Viral food critic Keith Lee visits Atlanta, sharing his experience on metro area restaurants

ATLANTA — Keith Lee, a well-known food critic from TikTok, made his way to metro Atlanta and visited nine restaurants.

Lee became popular on TikTok for his food reviews, and he has over 14 million viewers on and over 600 million views. He is known for rating businesses based on customer service, marketing, and food.

He detailed his experiences over the weekend with a few restaurants around the metro area and made a TikTok video for eight out 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. Those places were 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.

His first stop was Atlanta Breakfast Club, located on Ivan Allen Jr. Blvd Northwest. In his video captioned, “Atlanta Breakfast Club taste test,”he highlighted a few of the restaurant’s rules saying they were “unique” to him.

Lee ordered three different meals from the establishment and rated each one in a video, posted below. He said he was interested to see where the rest of the trip goes.

He stopped at a restaurant called Juci Jerk, located in Stone Mountain, which seemed to be one of his favorite’s out of the places he’d visited.

He also gave favorable reviews to The Bodega, located in College Park, referring to the food as “fun.” And the Dining Experience Atlanta, which had more than 10 million views on his TikTok page.

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 starts majority of his videos off with a disclaimer that he does not want special treatment and that he will always give honest reviews.

Lee visited The Real Milk and Honey with his family for a food review, but had no food. He stated in his video that they tried to call their order in but had to do it through DoorDash, which said they were 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 due to the establishment being deep cleaned.

“If you don’t like they rules, they not for you. For me and my family, the rules just weren’t for us,” Lee said in his video.

After his visit to The Real Milk and Honey, he said so far in Atlanta, some places do have “unique” rules. Similar to his previous review on The Atlanta Breakfast Club.

Lee and his family visited Old Lady Gang last. And similar to his review of The Real Milk and Honey, he had no food to actually review. He sent his family in to order food, but the staff informed them that they don’t do takeout orders on weekends.

“We don’t do to-go orders on the weekend as of late...” said a staff member in the video posted on Lee’s page (also posted below).

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 resaturant, Lee said a staff member told him a table was ready.

He stated, “I don’t want any special treatment, I want to be treated like everyone else.”

He said thing’s like this is why he does reviews.

“Just because I have a certain amount of followers on social media, don’t make me different from nobody,” said Lee.

In response to Keith Lee’s review, Kandi Burruss posted a video on social media on Monday saying they would “loved” to have served Lee and his family. She also explained the rules set at her restaurant.

She captioned the video, “Thanks for stopping by #OldLadyGang @Keith Lee! Much love to you & your family.”

Lee posted a recap video Monday night.

He said the week has been “insane” and he spoke on the good and the not-so-good parts of his trip. He addressed the controversy that sparked after The Real Milk and Honey posted and deleted a response to his review.

Lee said in his recap video that he also visited Toast On Lenox but says there was a two and a half hour wait. As he was leaving the restaurant, he said the staff told them they could sit down immediately but Lee declined the offer.

“Again, not the target audience for that,” said Lee, referring to special treatment.

Lee did not post a Toast On Lenox food review video on his page, but in his recap video he said the staff and owner were extremely accommodating and nice, and he said the food was good to him.

“I wasn’t recording anything, I was just eating food,” said Lee.

While his reviews may have sparked debates on social media about particular Atlanta restaurants’ food culture and customer service, Lee stated in his previous videos that he does not want consumers to bash any businesses based on his experiences, and to go experience the restaurants for themselves.

He reiterated in his recap video to “not to leave hate anywhere.”

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

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He concluded the rest of his video highlighting the amazing things he was able to do in the city. In his video, the owner of Jamaican Jerk Biz, one of the last places Lee and his family visited, sent an emotional message after his visit, expressing her gratitude.

“I been through so much to open this restaurant, I didn’t even know we was gone be able to open it,” said the owner of Jamaican Jerk Biz.

Lee stitched a video onto his recap video, showing the line at Juci Jerk, which was the third restaurant he visited. The line appeared to be wrapped around the building.

“We wouldn’t have thought Keith Lee would bring ATL out,” the owner said.

Another video showed the parking lot of The Dining Experience Atlanta, packed and full of cars.

“Look at these cars lined up, y’all,” said the person recording.

Lee concluded his video by shouting out everyone he met while he was in Atlanta.

“The hospitality from the locals in Atlanta, crazy,” he said. “Something I’ll never forget.”

The rest of the metro Atlanta food reviews can be found on his page, here.

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