TikTok food reviewer Keith Lee had a time in the Bayou City.
The visit comes a month after the 27-year-old visited Atlanta to check out locally-owned restaurants, albeit leaving a bad taste in the mouths of some owners. When he stopped by soul food spot The Real Milk & Honey, Lee and his family left with a bad customer service experience and no food, giving the restaurant a poor critique. The restaurant clapped back in a statement, while Lee also gave his takes on Old Lady Gang and Toast on Lenox, albeit dividing ATL foodies.
Now, after receiving threats and call-outs from some TikTok viewers, the Las Vegas-based Lee has mustered up the courage to stop by Houston, another largely Black food scene. Here are all of the restaurants that he's reviewed in the Texas city.
The Breakfast Klub
Breakfast Klub fans are worried that waitlists are going to get even longer now that Lee has given a stellar review of the Houston brunch spot. Although ordering over the phone started rocky for Lee's wife, the reviewer bit into the restaurant's fried chicken and gave it a 9.5/10, with no hot sauce needed. Going knife deep into the pancake, Lee said the consistency was like "bread butter" and complimented its fluffiness. Grits were also in Lee's order, and after giving the entire meal a 9.8, he said he'd come back to Houston just to dive into another plate.
Butter Funk Chicken
Getting a personal invite from Butter Funk Chicken, Lee wasted no time going to the Cajun soul food restaurant. Calling the customer service "really good," Lee went all in, ordering red beans and rice, catfish, mashed potatoes cornbread, macaroni and cheese, fried okra, lemon pepper wings, oxtails and gravy and gumbo (which Lee's wife ate because of his shrimp allergy). Although he wasn't a fan of the gravy, he loved the flavorful cornbread and "buttery" mashed potatoes, the spiciness and seasoning on the red beans and rice, and drenched his catfish in hot sauce. Savoring the large catfish piece, he gave it an 8.9/10, but to Lee, the macaroni and cheese was less than good and lacked salt, giving it a 3.0. Lee's wife, Mia Yim, gave the gumbo a 6, saying that the dish was soupy and the meat was too soft.
The Puddery
It was dessert time for the Lee family, who went to The Puddery, a Pearland woman-owned business that consistently reached out to the TikToker for weeks until they visited. Lee dropped $36 on the spot, getting a frozen Biscoff cheesecake on a stick, an Oreo croissant waffle, now named after Lee for his 9/10 review, a signature banana pudding and a strawberry banana pudding. Lee praised the desserts for being homemade, even calling it the best sweets he's ever tried and giving 3/4 of his order a 9-rating.
Stick Talk
Getting delivery through Doordash, Lee and his family tried Stick Talk, a Cajun hibachi spot with two locations. Diving into a chicken bowl, filet mignon bowl, and a double ribeye steak and chicken bowl with salmon on the side (both a whopping $50), Lee washed it all down with a "sour" blue raspberry lemonade. As the first place he tried in Houston, he noted that one of the bowls lacked spice. Like BFC, Stick Talk got a mid review at 7.3/10.
What independently-owned restaurant destination should Lee go to next?
