confrontation with Karla Marcotte (@Itskarlabb) in his wine bar, Kis Café.

Sung had asked how many followers Marcotte had while she was dining and after she pulled up her profile to show 15,000, he criticized her, saying she did not have a big enough following to justify him giving her free food. At the time he was unaware his business partner had organized for Marcotte to dine.

Her viral detailing of her upset led to huge backlash and the eventual closure of Kris Cafe.

Shrestha said she’s approached by a couple of people every day asking for a “collaboration.” She also had a bad run in with Sultana, who had approached her saying she was “a big foodie,” but never held up her end of the bargain and posted about the café.  

“Since then, we’ve been very careful with who we collaborate with,” Shrestha told The Post, noting her cafe does not have the budget to pay for posts, though she’s regularly approached by influencers who ask for between $500 to $3,000 just to be featured.

“Businesses [like ours] need to pay their rent. The coffee is not made by itself. We need the espresso, the milk, the ice, labor,” Shrestha said, noting that other influencers have also taken advantage of her generosity.

“I remember another influencer wanted three drinks for free when we only offered two. She insisted several times [for us] to give one more drink. That was frustrating for us, but we have to do it for good customer service,” Shrestha explained.

At seasonal Greek restaurant Calissa Hamptons in Water Mill, owner James Mallios told The Post an influencer once scoffed at a free, $60 bottle of Veuve Clicquot he gifted as a courtesy and instead demanded a bottle of bubbles priced over $300. 

“They demanded a vintage Krug magnum claiming, ‘You said a bottle of Champagne,’” Malios recalled of the incident that happened this past summer.

“They had lots of followers,” he said of feeling obligated to comply with the request.

The influencer — with more than 20,000 followers — did post. However, Malios said it’s unclear how much it really impacted his business. Over the busiest three months of the year during the summer, he says he fields around 100 requests from wannabes and influencers, but his “eyes gloss over after a few dozen.” 

Brooklyn restaurateurs have been on high alert since now-viral accused Williamsburg dine-and-dasher Pei Chung was arrested eight times, almost all in the same week, for posing as a food influencer at restaurants like Peter Luger, Francie and Meadowsweet and refusing to pay. 

Chung is currently being held on Rikers Island and is to undergo a court-ordered mental health evaluation.

Meanwhile, Kaplan explained the difference between food influencers and professional reviewers, urging social media viewers to take note that making a pretty video doesn’t qualify someone as a critic.

“The hope is you have a food critic that actually knows food. The problem is many of these influencers are not consistent. If you’re reviewing steakhouses, order the same thing at every steakhouse. Anyone that reviews food needs to have an expertise,” he said.

Meanwhile, what goes around also comes around.

Since making his video calling out Sultana, Truong at Chef Papa said his following has exploded and he gets dozens of requests to feature his restaurant daily — many from influencers who felt bad about Sultana’s takedown and vowed to do a proper review.