Photo of Lee by Bennett Raglin/Stringer/Getty Images.
Few people can draw as many people to a restaurant as Keith Lee. The TikTok restaurant critic – who has 16.5 million followers – is known for highlighting small but mighty mom-and-pop shops and family-run businesses that need a marketing boost. The “Keith Lee effect” is well-documented. Lee, who often rates takeout dishes on a scale of 1 to 10 from his car, frequently draws lines around the block outside restaurants that are about to close. He pays for his own rides and often tips hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
Although Lee lives in Las Vegas, he and his family have traveled all over the country, from Dallas to Chicago and beyond. And now they’ve arrived in the Washington DC area. “I’m super excited,” he posted on TikTok. (Washingtonian has requested an interview, but we have not yet received a response.)
Lee has already hit the ground running in Northern Virginia. First stop: Okonomi Asian Grille in Fairfax, a build-your-own-bowl concept of Asian flavors. A regular customer wrote Lee a letter that he posted online, explaining that owner Alex Kang often works 80 to 100 hours a week and had recently been a victim of DoorDash theft and scams. Lee’s review video of Okonomi was viewed more than 2 million times in one day.
@keith_lee125 Okonomi Asian Grill taste test 💕 Would you try it? 💕 #foodcritic @Okonomi ♬ Original sound – Keith Lee
Lee also stopped by a food truck in Alexandria called Flavor Hive, where you can bring in any bag of chips and get Frito-pie-style toppings and sauces for a flat fee of $10. (The halal truck also serves quesadillas, rice bowls and Egyptian bread pockets.) Lee called it one of the most unique concepts he’d seen in a long time and a huge value, but gave mixed reviews.
Where else could Lee travel? He is already published a Instagram poll He asked his followers which restaurants in the Washington area embody the food scene: Legacy Carryout for chicken wings and subs in Waldorf and Fort Washington, the Breakfast Club serving breakfast all day in Silver Spring, Miss Toya’s Southern Kitchen for soul food staples in Southeast Washington DC and Maryland, or … Le Diplomate?
Meanwhile, Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant on U Street is a top performer in Lee’s TikTok comments section, with a call to visit that has garnered more than 15,000 likes. The owners’ daughter, Lydia Tefera, had posted a video on TikTok days before Lee announced his DC-area tour, talking about how her father died in 2022 and her mother had been trying to keep the restaurant afloat on her own. “After almost 30 years, we’re getting to the point where we don’t know how much longer this business is going to be around,” she said. Ethiopian food should definitely be a must-try for Lee in DC, but we’d also love to see him visit some excellent, lesser-known spots like Gueny’s and Sora in Alexandria.
Wherever he ends up, we hope he’ll shine a spotlight on all the international flavors that make this region’s food scene so special. Maybe Guatemalan cuisine at Maltiox in Shaw? Or Cameroonian and Caribbean fare at Motherland Kitchen in Frederick? There are also plenty of old-fashioned spots that could use some new love, like the Greek Deli downtown or Fish in the Neighborhood in Park View. And please, Keith, get some mumbo sauce.
Food Editor
Jessica Sidman reports on the people and trends behind DC’s food and drink scene. Before she Washingtonian In July 2016, she was the Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
