A Chicago Influencer Sets His Client and His Own Business on Fire

The absolute meltdown of Realsergelato, aka Serge Golota, a food content creator

All you need is $645 if you want to buy a Google or Yelp review for your restaurant.

Or maybe you need less? I’m sure you can find a more desperate influencer just starting out who will negotiate down. But I don’t have those folks’ rate sheets. I do have the rate sheet for Sergelato, aka Serge Golota, the pride of Glenview, Illinois, a popular Chicago-based TikTok and Instagram influencer.

Here it is…

This rate sheet is for suburban spots. Guessing city eateries get fleeced more.

Folks who read The Hunger know I’m not a huge fan of paid content creation. But I started following Sergelato because I’d heard he spent his own money for his meals when he did reviews which sounded like my cup of ethical tea.

I followed him and learned that he speaks in iambic pentameter, loves to go feral on everything, and finds strip mall smoothies and $200 teeth whitening treatments to be particularly full of “fyre” in his reels. Golota also rarely gives less than a 7/10 rating for any restaurant or service he covers.

Golata’s rated Giordano’s pizza higher than Middlebrow by Bungalow, and roughly the same as Paulie Gee’s and Tortorice’s. I’ll let you decide if that’s the great discerning unbiased thoughtful and impartial reviewing that Golota claims it to be.

I made some comment recently on Instagram about how I appreciated that Sergelato paid his own way for the meals he reviewed. Soon my DMs blew up with stories from restaurateurs who insisted they had paid for their favorable reviews and/or gave him comps. I asked him about this. He insisted that he often paid his own way, but that he also did paid partnerships and that he “always” communicates that.

(I’m the purple box, Golota is the gray box)

It turns out “always” is maybe not accurate. At the time I took Golota at his word and was satisfied.

But then a couple days ago, Golota did something I can’t seem to find a precedent for and dropped a scathing 3.5/10 review of Halal Town, a halal steakhouse located on Devon and his paid client.

Many of the assertions Golota makes in the video seem to be contradicted by his visuals. For example he said, “I don’t like writing reviews like this” while posting a picture of him and his dining homie sporting shit-eating grins, suggesting that Golota maybe does love destroying a business out of personal animosity.

Gelato looks absolutely crushed to devastate this business.

Serge also makes an allegation in the review video about “photoshopped bacon” next to a “halal sign” on the menu. Halaltown does serve halal beef bacon. I don’t know how Serge can tell if the bacon in the picture has been slaughtered according to Islamic principles. This feels more like an attempt to paint the business as lying to their devout customers out of animosity rather than fact.

While anything is possible, it’s also a highly doubtful assertion. I spoke with one of Halal Town’s owners Ibrahim Baig yesterday who told me he was currently in the middle of his Ramadan fast. People can be hypocritical, but a person who abstains from eating for religious reasons and who has made the investment and taken the time to get certified by an independent Halal Monitoring Service probably isn’t out there fleecing their fellow Muslim customers.

Golota also asserts in his Instagram reel review of Halal Town that every dish arrived cold, but in the video you can clearly see steam curling off the pancakes.

The most outrageous claim though is probably Golota saying “I owe it to you all to provide an honest and impartial review”.

Baig told me Halal Town’s marketing team reached out about a month ago to negotiate a paid collab with Golota. Despite Golota’s entry rate of $545 for paid coverage, Halal Town offered $250. Eventually this was followed up by a $400 offer.

Golota asked for $450 because “I still leave gratuity for staff”. Both sides agreed on the price.

(Golota is the gray or black boxes in the conversation below and Halaltown’s marketing team is the pink boxes)

According to Baig, Golota did not demand a specific date for payment.

Baig says that Golota arrived at Halal Town a few weeks ago with his friend, and that he approached the table and asked Golota what he wanted to eat. Baig said he gave Golota options for what dishes would be comped. Baig said that Golota was given the option to add or subtract dishes at this time. According to the text on Golota’s Instagram feed, this amounted to $123.99 of free food.

Baig said that he left the restaurant because he had another event to attend to, but assigned two servers to the table because it was a slow night and he wanted to make sure his paid reviewer was taken care of.

According to Baig, Golota allegedly demanded additional dishes, but Halal Town’s manager declined saying that they had already agreed on the menu. Baig said his staff told him Golota seemed annoyed, but then accepted that no more food would arrive.

At the end of the meal Baig said his staff asked Golota if everything that was ok. Baig alleges that Golota said it was good and did not in any way express dissatisfaction.

Baig said, “He had the chance to address it then but did not. This makes me believe his negativity was more about the food.”

Baig also alleges Golota did not leave gratuity for the staff as he said he would do.

Baig alleges that his marketing team and a friend saw a “positive” review video from Golota of Halal Town that was either taken down or never posted.

A week or so passed. Baig claims he was busy with running the restaurant and other obligations and had not been paying attention to his email. He says when he logged in he found angry emails from Golota threatening legal action and demanding payment as he was about to post the video the next day.

(Golota is the gray, Baig, the blue boxes)

Baig told me there was no malice intended and that he’d been distracted and immediately payed Golota via Zelle on February 27 when he saw the threats. Serge posted the negative video (original link to video) you see here.

That’s right, Halal Town paid Golota $450 and comped him another $100+ for a business-destroying takedown.

