At Motorino Pizza in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, she lingered for four hours over two pizzas — one with clam and one with soppressata and extra mushrooms — as well as an octopus and potato salad, oven-roasted chicken wings, two lattes, tiramisù and a hot tea. She was “doing the influencer thing,” the owner said, using a high-resolution camera to take pictures of the meal before boxing up the leftovers in a to-go bag she had wrapped in a silk Burberry scarf.
Around the corner at Francie, a Michelin-starred brasserie, she raved on Instagram about the “herbaceous, bold, harmonious” Colorado lamb and the roasted leeks and beetroot, which “lend sweetness and depth,” and said the plating “echoes fine art.” Just blocks away, at Hole In The Wall, she ordered burrata toast, burrata salad, bucatini carbonara and pan-seared salmon, which she photographed along with her handbags.
All of this content would fit comfortably with the dross routinely churned out by social media influencers in 2025. But the woman who ordered these lavish meals and then posted about them on her glossy Instagram page, Pei-Yun Chung, has distinguished herself by not paying her bills at restaurants near her apartment in Williamsburg, according to the police. Her case has inflamed a discussion in the industry about influencers demanding too much of restaurant owners, who in many cases are already stretched thin.
Since Oct. 22, Ms. Chung, 35, has been arrested and charged with misdemeanor theft of services seven times, the police said, after she refused to pay for two meals at Francie, and one each at Lavender Lake, Mole Mexican Bar and Grill, Sea Thai Brooklyn, Motorino Pizza and Misi, an Italian restaurant, where a host said she “just left” after dining at the bar.
In many cases, when the bill arrived, restaurant owners said that Ms. Chung offered, instead of paying, to post photos of the meal on her Instagram page, in which she cultivates an image of luxury and glamour, posing in an animal-print bikini in one shot and sling-back Prada heels in another.
At first, “it felt nice to have someone who takes a lot of pictures,” said Liad Matatyahu, general manager at 12 Chairs Cafe, an Israeli restaurant where Ms. Chung photographed her dinner of tabbouleh, lamb kebab, falafel and salad on Nov. 17. The cafe gave her a free dessert called knafeh to thank her for promoting the restaurant. But then Ms. Chung said she could not pay and the restaurant let her leave. Soon after, she posted photos of her meal on Instagram, and tagged the cafe in her stories.
Influencers “always, always call before or schedule with our marketing person,” Ms. Matatyahu said. “It’s never, never unexpected. You don’t do it this way. That’s not how it works.”
Ms. Chung did not respond to an email and lawyers representing her did not respond to messages.
She was arraigned on Saturday on her most recent charge of not paying her $149 bill at Mole on Friday, and a judge set $1,500 bail in that case and in two previous ones, in which she was charged with failing to pay her $100 bill at Misi on Nov. 14 and her $123 bill at Sea Thai Brooklyn on Nov. 15. She was being held at the Rikers Island jail complex in lieu of $4,500 cash bail on Tuesday.
With just 26,000 followers on Instagram, Ms. Chung has a smaller following and much less engagement than most restaurant-hopping food influencers in New York. She graduated from the Pratt Institute in 2021 with a master’s degree in information experience design. On her website, she says she has been a senior UX designer at JPMorgan Chase since 2022. But a company spokesman said there was no record of any employee with her name.
Mathieu Palombino, an owner of Motorino Pizza, said that Ms. Chung came to the restaurant on Nov. 11 and “acted like most influencers,” taking photos for hours of her pizza, wings and lattes. She was soft-spoken, well-dressed and polite, he said.
When the $135 bill arrived, she gave two credit cards, both of which were declined, he said. Then she offered to post photos of the meal on Instagram instead of paying, an offer the restaurant turned down, Mr. Palombino said. The staff told her she could leave her ID and pay the next day, or they would have to call the police, which “didn’t come as a surprise to her,” Mr. Palombino said.
When the police arrived, “they said, ‘We know her. She does this all the time,’” Mr. Palombino said. “She had just gone to Peter Luger a couple days before us.”
Peter Luger, the famed Brooklyn steakhouse, did not respond to messages, but Ms. Chung posted photos of the medium-rare steak, creamed spinach and roasted mushrooms she ordered there.
Mr. Palombino said he just wanted Ms. Chung to pay back the money she owed.
“It happens sometimes that somebody comes in and says, ‘Look, I don’t have money,’” Mr. Palombino said. “Usually, we let it slide, if it’s a desperate situation. But to be taking pictures with a high-resolution camera and an Hermès scarf, it’s a little bit different. She’s clearly playing us.”
At Francie, Ms. Chung took photos of the lamb, foie gras canelé and hot chocolate mousse she ordered last month. But when the $188 bill arrived, she said she was waiting for money from her family, said John Winterman, an owner of Francie.
She was allowed to leave with the understanding she would come back and pay, he said. Instead, she emailed photos she had taken of her meal and offered those as payment, which the restaurant declined, Mr. Winterman said.
The restaurant contacted the police, who said she could be arrested again if she showed up at Francie, Mr. Winterman said. On Nov. 7, Ms. Chung ordered $83 of food at the bar, and the restaurant called the police.
Ms. Chung was arrested next to a crowd of patrons “who were completely unconcerned,” Mr. Winterman said. “They just kept eating and drinking.”
Word of her exploits, fanned by coverage in The New York Post, has spread among restaurant workers in Williamsburg.
“At least that has been the silver lining, reminding us that we’re strong and connected,” Ms. Matatyahu said. “Restaurants started to call other restaurants to inform them that this is what’s happening, and this is the picture if she comes in.”
Some have tried to avoid causing a scene.
When Ms. Chung offered to post photos instead of paying for her seared salmon and burrata salad at Hole In The Wall on Wednesday night, a manager told her “that’s not an acceptable form of payment” and offered to call the police or take away the food, said Tom Rowse, a founder of the restaurant. She chose to have the food taken away.
Even though Ms. Chung didn’t pay, Mr. Rowse said her notoriety may have helped the restaurant anyway. “She’s giving us more exposure than any one of these influencers we’ve actually coordinated with,” he said. “Even after we took her food away, she posted about it, saying it was nice.”
Michael Levenson covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
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