‘Too hard to get food:’ Atlanta lands last on viral food critic Keith Lee’s top cities list

ATLANTA — If you’re not first, you’re last -- and Atlanta has landed last on food critic Keith Lee’s list.

Lee is a well-known food critic from TikTok who rates businesses based on customer service, marketing, and food.

He has over 14 million viewers and over 600 million views on the platform.

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In his most recent video, Lee lists his picks for top cities from his 2023 food tour. The cities were ranked from #1 to #8, with #8 coming in last.

And guess which city came in last?

Lee, who starts a majority of his videos off with a disclaimer that he does not want special treatment and that he will always give honest reviews, seemed to take an issue with how hard it was to actually dine at some of the restaurants in Atlanta that he visited just as a normal patron.

“My biggest issue with Atlanta is that it was hard for us to get food,” he said. “Even with people perceiving me the way they perceived me we still barely ate.”

This comes after Lee stopped in Atlanta back in October and visited nine restaurants in the metro Atlanta area.

On his tour, he detailed his experiences over the weekend with a few restaurants around the metro area and made a TikTok video for eight of the nine places he and his family went to.

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Lee took suggestions from viewers and people who reached out to him, asking him to review specific restaurants. He posted a total of nine Atlanta videos to his TikTok page, including a recap video of restaurants including The Atlanta Breakfast Club, The Seafood Menu, Juci Jerk, The Real Milk and Honey, The Dining Experience Atlanta, The Bodega, Jamaican Jerk Biz, Old Lady Gang, and Toast On Lenox, which was included in his recap video.

Of the nine restaurants he visited, the most viewed reviews were The Real Milk and Honey, Old Lady Gang, which was founded by Atlanta Housewives star Kandi Burruss, and The Dining Experience.

Lee visited The Real Milk and Honey with his family for a food review but didn’t ever end up eating.

Lee claimed that his family tried to call their order in but ended up having to resort to the DoorDash app, which said the restaurant was closed. Lee said his family ended up going to the restaurant at 4 p.m., where they were told that they couldn’t be served because the restaurant was being deep cleaned.

Lee had a similar experience at Old Lady Gang, where he sent his family in to order food, but the staff told them that they don’t do takeout orders on weekends.

When they tried getting a table, the staff said the wait time was an hour to an hour and a half, and they said they had no reservations available. After his family relayed the message back to Lee, he said he decided to go in for himself.

After taking pictures and meeting people in the restaurant, Lee said a staff member told him a table was ready. But that didn’t make up for his family’s initial encounter.

“I don’t want any special treatment, I want to be treated like everyone else,” Lee said. ““Just because I have a certain amount of followers on social media, don’t make me different from nobody.”

While his reviews may have sparked debates on social media about particular Atlanta restaurants’ food culture and customer service, Lee urged people not to bash any businesses based on his experiences, and to go experience the restaurants for themselves.

“If you would like to have your own personal experience with these restaurants, I encourage you to go,” he said.

To see his complete list of top cities, click here.

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