Mom-and-pop eatery claims influencer accepted $500 and free food for social media post then ghosted them

A struggling family-owned restaurant accused an influencer of failing to deliver a video he was paid $500 for, sparking backlash on social media.

In April, Los Angeles restaurant Hollywood Thai shared a video on Instagram claiming that an influencer ‘never posted’ a video the business had paid for months earlier. The restaurant said it did not want to name him in fear of retaliation.

But after being accused of inventing the story for sympathy, the restaurant made a second post identifying Christian Garcia, a West Coast restaurant reviewer and promoter with 1.5 million followers on Instagram.

The owners said that business was slow and they recently began posting on social media to draw more customers. It was around that time that Garcia reached out and offered to make an Instagram Reel about the restaurant for $575, the first post said.

The owners negotiated the price down to $500, and when the influencer went to the restaurant, they comped his meal.

Garcia originally told the restaurant that he would post the Reel on February 13, according to screenshots of direct messages shared by the owners. But by April 2, he still had not done so, which prompted Hollywood Thai to call him out.

The direct messages shared by the restaurant show Garcia delaying the video multiple times and giving excuses for why it hadn't been posted. 

'Unfortunately over two months later and cashing our check, it has become very clear he does not intend to post,' the restaurant wrote in its first video. 'This is our unfortunate truth of one mega influencer taking advantage of us as a small business.'

After that initial video, Garcia still did not post his reel about Hollywood Thai. 

But the next day, just hours after Garcia was named and shamed in the restaurant's second post, he finally published his video. 

On Wednesday, the influencer shared a post on his Instagram page announcing that he is taking a break from social media and appearing to apologize for past mistakes.

'Over the past few months, I've come face to face with areas of my life that require healing, and correction,' Garcia wrote. 'I take responsibility for this and am choosing to submit myself to godly counsel and accountability and receive the help and correction I need.' 

The influencer said that his page would keep posting 'previously agreed-upon brand partnerships, collaborations, and promotions' but that he 'personally will not be active during this time.'

It is unclear what exactly caused Garcia's seemingly self-reflective post, though the widespread backlash he faced on social media because of the Hollywood Thai incident may have played a part. 

A video from TikToker daadisnacks calling out Garcia received 382,000 likes and 2.5 million views. Other videos about the topic have collectively received hundreds of thousands more likes and millions more views. 

The TikToker said he reached out to Hollywood Thai to ask for screenshots of the analytics for Garcia's post and that there were suspicious indications that he pays for followers and engagement.

Daadisnacks noted that 25 percent of the video's audience was from India, just 1.7 percent of the views on the video were from Garcia's followers and that the post had just 13 comments compared to its more than 7,000 likes, which is an unusual ratio. 

'To be clear, I can't prove that Christian is buying engagement,' the TikToker said before adding, 'Shout out to Hollywood Thai for defending itself, and if you're ever in the LA area, please go support them.'