Food critic Keith Lee is saving struggling restaurants one TikTok review at a time

Over the past year, thanks to his 16 million followers on TikTok and two million on Instagram, Lee has emerged as one of the most prominent members of a rising class of food influencers who can transform a restaurant with a single video. — Unsplash

As soon as the video began circulating on TikTok, everything at Aroma changed. Within days, the restaurant went from being nearly deserted to totally packed, an astonishing transformation. “At that time, I didn’t know who Keith Lee was,” Zermeno said. As more consumers turn to social media for recommendations on where to eat, Lee and the new power brokers of TikTok restaurant criticism are cashing in. Last year, advertisers spent roughly US$6.61bil on TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese internet conglomerate ByteDance Ltd, a figure projected to grow to US$10.8bil in 2025, according to estimates by Insider Intelligence. Increasingly, big food brands are part of the mix.

Between fights, Lee began posting occasional videos on social media about his life in Las Vegas. At first, he figured it was just a good way to learn to cope with his social anxiety and fear of public speaking. Because TikTok’s algorithms constantly resurface popular videos, the impact of Lee’s reviews tend to be long-lasting and can pull in ravenous consumers from outside of Las Vegas. To this day, more than a year after Lee’s initial take on the Frankensons, the pizzeria maintains a dedicated space where people can stash their luggage after arriving straight from the airport.

Across his social media output, Lee tries to keep a clear line for viewers between his paid commercial endorsements, which are labelled as such, and his food reviews for which he does not accept payment. As his profile has grown, he’s also done more to avoid getting preferential treatment from restaurants, often arriving at a new spot with no advance notice and sending in family members to retrieve the takeout food he’s about to critique.

Lee says he’s been listening to the criticism, incorporating feedback from fans and tweaking the way he structures his tour stops. Last month, he made a trip to Toronto, and more international destinations are on the horizon. Amsterdam, he hinted, could be on deck.

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