Pei Chung: Dine-and-Dash Arrests, Dismissal, and Continued Custody

Pei Chung is a 34-year-old Brooklyn woman who became known as New York City’s “dine-and-dash diva” after being arrested at least nine times in October and November 2025 for ordering expensive meals at upscale restaurants and refusing to pay. Her five misdemeanor theft-of-services cases were dismissed on March 5, 2026, after a psychiatric evaluation found her unfit to stand trial, and she was transferred from Rikers Island to a state psychiatric facility.¹ An immigration warrant kept her in custody even after the criminal charges were dropped.²

What She Did at the Restaurants

From late October through late November 2025, Chung worked a consistent pattern through well-known Brooklyn restaurants, most of them in Williamsburg. She arrived dressed in designer labels, set up a professional camera to photograph her food, ordered multi-course meals, and then either claimed she had no money, offered to promote the restaurant on social media in lieu of payment, or presented credit cards that were declined.

At Francie, a Michelin-starred spot, she ran up a $188 bill on October 22 for foie gras, carpaccio, bucatini, lamb, and hot chocolate mousse, then returned on November 7 for another $83.83 worth of food, refusing to pay both times.³ At Peter Luger Steak House on October 27, she ran up a $146 tab and allegedly hid in the restroom when the bill came, trying to barter with items from her bags including kitchen shears.⁴ She came back the next day and was turned away by staff who recognized her.⁵

Other incidents included a $97 tab walked out on at Lavender Lake, a $135 bill at Motorino Pizza, a $100-plus order at Sea Thai that ended with her handcuffed outside the restaurant, and meals at Meadowsweet, Baccia and Abracci, Hole in the Wall, and 12 Chairs Café.³⁶⁷ By late November, she had been banned from at least seven restaurants.⁸

Nine Arrests Before She Was Jailed

Every arrest was charged the same way: theft of services, a Class A misdemeanor under New York law. Theft of services is typically a no-bail offense, so Chung was arrested, released, and then showed up at another restaurant within days. Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Jordan Rossman said prosecutors eventually began asking for $10,000 cash bail or a $20,000 bond to try to break the cycle.⁹

The arrest that put her behind bars came on Friday, November 21, 2025, at Molé Mexican Bar and Grill in Williamsburg, where she ordered $149 worth of food around 3 p.m. and refused to pay.¹⁰ At arraignment the next day, Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Jung Park set bail at $1,500 for the Molé incident and $1,500 each for two pending cases with outstanding bench warrants, for a total of $4,500, and issued an order of protection for the Molé manager.⁹ Unable to post bail, Chung went to Rikers Island and was moved to the jail’s psychiatric facility.¹¹

Why the Charges Were Dismissed

Shortly after the November arrest, Chung’s court-appointed attorney Henry Philip Dechalus requested a psychological evaluation, saying she did not understand the charges against her.¹² An evaluation in February 2026 concluded she was not fit to proceed.¹

Under New York Criminal Procedure Law Article 730, when a defendant charged with a misdemeanor is found mentally incapacitated, the charges must be dismissed and the person is transferred to a state civil psychiatric facility run by the New York State Office of Mental Health.¹³ The automatic dismissal applies only to misdemeanors; felony defendants found unfit do not get the same result.¹⁴ All of Chung’s charges were misdemeanors, so the dismissal followed as a matter of law.

On March 5, 2026, a Brooklyn judge formally dismissed all five of her criminal cases. Chung refused to appear for the hearing; court officers said they could not force her, and the judge let the proceeding go forward without her.¹

Dechalus described Chung as “book-smart” and said she had been “corresponding with an AI service at the time of the alleged thefts that would ‘reaffirm’ her to move forward with the scheme.” He told the New York Post that her heavy AI use had “exacerbated her mental health issues,” leading her to believe she was genuinely promoting the restaurants in exchange for free meals.¹⁵ Restaurant workers from the affected establishments told News 12 they worried the dismissal could “set a dangerous precedent.”¹⁶

Why She Stayed in Custody After the Dismissal

Chung arrived in the United States from Taiwan in 2019 on a student visa to attend the Pratt Institute. Law enforcement officials said she overstayed that visa after leaving the school in 2021.¹⁷ The Department of Corrections placed an immigration warrant on her, and her attorney acknowledged that the criminal charges likely triggered it.¹⁸ About a year before the arrests, she had posted on LinkedIn about an “EB-1A Visa Petition,” a category reserved for individuals with extraordinary ability, but there is no public record the petition was approved.¹⁹

As of March 2026, Chung was being transferred from the Rikers psychiatric unit to a state hospital for continued treatment and remained remanded in the custody of the state’s mental health unit, with the immigration case unresolved.¹

Who Pei Chung Is

Her full name is Pei-Yun Chung and she also goes by “Lu.” Her Instagram account, with about 14,000 followers, featured influencer-style food photography at restaurants like L’abeille and Jean-Georges, frequently tagged with Prada, Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Cartier.²⁰ Restaurant owners described her as a “diva” who would spend hours photographing her meal before the bill became a problem.⁷

According to her own website and LinkedIn, Chung earned a master’s degree in fine arts from the National University of Kaohsiung in Taiwan, then enrolled at Pratt Institute in 2019 on what she called a full merit scholarship, studying through 2021.¹⁹ She listed herself as “semi-retired” as of March 2023, with earlier contract work as a user experience designer for companies including Chase and Comcast. Friends told the New York Post she had been a regular on the New York social scene until she abruptly “went off the grid” after December 2021.²⁰ What happened in the years between that disappearance and the restaurant incidents in October 2025 remains largely unclear.

1
News 12 Brooklyn. Judge Dismisses All Cases Against Williamsburg’s Serial Dine-and-Dasher
2
New York Post. Dine-and-Dash Charges Dropped Against Prada-Loving Wannabe Food Influencer After Psych Exam
3
New York Post. Fake NYC Foodie Pei Chung Is a Serial Dine-and-Dasher
4
FOX 5 New York. Brooklyn Influencer Charged in Repeated Dine-and-Dash Scheme at Upscale NYC Restaurants
5
NBC New York. Social Media Influencer Dine-and-Dash Scheme NYC Restaurants
6
ABC 7 Chicago. Pei-Yun Chung Accused of Skipping Bills at High-End Brooklyn Restaurants
7
NBC New York. Foodie Influencer Pei Chung Restaurant Scam
8
BBC. Pei Chung Brooklyn Dine-and-Dash
9
New York Post. Lawyer for NYC’s Accused Dine-and-Dash Diva Asks for Psych Exam
10
New York Post. NYC’s Accused Dine-and-Dash Diva Finally Behind Bars After at Least Ninth Bust
11
News 12 Brooklyn. Serial Williamsburg Dine-and-Dasher Behind Bars at Rikers Island
12
AOL. Dine-Dash Charges Dropped Against Prada-Loving Wannabe Food Influencer After Psych Exam
13
NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. Queens 730 Process Evaluation Report
14
New York State Office of Mental Health. Populations Served – Forensic
15
Greenpointers. Judge Drops Cases Against Williamsburg’s Accused Dine-and-Dasher After Psychiatric Evaluation
16
News 12 Brooklyn. Restaurant Workers Say Dismissal in Dine-and-Dash Case Could Set Dangerous Precedent
17
New York Post. Brooklyn’s Dine-and-Dash Diva May Face Deportation After Overstaying Her Visa
18
Financial Express. Student Visa Holder NYC Dine-and-Dash Influencer Facing Deportation
19
Hindustan Times. Who Is Pei-Yun Chung
20
New York Post. Inside the Mysterious Life of the Brooklyn Dine-and-Dash Influencer