DALLAS — A big TikTok influencer just announced that he's coming to North Texas. For those who don't know about him, you might be confused about why there's so much buzz about this one person on social media.
His name is Keith Lee. He's a professional featherweight MMA fighter, but he's mostly known for his TikTok videos rating food and customer service from small restaurants across the U.S.
He's not a professional food critic, but his reviews have been throwing haymakers that've boosted small businesses.
Keith Lee recently took a food tour around the Houston area. He and his family stopped at multiple eateries, including a sweets shop called The Puddery.
When he visited The Puddery, Lee said he was told the shop only had two customers a day at times.
After reviewing four dishes from the shop and giving it high ratings (even though he says he doesn't like sweets), The Puddery had a line going out of its door the very next day. The store even had to close temporarily so they could recover from the surge of customers.
It's just one of many small restaurants that've been impacted by what's now being called "the Keith Lee effect."
Lee's food tour hasn't been completely sweet though.
Some of his reviews in Atlanta sparked conversation about the city's restaurant culture. Lee's complaints for the city's eateries included off-putting rules and the special treatment he received in comparison to other customers.
In some TikTok videos, Lee said customers were waiting a long time to be seated, but Lee and/or his family was being offered a table immediately once they recognized him.
"Usually when celebrities come, they want to be treated like that. I'm not a celebrity. I'm a normal person," Lee said in one video.
Lee's also had to end his tour stops early in New York and California's Bay Area.
For New York, he said he and his family were met with pushback and a mix of critiques about the places and plates he was told to try.
With California, he said his reviews didn't seem helpful for restaurants in the area. The food at one of his stops also triggered his allergies and sent him to a hospital.
After those negative experiences, Lee posted his Dallas announcement and said his visit will have some changes.
He's splitting up his restaurant stops into three categories:
- Places with good food and good customer service, but needs more marketing
- Popular local spots voted on by DFW locals
- Restaurants with diverse backgrounds
Anyone with restaurant suggestions is asked to contact Keith Lee on social media in anyway you know how (tagging in posts/comments, direct messages, etc.) and tell him why he should try your suggestion.
For popular restaurants, Lee is asking locals to look out for polls on his Instagram stories where people can vote on which places he should check out.
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