The internet’s favorite TikTok food critic, Keith Lee, made yet another stop on his national food tour. This time, Lee and his family visited the DMV, and boy oh boy did they have an interesting time to say the least.
Lee stopped at 12 restaurants in Washington, D.C. during his week-long stay but later took to TikTok to announce he’ll only be posting a few. In the video, he said, “We made a decision as a family and as a team and also a personal decision to not post most of them....A lot of those videos are not constructive at all.”
Lee did his best to keep the identities of the restaurants anonymous, but that didn’t stop Soul Wingz Authentic Soul Food Diner and Oohhs & Aahhs Restaurant from stepping to the plate to defend their restaurants against backlash.
Oohhs & Aahhs director of operations Keya Barnes spoke to Fox 5 in response saying, “Keith Lee, if you’re still in the DMV, we would love it if you’d reach out... it is always our mission and goal to serve the best food possible and anytime that we make a mistake, we like to own it.”
Soul Wingz took a different approach, quickly posting on Instagram several times to let it be known that Lee didn’t even step foot in their restaurant. A post wrote, “We Are Waiting On @keith_lee125 To Clarify That He Did Not Visit Us.”
Lee came back to clarify he didn’t try the restaurant based on the food pictures he found online. He continued saying after Soul Wingz was recommended to him, he did his own research. But after finding pictures online, Lee decided he wasn’t the “target audience” but still wanted to show “part of our experience on this tour,” he wrote in an Instagram story.
Like always, Lee insisted he was “not trying to be rude, I’m just being honest,” but that didn’t stop DMV natives from coming to their city’s defense. Rolling Ray, AKA @DMVMOSTFAMOUS on X said “Keith Lee got us real bad messed up!”
According to Ray, Lee didn’t hit up the right spots. If he listened to Rolling Ray, however, maybe his trip would’ve gone differently.
Lee also mentioned he felt like a lot of restaurants in the District “tend to lean towards promoting alcohol more than they promote food,” which is obviously not what Lee and his family were there for.
X user @keatingssixth said “the chef’s special is hookah” and not food.
Another user, @big_business_, joked that Lee was probably “traumatized” after his visit to the nation’s capital.
@diamondddorris suggested we all take Lee’s critiques with a grain of salt, saying he’s “an extremely picky eater with a very simple palate. consider the source and enjoy the show without the think pieces lol.”
On the bright side, he was able to experience some of the best in Chocolate City and the surrounding areas, and those videos have been posted to his page. Places like Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant and Rooted Rotisserie received Lee’s stamp of approval. But for other restaurants recommended to Lee there’s a lot of work to be done.
Like always, Lee and his family gave out thousands of dollars to small businesses in the DMV to help them continue their restaurant dreams. But for that one spot that made Lee literally spit out his food? Stop making the city look bad!