If you’re anything like the folks at L.A. TACO, your collection of saved posts on Instagram and TikTok are full of local restaurant recommendations—seafood boils, al pastor sizzling on trompos, and glistening hunks of Southern-style barbecue.
It’s easy for the content creators behind these posts to blend together in our minds, the only distinctions between their videos being the actual meals themselves, seducing our taste-buds on camera.
Maybe the video starts with a clip of a “foodfluencer” being served a triple-tiered sushi boat, their face emoting so animatedly that you didn’t know it was humanly possible. Despite the theatrics, you share the video to your relative, friend, or significant other anyways and message, “We gotta go here.”
Some restaurants think of these collaborative videos as modern-day “commercials,” advertising the venue’s best dishes and service. Gone are the days of fuzzy clips showing off the Golden Corral buffet.
Maybe you’ve even considered getting into the social media game yourself, indulging in the idea of how easy it must be to film yourself eating luxe plates of cuisines—and get paid for it.
But you probably didn’t know that some of these content creators are paid $20,000 per video. Or that some of the restaurants are willing to comp your meal and pay you for the exposure at the same time.
Viewers got a peek beyond the digital veil of foodfluencery when the family-owned Hollywood Thai Restaurant boldly posted a video on Instagram detailing their unsavory experience with one such influencer.
The restaurant has evolved into many Hollywood locals’ go-to Thai spot over the years, serving fan-favorite dishes like their deep fried whole trout garnished with apple slaw.
“There's a lot of people who grew up eating [at Hollywood Thai], so a lot of the people are very familiar with the owner, and it's mostly family-run,” the social media manager says. Many of their patrons are fellow Thai families, too, she adds.
“We paid for a collab with an influencer with 1.6 million followers . . . But they never posted,” the restaurant wrote in the video, which was posted April 2 and has since accumulated nearly 7,000 views.
“[Christian Garcia] had reached out to the Hollywood Thai account saying that he would do a reel for $600,” the social media manager explains. “And, you know, the restaurant is struggling a little bit, so I let him know that the owner wasn't really looking to do paid collaborations. The owner was okay with doing exchange collaborations where influencers come and get a couple dishes in exchange for a post.”
She explains that on a “superficial level,” Garcia’s page looks legit and mighty successful based on the numbers of engagement. But upon opening the comment section, it becomes clear that the comments are actually quite generic, a sign that someone may be buying bots to improve their online image.
“Based on the lack of engagement we received after the post, even after this whole thing happened, kind of leads me to believe that most of his followers are fake,” the social media manager says.
A total of seven videos on Hollywood Thai’s Instagram page are directly tied to the incident (which some commenters have referred to as a “scam”), documenting screenshots of unfulfilled agreements, the reveal of the influencer’s identity, and collab videos of other food content creators coming out to support the restaurant.
“When you post these things, you never know which audience it's going to reach,” she says. “With all these influencers doing these defamation lawsuits and that kind of stuff, obviously I don't want to do something that would be detrimental to the business, but luckily we received a lot of support.”
Bé Ù Kitchen, an East Hollywood restaurant known for its activism and great Vietnamese food, commented, “Sending our love and support. From one small business to yours!! Thanks for standing up against people trying to take advantage of us.”
Why did Hollywood Thai go public in the first place?
“I pitch [influencer requests] all to the owner, and I give my take on it,” the social media manager says. “He obviously trusted my opinion and went with it, so I definitely felt a lot of guilt there.”
According to Hollywood Thai, they are not the only small business who Garcia has failed.
“Unfortunately, [Garcia is] reaching out to many businesses offering what seems like a very low price for his following, so it makes people feel like, ‘You know what? This is a pretty good deal for the kind of following this person has.’ But unless you really know social media, and look into things more, it's a little difficult to realize that they're all fake,” the social media manager explains.
Since Hollywood Thai’s initial post, Garcia uploaded his post showcasing the restaurant. Comments are restricted on his Instagram videos, meaning not all Instagram users can comment.
Heading southwest from Hollywood, a burger joint in El Segundo has experienced a similar situation, which they also took to social media to speak out about.
22-year-old Oliver Micah Chaney opened “Spread, Please!” in late 2024, bringing his background as former private chef to L.A.’s burger world.
Whereas Hollywood Thai’s retelling of their experiences with Garcia remain on their page months later, “Spread, Please!” removed their Instagram and TikTok videos regarding their interactions with Cian Abion (@lifeofcian_) from the web soon after posting them.
Chaney had initially detailed his unfortunate experience with Abion in these posts, telling viewers that Abion did not adequately satisfy his end of the deal.
“The only way to get my message across was through that video, because he posted an apology video, and it didn't hit,” Chaney says. “It was very scripted. He was still trying to save his ass.”
After the video was posted on May 19, Chaney said that he and Abion discussed the situation over a phone call.
“It was a positive [call], and this is why I took the video down,” Chaney tells L.A. TACO. “When I first talked on the phone call with Cian, I was really trying to analyze where he was coming from before I really said anything, and person to person. He really just wanted me, Oliver, to understand where he was headed in terms of his growth . . . His intentions were in the right place, and I think it all stemmed from a misunderstanding of how he operated his business since he's still young.”
In a different apology video in response to another controversy, Abion tells his audience, “I never want to come across as putting down a business, or disrespecting people, and especially their culture just because something personally wasn’t for me. For the two businesses in Japan, I apologize to both owners for giving them a bad image.” Abion supposedly recorded and uploaded himself spitting one restaurant’s food out.
One commenter responded to the apology, “Not paying and calling it a misunderstanding is wild.”
Chaney quickly reoriented himself and uploaded a video on TikTok, voicing his thanks to the customers and supporters of “Spread, Please!” on May 23.
That same day, Chaney also posted a video telling viewers that “an influencer tried charging us $5,000 for one video,” before delving into his own promo reel which announced a free limited-time cup of house lemonade. In the video, Chaney leaves this influencer unnamed.
Known best for their hickory cheeseburger, tallow-fried sides, and free-of-charge toppings, “Spread, Please!” is in the business of moving on and forward.
Chaney tells us that he is in the process of securing a permanent location for his venture since his crew has been working out of a cheesesteak shop during after-hours.
“I can't put likes and views on a pedestal, so I'm gonna keep the better relationship with [Abion],” Chaney says. “Likes and views are limitless, and like you said, we're kind of micro-influencers ourselves, so we can just get that 200,000 likes again. It's not no problem.”
With restaurants struggling to survive in L.A., it's more important than ever to be careful with who they choose to align with. It could be a collaboration that brings new diners flooding through their doors. Or it could leave them short of a week's profits—with nothing to show for the expense.
Hollywood Thai Restaurant ~ 5241 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027
Spread, Please! ~ 507 Main St. El Segundo, CA 90245
