DMV restaurant faces criticism after Keith Lee shares ‘disgusting’ photos of ‘inedible’ food during tour

Keith Lee’s latest food tour of the nation’s capital is all the craze. The renowned food critic had to alter his restaurant plans within the DC/Maryland/Virginia area after coming across several unappetizing plates of food.

On Aug. 26, Lee, 27, explained to his TikTok followers why he didn’t post all of the DMV review videos from his recent week-long tour.

“We made a decision as a family and a team, and also a personal decision, not to post most of them,” Lee said. “Out of those twelve, I probably only have one or two more that I’ll post. The reason? A lot of those videos, in my opinion, aren’t constructive at all.”

The former skilled mixed martial arts fighter cited the poor quality of some of the food he received and poor customer support at unspecified restaurants.

Lee also shared photos of food from places advisable by fans and native businesses. First, he showed a takeaway plate of hake, noodles and sweet potatoes, stating, “Unfortunately, I won’t be trying that.”
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The Las Vegas resident added: “The smell of it… crazy. It permeated the whole car.” His team then returned to the establishment to ask if the whiting had been fried in the identical oil because the shellfish.

“And it turns out it is… and it smells the same. It smells like shellfish. It smells like frozen fish, it’s almost inedible in my opinion,” Lee continued before spitting out the food.

He said the restaurant opened an hour and quarter-hour after the time advertised on their IG. He said it took 45 minutes to arrange the food, and his team noticed that their staff “were not wearing gloves, not washing their hands, grabbing money, grabbing strawberries, grabbing fruit pebbles and putting them on top of our food.”

His video also features a short clip of him shouting at staff not to the touch the cereal with their hands, saying: “I’m not the target audience, judging by the pictures.”

At one point, his wife, Ronnie Lee, may be seen eating from a black takeout container and saying, “This chicken tastes weird.” The band also discusses whether the venue has running water.

Hollywood Unlocked reposted Keith Lee’s explainer video on his Instagram account, where social media users had mixed reactions to what Lee needed to say.

“The truth is the truth. I respect him because he understands his power and influence and doesn’t want to hurt these companies,” one person commented.

Another Keith Lee supporter chimed in: “If he were making videos now about restaurants with terrible service and food, people would swear he was destroying businesses. He did the right thing by just not posting their content.”

And one person wrote: “You really let a guy with no culinary training talk to you about food.”

Another commenter suggested: “Stop going to hood places. I went to DC and had an amazing dining experience.” Another commenter wrote: “No, you’re not mad that he was served food during his meal from places they told him to go!!”

Lee shared his reactions to food Okonomi Asian Grill, A hive of flavors, Cane, Hong Kong Takeaway, Smile and dreamAND Dukem Ethiopian.

Lydia Tefera, one of the daughters of Dukem Ethiopian’s owner, posted TikTok video revealing how her family struggles to maintain the small mom-and-pop restaurant open. After conducting a taste test on Aug. 23, Lee gave strong support for Dukem.

“I saw the same video that everyone else saw,” said Lee, who arrived on the restaurant nearly quarter-hour after the WUSA9 reporter. “When you pulled up, I could already tell it was loud, so we decided we’d just go and eat like everyone else.”

Of the food and experience, he exclaimed, “This was the highlight for me so far. This is the best place we’ve ever gone.”

The owners of Rooted Rotisserie were thrilled when Lee walked into their Baltimore location, gave 10/10 for customer support alone. After spending $115, he left the restaurant with a $4,000 tip and an extra $2,000 to pay every guest on the restaurant during his visit. He tried differing kinds of baked chicken, truffle fries, lemonade, and more. In his review, he rated all the things above 8.5/10 aside from the small can of canned fish, which received a 7/10.

Amanda Burton, co-owner of Rooted Rotisserie, said business has been booming since Lee’s visit and that they’ve already managed to book tables for the complete week.

“It’s definitely been tough since we opened last September,” she told a reporter from WBALTV“I used to stand outside the door and ask people to come and check us out. Now our name is known all over America and even beyond, so that means we can stay in business.”

Lee didn’t name the restaurants that got bad reviews during his time on the DMV, but that didn’t stop web sleuths from checking out their names. One D.C. business is denying the rumors.

Another establishment that requested his visit was Soul Wingz. After pulling into the web for allegedly being one of Lee’s postponed stops, the restaurant insisted the TikToker never showed up at the placement. Lee declined to share photos of the food he received, but it surely appears the identical photos may be seen on the restaurant’s Google page.

When asked if Lee had fallen in, Soul Wingz posted on Instagram“Unfortunately, he did not visit us and asked us to clarify his position.”

The establishment has since muted its comments section and began sharing more photos of its food, which look exactly just like the ones Lee posted, adding, “We’ll stay true to our food.”

One person as well as“The way you all play with this bag, it’s SO BAD!”

On Howard University Restaurant, Another One he said“You sent him to Soul Wingz, oh my god, that’s low level for students too LMAOOOO.”

A 3rd one chimed in: “It looks awful from these photos.”

Keith Lee had a dramatic summer in 2024. In June, he found himself at the middle of a media controversy involving Oscar-nominated actress and BET Awards host Taraji P. Henson.

While performing a flirty sketch on the 2024 BET Awards, Taraji P. Henson mistook Jordan Howlett for Keith Lee. The awkward moment led to Lee posting and deleting a TikTok video of himself dropping a rose Henson presented to him during the live broadcast.

Taraji P. Henson spoke out concerning the BET Awards incident. According to the previous Empire star, Keith Lee was not sitting in his “celebrity” seat. She also suggested that “his ego is bruised.”

After facing criticism, Keith Lee expressed that he was not indignant at Henson. The web personality also blamed the BET production for moving him and his wife to other locations without properly preparing the host.