I can’t verify that Baig was refusing to pay Golota, especially since Golota refused to tell his side of the story, but even if that had happened, that’s precisely when Golota should have recused himself from any content creation.

When money has been exchanged and where a documented personal conflict exists between two parties, what follows is absolutely clouded by these circumstances. There is no world where Golota’s review, whether truth or not, is also honest and impartial.

Golota would likely assert that if he’s willing to torch someone who pays him, clearly he’s impartial. And while that may appeal to his followers, it’s basically a misrepresentation at best, and arguably a lie.

What’s interesting about Golota’s video review of Halal Town is that it carries the “paid partnership” tag, so Golota by his own admission is telling you he got paid which means he has a conflict and isn’t completely impartial.

Golota posts hundreds of review videos, but rarely uses the “paid” tag, especially for positive reviews. Some of that is because what he’s saying is true. There’s an influencer technique whereby creators go to Chicago’s top restaurants, say Daisies, or Boka, and pay their own way and then produce reels. The idea here is to imply to future clients that the influencer works with some of the best restaurants and that if these new restaurants work with the influencer in question they might receive the same accolades.

Maybe more interesting is that I think Golota is allegedly potentially breaking the law.

The FTC guidelines for influencers say:

“If you endorse a product through social media, your endorsement message should make it obvious when you have a relationship (“material connection”) with the brand. A “material connection” to the brand includes a personal, family, or employment relationship or a financial relationship – such as the brand paying you or giving you free or discounted products or services”.

No one, especially under a Trump administration, will ever be able to enforce this law, and it appears Golota knows that. I canvassed a handful of owners whose restaurants Golota has reviewed that did not display a paid partnership tag on social media. In every single instance these owners told me there was at least a comp of food items, and in many cases they also paid Golota a fee.

I’ve also noticed Golota reviews a lot of “halal” spots. Maybe he has a yen for halal beef, but I suspect that it’s actually because he’s tapped in to a group of BIPOC restaurateurs who’s voices are woefully underrepresented with respect to the white celebrity chef PR-firm driven winners in the Chicago media market. Golota has likely found that this community is willing to spend on content creation more willingly out of this insecurity.

This also brings up another conflict. If one halal spot pays Golota more than the others, he might be incentivized to trash a competing halal spot that pays him less. I have no evidence that’s what happened with Halal Town but these are absolutely the conditions for partiality and conflict.

I reached out to Golota for comment for this piece and he responded as below.

Yes, I hearted it because Golota was nice in his refusal to speak with me

If Golota eventually chooses to defend himself, I’m betting his argument will be that he’s trustworthy because he disclosed the paid partnership and also that he’s credible because he’s willing to trash a client if it’s really bad.

He will also likely say the images in his video provide evidence for his review. I have not eaten at Halal Town so I can’t litigate this personally. I do acknowledge the photos don’t look great but they are washed out by external light.

These images also contradict Golota’s assertion all the food arrived cold.

Baig said, “We delivered the food hot, but my manager said he (Golota) and his friend would take pictures and look at everything and let it sit before eating, so if it got cold because he wasn’t focused on eating.”

Despite Golota’s theoretical defenses of his alleged behavior, what is true is that he does not consistently apply the paid partnership label. Golota claims he’s honest and yet also allegedly willing to lie to his followers when it serves a positive review. No matter what he says if he takes money or has an actual conflict (as he allegedly did with Halal Town’s owners over payment) there’s no impartiality.

It seems from talking to people who have worked with him in the past, Golota makes no explicit promise to review a client’s business favorably. In theory he can do whatever he wants.

But, also no person in the world would willingly hand a bag of cash, a multi-course meal, and an AR15 to their executioner. If Golota explicitly told Halal Town there’s a chance he trashes their establishment even though they’re paying him, no one is compensating him.

Baig said, “We’ve worked with a bunch of influencers. You expect support. No one has acted like this. If someone has a problem, they let us know so we can address it. You don’t trash the business of your customer.”

I spoke with a few PR people over the last couple of days and while a few acknowledged that there are agreements to allow “natural reviews” from influencers, what they meant is that if they pay someone, they expect a positive review, but it will look like it’s not a paid partnership aka “natural”.

None of these PR folks could recall or would ever expect a creator they pay to bash them. They said that in a few instances where a creator didn’t feel comfortable endorsing something, the creator didn’t make a post.

In this light, Golota would likely paint his Halal Town reel as showing how courageous he is. But, the way I see it from the evidence I’ve presented, he’s a dishonest retaliatory leech.

I do know how this works. People are too busy watching America burn and taking care of the day-to-day complications of their lives. A lot of people won’t know Golota allegedly used his personal wrath and animus to torch a paying client he had a bone to pick with, and many other won’t care.

But also this is why America is a dumpster blaze. Our culture is shifting to value those who “get theirs” at the expense of others at all costs. I recently read a piece from a Gen Z journalist who said most of her friends don’t even understand what journalism is. She said that her friends all just assume she’s a content creator and wonder how much cool free stuff she gets. She struggled to explain the concept of independence to her friends.

Then again, a lot of restaurant people read this newsletter. If they know that Golota could potentially trash their concept even if they pay him thousands of dollars, why would they make an investment with him in the future? They’ll shift their money to other influencers who will carry their water instead. Golota is ultimately hurting his own business and it’s hard to see this anything other than what it is, which is the absolute meltdown of Sergelato.