TikTok-famous food critic Keith Lee has ranked eight cities that he visited on a food tour that wrapped up last month.
Lee started his “Keith Lee and Family Food Tour” on Aug. 4, trying food at multiple restaurants in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and New York.
Lee ranked the cities in a TikTok video posted Friday. The city at the bottom of his list, Atlanta, may not come as a surprise to his followers. During the tour Lee gained national attention after documenting his frustrating dining experiences in the Georgia capital, sparking discussions on the city’s food scene across social media.
At the top of Lee’s list? New Orleans, which he said was partly because of the customer service.
“Everywhere we went, I felt like family,” Lee said in the video. “It didn’t feel like I was going to a restaurant. It felt like I was going to Auntie’s or Mama’s house. I left 15 pounds heavier.”
His visit to Chicago’s Soul Prime restaurant was lifechanging for owner Chef Royce Williams, and her eatery. Lee also visited Cleo’s Southern Cuisine, Sharks Fish & Chicken, Uncle Remus and Harold’s Chicken, while he was in town.
Where did the other cities rank?
According to Lee’s videos on TikTok, he judges the entire experience of ordering to eating at a restaurant.
Lee’s personal judgment is based on how he and his family were treated inside a restaurant, the customer service and the taste of the food.
Here are Lee’s rankings, starting with his favorite:
- 1. New Orleans
- 2. Houston
- 3. Chicago
- 4. Las Vegas
- 5. Los Angeles
- 6. Detroit
- 7. New York
- 8. Atlanta
Lee’s controversy in New York
In addition to his Atlanta controversy, trouble followed Lee to New York when he bought a sandwich known as a “salmon chopped cheese,” putting New Yorkers in a bit of a tizzy and potentially partially explaining why the city came in at No. 7 for Lee.
“Little did Lee know,” Mashed writer Maria Scinto penned, “the chopped cheese is a sandwich that many people have strong feelings about, and salmon is not on the accepted list of ingredients .... A chopped cheese sandwich made with salmon amounts to sacrilege.”
Scinto describes the traditional chopped cheese as “a slightly less sloppy version of a sloppy Joe, or perhaps even a low-budget Philly cheesesteak made with ground beef.”
“Who suggested a salmon chopped cheese?” wrote one TikToker. “As a New Yorker I’ve never heard of that a day in my life.”
Another one said, “SALMON????? Chopped cheese????? Keith idk man.”
Keith Lee’s interview goes viral
In the same video Lee eats the chopped cheese (which he said was good but “a little salty”) Lee also notes that New York’s customer service was a bit lacking, something that came up again following his interview with the Breakfast Club radio show on Dec. 15, which went viral.
During the interview in New York, Breakfast Club host DJ Envy told Lee he is “a food critic in the hood way.”
“I wouldn’t say the hood way. I just eat food,” Lee told DJ Envy in the video. “I critique everything, not just food, and I experience everything.”
After DJ Envy referred to Lee as “hood,” which Lee disliked, Lee told DJ Envy that he didn’t like being referred to as “ghetto” but that he had thick skin so that it wouldn’t bother him. He compared DJ Envy’s treatment of him to his overall New York experience.
“When I walked in, you called me a ghetto food critic,” Lee said in the interview. “ That alone embodies what New York is. New York is cold, and they play with you a lot.”
Who is Keith Lee, and why does his opinion matter?
Lee, 27, has gained over 15 million followers on TikTok by posting honest food reviews and featuring struggling restaurants.
During an interview with the Breakfast Club, Lee said that he offers a free marketing platform for restaurants that have great food and service but lack marketing skills.
“I go to places that might have just opened or places where people don’t know about them,” Lee said. “These places are either not on social media or don’t do a great job of word of mouth. A lot of these places are run by people who are not on social media.”
Some restaurants around the country have credited Lee’s reviews with sending a substantial number of customers through their doors, such as a Las Vegas pizzeria owner who said his business started to boom after Lee critiqued his food in January.
Lee told the Breakfast Club that he had been a professional MMA fighter for eight years. He transitioned from fighting to being a food critic after making videos on TikTok to overcome his anxiety from interviewing for MMA.
“As an MMA fighter, food is one of the most important things because you have to lose a lot of weight,” Lee saidl.
“Cutting from 170 pounds to 135 is 90 percent diet and 10 percent dedication. So, I always had a passion for food and cooking.”
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