Who is Keith Lee? Quick facts on the viral food reviewer visiting NC restaurants
Keith Lee is in town. That’s all you have to say to send people to their phones to check their TikTok and Instagram feeds.
Which restaurants did he visit? What did he eat? What was the rating?
Lee, a Detroit native now based in Las Vegas, doesn’t even have a TV show (yet), but he’s one of the biggest names in the world of restaurant reviews. The king of food influencers with millions of fans (though he doesn’t like the word “influencer”).
Here are some quick facts about Keith Lee to bring you up to speed.
What does Lee do?
Lee gained popularity on TikTok with his quick, straightforward reviews on small restaurants, ordering food and eating it in his car.
He tells the viewer what he ordered, if the ordering process was smooth and how much he paid for it. Then tastes the food and rates it on a scale of 1 to 10.
How popular is Keith Lee?
Lee has 17 million followers on TikTok (and 2.7 million on Instagram). He even has people spoofing him online, which is the biggest sign of success.
Lee has been profiled in Rolling Stone, which noted he ordered 50 burgers at Easy Street in Los Angeles, and left a $4,000 tip.
“It’s taken less than four years for Lee, 27, to go from being a Las Vegas-based MMA fighter to arguably the internet’s biggest and most beloved food critic,” Rolling Stone wrote last summer.
Lee’s video announcing his visit to the Carolinas now has nearly 100,000 views so far.
Some random Keith Lee facts
- Lee is a big family man. He travels with a working entourage of family members, including his wife, his sister, his mother and lots of cousins and in-laws. He has two young children.
- Lee is a former mix-martial arts fighter.
- Lee has collaborated with NC’s biggest social media star, Mr. Beast. According to Lee, Beast reached out to ask if he could send him some of his Feastable candy. Lee sat with Beast to review several chocolate bars, with Lee promising to be unbiased. (Lee rated the milk chocolate 7 out of 10 — too sweet, he said; he gave the milk chocolate crunch bar a 7.2 out of 10 — again, too sweet; he gave the dark chocolate crunch bar a 7.8 out of 10 and the dark chocolate sea salt an 8 out of 10.)
In addition to reviewing food, Lee loves to celebrate and support mom-and-pop restaurants.
Why is Lee in North Carolina (and soon, South Carolina)?
Lee has visited big food cities in the US like New York, Houston and Atlanta, and in 2024, he announced an international food tour.
He posted an online poll asking followers which city in the Carolinas he should visit, and Raleigh won. But he got 10,000 direct messages recommending Charlotte, with big numbers for Durham, Asheville and Greensboro, plus Charleston and Greenville in South Carolina. So he’s visiting all of them.
The Triangle is first.
Where has he visited so far?
As of Tuesday, May 13, Lee has posted videos of two Triangle visits, both of them in Clayton.
Lee first visited the Hibachi Papi food truck in Clayton, then a Cook Out in Clayton.
This story was originally published May 13, 2025 at 9:43 AM with the headline "Who is Keith Lee? Quick facts on the viral food reviewer visiting NC restaurants."
