‘We Stand By Our Food’: DMV Restaurant Gets Slammed After Keith Lee Shares ‘Nasty’ Pics of ‘Un-edible’ Food During Tour

Keith Lee’s latest food tour in the nation’s capital is trending. The celebrity food critic had to alter his plans for covering restaurants in the D.C./Maryland/Virginia area after coming across a few distasteful plates of food.

On Aug. 26, Lee, 27, explained to his TikTok followers the reasoning for not posting all of the DMV review videos from his latest weeklong tour.

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

The former professional mixed martial artist mentioned the bad quality of some of the food he received and the poor customer service at unspecified restaurants.

Lee also showed photos of food items from locations recommended by his fans and local businesses. He first showed a to-go-plate of whiting fish, macaroni and sweet potatoes, stating, “Unfortunately, I won’t be trying it.”
‘
The Las Vegas resident added, “The smell of this … insane. This perforated the whole car.” His team then went back into the establishment to ask if the whiting had been fried in the same oil as the shellfish.

“And come to find out they do… and it smell like it. It smells like shellfish. It smells like frozen fish, it smells almost un-edible, in my opinion,” Lee continued before spitting out the food .

He said the establishment opened an hour and 15 minutes after the time advertised on their IG. He said it took 45 minutes to prepare the food, And his team noticed their staff had, “No gloves, no washing hands, grabbing money, grabbing strawberries, grabbing fruity pebbles and putting them on top of our food.”

His video also features a short clip of him yelling at the staff about using their hands to touch the cereal, saying, “I’m not the target audience, just based on the pictures.”

At one point, his wife, Ronnie Lee, can be seen eating from a black to-go container as she states, “This chicken taste weird.” The team also had a conversation concerning whether or not the establishment had running water.

Hollywood Unlocked reposted Keith Lee’s explanation video to the outlet’s Instagram account, where social media users had mixed reactions to what Lee had to say.

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

Another Keith Lee backer chimed in, “Now if he did videos on the restaurants with terrible service and food, folks would swear he was tearing down businesses. He did right by simply not posting their content.”

In contrast, one person posted, “Y’all really be letting a man with no culinary background tell y’all about food.”

Someone else suggested, “Stop going to hood establishments. I went to DC and had an amazing food experience.” Another commenter typed, “Not y’all being mad he was served mid food from places they told him to go!!”

Lee shared his reactions to food from Okonomi Asian Grill , Flavor Hive , Cane , Hong Kong Carryout , Smize and Dream , and Dukem Ethiopian .

Lydia Tefera, one of the daughters of Dukem Ethiopian’s owner, posted a TikTok video revealing how her family is struggling to keep the small mom and pop restaurant open. After doing a taste test on Aug. 23, Lee gave a strong endorsement of Dukem .

“I saw the same video that everybody saw,” said Lee who showed up to the restaurant nearly 15 minutes after a reporter from WUSA9. “When you pulled up, I already saw it was booming so we decided we’re just gonna go and eat like everybody else.”

On the food and the experience, he exclaimed, “This was a highlight so far for me. This is the best place we’ve went to.”

Owners of Rooted Rotisserie were thrilled when Lee walked into their Baltimore establishment, which he gave a 10/10 alone for their customer service. After spending $115, he left the restaurant with a $4,000 tip and an extra $2,000 to pay for each guest in the restaurant at the time of his visit. He tried a variety of baked chicken, truffle fries, lemonade, and more. During his review, he rated everything above 8.5/10 with the exception of a small can of tin fish, which got a rating of 7/10.

Amanda Burton, co-owner of Rooted Rotisserie, said that business has been booming since Lee’ visit and they have even booked out for the whole week.

“It has definitely been a struggle since we opened last September,” she told a reporter from WBALTV . “I used to stand outside the door asking people to come and check us out. Now our name is out there to everybody across America and even beyond, so it means that we can stay in business.”

Lee has not named the badly reviewed restaurants from his DMV stint, but that has not stopped internet sleuths trying to uncover their names. One D.C. business is pushing back on rumors.

Another establishment that requested his visit was Soul Wingz. After getting dragged online for allegedly being one of Lee’s shelved stops, the restaurant insisted the TikToker never came to the location. Lee did not want to share images of the food he received but it appears those same images can be seen on the restaurant’s Google page.

When asked if Lee stopped by, Soul Wingz stated on Instagram , “Unfortunately he did not visit us and has reached out to him for clarification of his post.”

The establishment has since muted their comment section and they went on sharing more images of their food that look just like the images Lee posted, adding, “We stand by our food.”

One person added , “How yall fumble the bag SOOOOOOOO BAAADDDDD.”

About the Howard University restaurant, another said , “Yall sent him to Soul Wingz omg that’s low tier for students too LMAOOOO.”

A third chimed in, “It looks nasty from these pics .”

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

While performing a flirtatious skit at the 2024 BET Awards, Taraji P. Henson confused 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 about the BET Awards incident. According to the former “Empire” star, Keith Lee was not in his “celebrity assigned” seat. Plus, she suggested, “His ego is hurt.”

After facing backlash, Keith Lee expressed he was not angry at Henson. The internet personality also blamed BET production for moving him and his wife to different seats without properly preparing the host.

‘We Stand By Our Food’: DMV Restaurant Gets Slammed After Keith Lee Shares ‘Nasty’ Pics of ‘Un-edible’ Food During Tour